Food LabelingThe College at Brockport

Department of Communication

Orange regions require Genetically Modified Food lables.

Laura Bliss, Zach Clicquennoi, Erin Conley, Laura Haley, & Amber Vaccaro

December 18, 2015

Table of Contents:

Executive

Summary-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Chapter I: 21st Century Agriculture- Genetically Modified

Organisms----------------------------------

Chapter II: A Look Across the

Atlantic----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter III: The Consequences of Food

Labels-------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter IV: Government

Involvement-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusion and Recommendations

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Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Accurate food labeling is critical for the wellbeing of our society. Without well-defined labels there is elevated potential for negative outcomes to occur to those who use food labels, which happens to be our entire population. Millions have suffered due to the uncertainty that comes along with labels on the foods we regularly consume. One of the authors fathers suffered from a heart attack in March of 2014 that nearly took his life. Inaccurate food

labeling was a leading factor in this event because for years they had thought they were choosing some of the healthiest options, yet realistically there was more to the foods they were consuming than they thought. Millions of Americans face these sort of dilemmas that could be more easily prevented if our society had a food system that was honest and more understandable. The concerns related to inaccurate food labeling that will be further analyzed

include: health risks that may occur from not having proper knowledge on what you’re consuming, increased consumer requirement for GMO (genetically modified organisms) labeling, government involvement pertaining to accurate food labeling and GMO labeling, further analysis on what GMO’s are and how they came about, and the American pace of life in accordance to food.  

Health concerns related to inaccurate food labeling includes: obesity, increased allergic reactions and production of new allergens, antibiotic resistance, unknown overeating, increased risk of heart and lung disease as well as chronic health problems, including type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and forms of canceri (Center For). Looking further into the reasoning behind so many health concerns leads society right back to the main problem, inaccurate food labeling. Major food corporations have legal wiggle room where they are able to use additives in the food they process which don’t need labeling. Food manufacturers have the ability to round to zero for any ingredient that equates to less than .5 grams in a product, which in turn leaves many ingredients unlabeled. People who are counting their calories or trying to stay away from trans fat, for instance, are unable to do so because of these labeling regulations. Consequences to inaccurate food labeling are endless and continue to be recognized.

Consumers are now more than ever highly adamant about knowing exactly what is in the food they are eating. The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to get genetically modified organisms labeled. This act requires that food labels meet a required standard before being put on the shelves, making it necessary to label more accurate serving size portions, show additives that have been incorporated throughout the process of food production and demanding the labeling of any genetically modified organisms that are in the food itself. The voice behind these bills supporting the implementation includes 90% of the American population, yet we have been in the dark about what our food contains for so long even with the outstanding amount of support behind this. Places such as Japan, Australia, and China have established laws regarding the labeling of GMOs, yet we are still working on getting to this point. The Dark Act, Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act, preempts states from requiring labeling of GMO food and prohibiting bogus “natural” claims, making it not legal to clearly state what is in our food. There are also trigger clauses on many bills that are passed state to state making it required to have multiple states implementation of the same bill before action is required. There are many governmental loop holes that hold us as Americans back from being

able to have understable transparency in our food system.Genetically modifies organisms have been around for no more than 20 years, yet are in nearly every food we consume without even knowing. With the recent uproar on civilian hope and action towards having GMO labeling be required, there has been more found most commonly in processed food ingredients such as amino acids, natural and artificial flavorings as well as high fructose corn syrup that are included in most foods that we as consumers eat. The way that genetically modified organisms are made affects the way that our immune system processes them, multiple studies have been done on the negative consequences that GMOs have on our bodies. New allergens can be formed at a young age, increased toxicity in foods consumed, as well as antibiotic resistance your body can form due to exposure of these modified organisms. Research is and will be conducted for many years to come on the effects of GMO’s, proving that they need to be accurately labeled on foods we consume.

