Here's a great lesson on why yes or no style front-of-package food labeling programs misinform.
Exhibit A: Dempster's Smart White with Whole Grain Sandwich Bread(Per slice)
100 calories
2g fibre
200mg sodium
First ingredient? Enriched wheat flour (ie. not whole grain)
Exhibit B: Dempster's 100% Whole Wheat Bread(Per slice)
85 calories
2g fibre
175mg sodium
First ingredient? Whole grain whole wheat flour.
Exhibit C: Dempster's Whole Grains 12 Grain(Per slice)
120 calories
5g fibre
180mg sodium
First ingredient? Whole grain whole wheat flour.
Exhibit D: Dempster's Healthy Way with ProCardio Recipe 100% Whole Grain Wheat Bread
(Per slice)
110 calories
5g fibre
110mg sodium
First ingredient? Water, and then whole grain whole wheat flour.
To see things graphically, click the graphic up top. Important to note too, the graphic up top doesn't reflect the fact that Exhibit A isn't actually a whole grain bread.
4 very different breads. 4 breads that are not nutritionally equivalent. Exhibit A's made with refined flour and has nearly double the sodium of whole grain Exhibit D. Exhibit C's got 37% more sodium than Exhbit D and is otherwise pretty much identical. Exhibit B's got 15% fewer calories, 12.5% less sodium and is made with healthier grain than Exhibit A. Yet they've all got the same singular Health Check. Put 'em all in a row and if you're using Health Check's to shop, they're all the same.
Front-of-package programs need to be far more robust than just a yay or nay.
(BTW - the Dempster's Healthy Way with ProCardio Recipe 100% Whole Grain Wheat Bread - looks like a pretty good bread. My house? We use the Dempster's 100% Whole Wheat Bread 'cause we like the lower calories and for us the trade off for sodium's alright as we're pretty good at keeping ours under check and fibre wise - we eat lots of fruits and veggies.)
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Any my husband wonders why it takes me two hours to do the groceries!
ReplyDeleteUgg, I get so tired of this "refined" stuff in relation to only white flour. ALL flour is refined - including whole wheat and whole grain flours! Refining is also known as “milling”. Flour mills in Canada separate (“sift”) all components of the wheat grain as a step in the flour-making process (endosperm, bran, and germ).
ReplyDeleteWhite flour is the milled endosperm only + enrichment nutrients added as per government regulations. Whole Wheat flour is *white flour* with *bran added back in* (blending). Very little wheat germ is added back to whole wheat flour as only 95% of the grain is required to meet Health Canada’s standard of identity for whole wheat flour.
Therefore, because there is so little germ in whole wheat flour, the bread company uses whole wheat flour and then simply adds extra wheat germ to the bread recipe to create the illusion of "whole grain flour”. They add wheat germ in equal proportion as would naturally be found in the wheat grain.
The bottom line is all flour is refined. I hope people are not under the illusion that whole grain flour is simply a crushed grain of wheat. Not the case. Not that it makes a difference nutritionally anyway - we just have to stop perpetuating the myth that whole grain bread is so much better because it is not refined. Yes, whole grain bread has more fibre (from the bran) and nutrients from the germ, but it is still a refined grain product.
Sigh.
ReplyDeleteMiller, there is zero doubt, zero, that diets higher in whole grains are healthier and indeed in Canada the ingredient "whole wheat" is not whole grain.
That said, in Canada the ingredient "whole grain whole wheat" is in fact made from whole grains with nothing taken away and then added back.
(In the US, "whole wheat" indeed means whole grain whole wheat)
Yoni,
ReplyDeleteI personally use the same bread, but my question is whether these minor differences really play a large role in the obesity epidemic or health in general.
I'm definitely not a fan of the Health Check program (primarily because you have to pay to get your product listed), but I'm just not sure that I think this is the major reason obesity is plaguing North America.
Mark, Health Check's definitely not responsible for the obesity epidemic (though it's unbelievable they don't consider calories in their criteria), but that's not at issue here.
ReplyDeleteWhat's at issue is a black and white nutrition rating system that lumps together foods not even remotely nutritionally comparable as equally good.