The American lifestyle is very fast paced and hectic compared to many other cultures. This comes into play in all areas of our lives. Our eating habits, though, fall into an area where there is significant impact. As a society we pay little attention to the food we consume and the manner in which we consume it. In contrast, many European nations slow down,

taking time to indulge in their food and drink, gathering with friends and family to do so. It may seem silly to think the speed at which we go through life or the amount of time we spend eating is so consequential. However, there are numerous benefits that can be gained from slowing down which will be explained in further detail in chapters to come. We have the power to improve our lives dramatically and Europe can serve as a template. Looking to European countries, we can consider positive lifestyle changes our nation can adopt; these changes can improve our quality of life. If adopted as national traditions, they will improve our children's quality of life as well.

Introduction:

To state that accurate food labeling is a concern regarding the entire American population would be an understatement. Everybody eats, therefore everybody is involved in one way or another. We in America now have double the obesity rate compared to statistics in the 1970’s, we consume 156 pounds of sugar every year and on average teenagers get 30% of their daily calories from vending machine items and soda (source). As a country we need to focus on the wellbeing of our people so we have the highest possible outcome for success. Food is a part of our everyday lives, becoming knowledgeable on some of the regulations regarding food labeling can help our society better itself in more ways than one. It is mandated by the Food and Drug Administration that all foods that are packaged and prepared need a nutrition label on them, this applies to all foods made and sold in the United States along with foods that are sold in foreign countries but prepared in the U.S. The only exception to this rule is what the FDA considers “raw materials” which includes fruits, vegetables, and fish. These items would have to be completely by themselves and have no added ingredients to be considered raw, even though many fish farms use feed that have genetically modified organisms within them (SOURCE). Because all foods need to be labeled, there is an elevated need for every label to be as accurate as possible.

According to Time magazine, 26% of people always check their food labels, 37% of people check certain parts of the label and an estimated 72% of people try to understand the food label but fail to do so. Fewer people pay attention to the ingredients in the food they are consuming

and focus rather on portions of certain ingredients within, such as sugars, trans fat and protein. With multiple people only using the food label to check amounts of what is in their soon to be consumed food, it is crucial that all aspects of a nutrition label are accurate. Many Americans go on diets, trying to watch their weight and control the amount of food they intake. Without accurate food labeling people are fooled as to what they are consuming and do not have the freedom to fully understand the nutritional value of the food they are eating. It seems unfair to be an American with a multitude of freedoms to exercise yet we are still not able to have a transparent food system that allows accurate information regarding food labels.

Many large food corporations, such as Kellogg's, Pepsi, General Mills, Coca-Cola, are taking a stance against accurate food labeling. Big businesses like these pour money into pushing back deadlines regarding more transparent food systems so they can continue to label with the loose requirements and loop-holes that they have now. Putting money towards pushing back against a much needed social improvement seems so unnecessary when over a billion people go hungry every year and that money could be used towards helping a cause as such. Thirty seven states are currently fighting for mandatory GMO labeling, hoping to be added to the list of the already sixty four countries that have this labeling requirement. This is a worldwide problem and seeing that many others have successfully taken a stance and received more accurate food labeling gives us hope that we can too.

The framework for the following pages will be provided by Walter Lippmann, who conveyed the idea of pseudo environments in his 1949 publication of, “Public Opinion”. The nature of the idea is that each of us look out at the world from inside the pseudo environment we inhabit. There exist as many pseudo environments in the world as there do people because each of us has a unique view of the world, shaped by the people with whom we interact and the events that affect us. Despite the billions of pseudo environments in the world, there exists only one real world. All of the actions of individuals who think and feel in pseudo environments culminate in the real world. When there lacks a shared ground of fact and information that can be defined as nothing but true, the real world slowly becomes fictitious.

When each of us is going into grocery stores and purchasing food, we are all acting in the real world. This world is slowly becoming fictitious though, as we purchase foods because we perceive them to be something they are not. For example, many of us know whole wheat bread is healthy. However, few of us know these things to be true as a result of an intellectual conversation with a nutritionist or other scientist with a thorough understanding of food. Few of us have read scholarly articles that have been reviewed by other scientists in the field. Rather, we know these things to be true because they’re part of our pseudo environment. Our friend may have told us or, more likely still, we saw an

ad on TV or in a magazine telling us whole wheat is the way to go! But-- have you ever questioned the validity of these statements? Have you ever looked into the labeling regulations surrounding these claims?

It is vital to continually question and gather information so as to become a more intellectual consumer. If not, there is high risk of falling into marketing traps. To illustrate, let’s look at the whole wheat bread example from above. Any carbohydrate that has had any amount of wheat added to it can be labeled as a wheat productii (Forbes). One hundred percent whole wheat products are healthier than only partial wheat products because 100% whole wheat must contain all three parts of a grain: the bran, germ, and endospermiii (Mayoclinic). When all these parts are included, many nutrients and fiber is provided that are often stripped when that 100% label isn’t included. Despite labels saying things such as ‘contains whole wheat!’ there can be enriched flour included that give consumers a sugar spike but no nutritional valueiv.

As a nation, if we were to become more aware of how food information is presented to us, we would begin to tip the scales back to a more real world, as opposed to the fictitious one it is becoming. By increasing the accuracy of our personal pseudo environments, our actions will provide health benefits to us and those we’re responsible for (ie: our children).

Chapter I: 21st Century Agriculture- Genetically Modified Organisms

Over the past two decades, there has been a push in science and technology to modify foods with the goal of improving human life. This technology has led to the creation of GMO’s. GMO’s are defined as “organisms whose genetic make-ups have been changed by mutating, inserting, or deleting genes, by using genetic engineering techniques or through biotechnologyv (GMO’s and Family).” Over the years, these genetically altered foods have received a large amount of attention from the media as well as the general public. The reason for this is because many people are unaware what’s in the GM products that make the foods a better product and also if they are even safe to consume. The battle to get GM foods labeled has become a popular concern to the public; large biotech companies are spending large sums of money to protect themselves from mandatory GMO labeling.According to Non GMO Project, “GMO’s are found in about 80% of food products in North Americavi (GMO’s and Family).” The most common of these foods are soy, canola, corn and sugar. GMO’s are also hidden in commonly processed food ingredients such as amino acids, natural and artificial flavorings as well as high fructose corn syrup. This is an important statistic to show because many people have no a clue as to what a GMO is. People are unaware of what they are consuming and this is a major problem in today’s society because people are uneducated and there isn’t as high of a demand for people to want to know, as there should be.

It’s very important to educate people on GMO’s and what they really are. According to Genetic Literacy Project some people are convinced GM foods have been shown to cause new allergens especially in adolescents from practices and additives in GM productsvii (Lim, Xiao). The problem with this theory is that it has yet to be 100% proven. In general, it is difficult to understand why people develop food allergies. A food allergy reaction occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to a food or substance and feels the need to defend itselfviii (Food Allergy). Adolescents experience more of a chance of developing food allergies because of their weak immune systems and the types of substances they’re introduced to before or when they are born.The process of modifying GMO’s works in a way similar to allergens where they both have potential threats to the immune system. The process to modify foods occurs with the “splicing of genes from on organisms DNA and inserting or bonding it to another”ix (The GE) The problem with this is that it is possible for a cross contamination of DNA to occur where someone could experience an allergic reaction based off of the transferred DNA from other organisms. On top of this, biotech companies then refuse to offer a labeling for what these foods are crossed with when they are genetically engineered. This leads to many issues people face with the want for mandatory labeling.Some of the biggest issues with getting GMO products to be labeled are the biotech companies who create them. In 2011, the