You're completely missing the point, Yoni, and that's why you're not in charge of this program. The Nutrition Facts label is there for people who want to dive into the details, and many do, but many don't. These yes/no rankings are there for the rest of the people. Public health people need to craft these kinds of compromises that take into account human behavior. The average person who doesn't read the Nutrition Facts is better off having Health Check than not having it.
ReplyDeleteThink of it like the BMI. It's not a perfect indicator of health, but it's easy and cheap to understand and compute, so it puts people on notice that they might want to think about their weight or double-check with their doctor about it. The BMI was a very nuanced choice of index. Simple waist measurement is easier but not quite as accurate for all risk conditions of obesity (although it's almost as good for cardiovascular), but dunking people in a hydrostatic tank, or even using bioimpedence scales or calipers, requires equipment and more training so will catch a smaller percentage of the population.
After reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, I started to question my reliance on manufactured foods of all types, even the seemingly benign, like bread. Really, who could screw up bread, right? When I think of bread I think the following: water, yeast, salt, flour. Ingredients in Dempster's Original 100% Whole-Wheat Bread? Whole grain whole wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, oil, salt, gluten, vinegar...OK good...oh wait, what? Calcium propionate, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, monoglycerides, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and di- glycerides, sorbic acid. May contain calcium iodate, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate, cornstarch (no biggie), ammonium chloride, soybean, milk ingredients, and sesame seeds. My wife and I thought, there must be some bread in the market that is "whole" like mama used to make. Nope. Can't find it. Even the "bakery" bread that comes pre-shipped and baked up in store has all those -ates and -ites in it. So we stumbled upon a wonderful book called Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. And it's true. It takes almost no active involvement to make this bread. And once you taste it, you'll never go back to store-bought. We haven't had a store bought loaf in our house for a year now. Ingredients in the 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread? water, milk, yeast, salt, honey, oil, whole wheat flour. Done. Not only is this bread delicious, but it has that hearty feeling that will leave you satisfied. I find store-bought bread so airy now and it doesn't fill me up (can't avoid it when I eat away from home). Sure, none of the additives listed above are dangerous. But I like to be able to pronounce the names of all the ingredients in my food. Plus, an essential component of one's diet such as bread feels so much better coming from close to home.
ReplyDeletePharmadaddy - no doubt your bread rocks. Certainly better than store bought is homemade though depending on the type of "whole wheat" flour you're buying, you may not be getting "whole grain whole wheat". I'm not sure the large supermarkets sell "whole grain whole wheat" flour but certainly bulk food stores do.
ReplyDeleteMark VII - I suggest you click the tag "Health Check" below the post, there'll be lots of good reading there for you.
Or your local mill if you are so blessed!
DeleteI stopped eating most bread, because most are poison. I now buy "real" bread with only 4/5 ingredients from 'Choices' market in Vancouver. The second ingredient in Dempster's whole wheat "Smart" bread is HFCS, or sugar, glucose/fructose, as it's called in Canada. 30% of HFCS products since 2005 are known to contain mercury, as well!
ReplyDeleteDempster's:
Whole grain whole wheat flour including the germ, water, yeast*, sugar/ glucose-fructose, vegetable oil (canola or soybean), wheat gluten*, salt, oat fibre, soybean flour, vinegar, calcium sulphate, calcium propionate, sodium stearoyl-2- lactylate, monoglycerides, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides, calcium carbonate, DHA algal oil, sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, sorbic acid. *order may change. May contain sesame seeds and sulphites. [H813].
Canola and Soybean = GMOs.
It would be nice if packaged food items were scored on a 100 point scale, with good, neutral, poor for specifics, like salt, calories, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your comments on the new Dempster's "Bakehouse" bread? The nutritional info and whole grain "including the germ" are heartening to read. And the bread doesn't taste half bad (which is why I'm not convinced).
ReplyDeleteSo, out of the four, which is the best to consume? I love dempster's bread and bagels. I usually use whole wheat or 12 grain.
ReplyDeleteWhy not include Glycemic Index! And I am with Dani girl because I get awful strange looks from people as I raise, read and replace things off the shelf.
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing, look at Wonder+ 100% Whole grain made with 18 whole grains. the first ingredient is 'whole grain whole wheat flour including the germ and then 18 other whole grains" which they micromill so does that make it as good as Dempster's bread? It has only 95 cal. per slice!
ReplyDeleteDo you see the problem and that is why we need the Glycemic Index(GI)noted on the package.