FDA gave permission to biotech companies to be able to perform their own environmental impact studies on their own productsx (GMO and FDA). This gave biotech companies a large amount of power because they are now allowed to hide what they want and say what they please about the research they conduct.Monsanto is one of the leading biotech companies in the world that create GM products and sell them off to farmers. Monsanto has been allowed to patent their GMO seeds. These seeds are seen as a great option for farmers to use because they are engineered to withstand climate change and are able to resist herbicides as well as insect abuse. These seeds greatly improve a farmer’s ability to cultivate crops and therefore Monsanto then forms contracts with thousands of farmers annually to exchange the seeds. These seeds allow farmer to grow crops efficiently and make good money off of them. However, Monsanto is very strict with their contracts and products. After a growing season, farmers aren’t allowed to reuse seeds, as they must purchase new ones. This has led to many lawsuits over the years.Another issue with these seeds is that it can hurt organic farmers who want nothing to do with GMO products. Organic farmers constantly face problems with contamination of GMO seeds from nearby GMO farms. If this happens, biotech companies are allowed to sue these farmers for not being under contract with permission to use their products even if the farmer had no interest in doing so to begin with.A former biotech research scientist by the name of Thierry Vrain worked for Agriculture Canada. His job was to speak to public groups and assure them that genetically modified foods were safe. However, over time he started to see the lack of positive and well-balanced research

conducted by biotech labs and has since developed new viewpoints of GM foods. He now advocates against GMO’s as well as the companies he previously worked for.

In one article Vrain writes,“There are no long-term feeding studies performed in these countries [US and Canada] to demonstrate the claims that engineered corn and soya are safe. All we have are scientific studies out of Europe and Russia, showing that rats fed engineered food die prematurely.These studies show that proteins produced by engineered plants are different than what they should be. Inserting a gene in a genome using this technology can and does result in damaged proteins. The scientific literature is full of studies showing that engineered corn and soya contain toxic or allergenic proteins.... I refute the claims of the biotechnology companies that their engineered crops yield more, that they require less pesticide applications, that they have no impact on the environment and of course that they are safe to eat"xi (Mercola, Joseph).Vrain expanded on his research and expressed his concern on GMO’s and the environment. According to the article not only are GM farms contaminating non-GM farms, but also once non-GM foods are contaminated they can’t be recalled and it’s very difficult for organic farmers to rid their farms of GM contaminants.According to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, in 2009 called for a mandatory study on the long term effects of GMO’s. They released the following statement from what they found was happening to research they themselves were conducting,“Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and

changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system.... There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation ..."xii (Mercola, Joseph)According to the article Pesticide Controversies by Jennifer Weeks, in 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) stated that glyphosate, which is a main ingredient in the herbicides Monsanto develops such as Roundup as well as other weed killers “could cause cancer. (Weeks, Jennifer)” Monsanto strongly disagreed with the IARC’s claims but since then the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the U.S. department of Agriculture (USDA) is starting to look more into glyphosate and the potential carcinogens it may contain. If some of Monsanto’s products face a stronger questioning then this could be a great move for the mandating of more GMO studies to prove whether or not they’re safe.The demand for organic foods has increased significantly over the past few years. According to a census conducted by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics service, between 2008 and 2012 there has been a 14% increase in the amount of certified and recognized organic farms in the United States. However, out of the 2.1 million farms in the United States, organic farms only represent 0.6% of them at 12,771xiii (Sooby, Jane). Why has the push for more organic farms come about? This is mainly because Americans are paying more attention to what they consume than ever before.  One of the biggest issues for consumers has been the fight to get GM foods labeled. Over the years biotech companies have been able to pour millions of dollars into protecting their power over their products and the research they are responsible for.

In fall of 2015, the U.S. House of Representative passed the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015. This act was a big step forward in the labeling process especially for the GMO labeling debate. According to the bill that was passed, section 101 states: “The FDA may require a GMO food to have a label that informs consumers of a material difference between the GMO food and a comparable food if the disclosure is necessary to protect public health and safety or to prevent the label from being false or misleading. The use of a GMO does not, by itself, constitute a material difference”xiv (H.R.1599)This bill not only holds the FDA in check but also the USDA as well as the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).“(Sec. 201) For a food to be sold as a product produced without genetic engineering (non-GMO), the food must be subject to supply chain process controls that keep the product separated from GMOs and must be produced and handled in compliance with a non-genetically engineered food plan, which is a description of procedures to ensure compliance, monitoring records, and corrective actions in the event of a deviation from the plan.For food derived from livestock to be sold as non-GMO, the product, livestock, feed, and products used in processing the feed must be produced without GMOs.A food’s label or advertising cannot suggest that non-GMO foods are safer or of higher quality than GMO foods.For a food to be sold as a GMO food, it must be produced and handled in compliance with a genetically engineered food plan. A GMO food’s label or advertising cannot suggest that it is safer or of higher quality solely because it is GMO.(Sec. 302) The FDA must regulate the term “natural” on food labeling.”         

-(H.R.1599)This bill was long overdue to get passed and the reason it is so important is because the government is finally realizing that there is a major concern for people’s health and that people care about what’s in their food. Vrain weighs in a very good point when arguing what GM foods can do to human health as he states, "Nobody gets ill from smoking a pack of cigarettes either. But it sure adds up, and we did not know that in the 1950’s before we started our wave of epidemics of cancer. Except this time it is not about a bit of smoke, it's the whole food system that is of concern”xv (Mercola, Joseph).Benjamin Franklin once said, “It’s the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” In this case, the power lies within the Government as well as the million dollar biotech industries that control over 80% of the foods people consume. There are many campaigns and committees that continue the fight in mandating GMO labeling and it should be in the public’s best interest to stay educated with what they’re consuming and what they can do to change it.

Chapter II: A Look Across the Atlantic

In America we have many idioms concerning time, or a lack thereof. We’re crunched for time, under the gun, down to the last second. These expressions frequently strewn throughout conversation indicate an overarching theme in the United States. That theme is the large amount of pressure felt at work, as highlighted in one Harvard Business Review article. The article, Creativity Under the Gun, presents a study in which researchers explored, “how people experienced time pressure day to day as they worked on projects that required high levels of inventiveness”. After analyzing 9,000 journal entries, the results found were steeply correlated to popular press maxims of America being a nation of ‘the quick, or the dead tired.” Polls stretching back fifteen and even twenty years ago show similar attitudes.

One finding from 1995 indicated “more than half of Americans wanted more time, even if it meant earning less money”. A related survey from 1996 found 75% of workers earning over $100,000/year had greater difficulty managing their time than their money. Feeling continuously pressed for time is a way of life for many Americans but do we ever pause to question if this is the only way of life, or indeed, the best way of life?

Our everyday perceptions of time can be viewed in different lights; Paul Maidment speaks on the topic from an analytical standpoint, remarking, “Time is a curious good economically… Were it a bank account, time would pay no interest, close itself out each night, carry over no balances, and allow no overdrafts”xvi (Maidment, Paul). Whether we acknowledge it or not, Americans have come to fixate on these concepts. Over the past century, we’ve become very focused on time’s inability to transfer from one day to the next as well as our inability to conjure more if we run out. As a result, we’ve learned to pack our days with all that we can.

Hackett’s Hardware store, owned by one of the author’s grandfathers and great uncle, illustrates the time shift America has experienced over the past 65 years. In 1950, their store closed at 5pm each weekday, 4pm on Saturdays, and never opened on Sunday. When he retired in 1995 the store saw weekday & Saturday closings at 9pm and 4pm on Sundays. Today, in contrast, neon signs light up the night in cities big and small with their 24 hour services. Walmart, CVS, and Denny’s are three such examples. Supermarkets, pharmacies, and fast food chains ensure that American citizens can

choose to run around like chickens with our heads cut off.

This is not human nature but rather an American custom. At times when Europeans encounter Americans they are baffled by our ‘no time to lose’ attitude. To them, time isn’t something that can be gained or lost. It is simply a constant in the worldxvii (renegade Frederick). Would you find it odd to learn most Europeans carry around thermometers in their pockets to be ever-mindful of the temperature? Probably. This is, of course, not true, but the absurdity you presumably felt about such a practice is quite similar to how they feel about our preoccupation with time. One blogger explained,

When I asked last summer at a casual plaza café in Croatia if I could get an impulsive espresso to go, not wanting to hold up my fellow travelers, the

barista made a studied appraisal of me and asked, “Madame, are you really in so much of a hurry?” I tried to explain about delaying my

companions, and he simply said, “They will wait”. They would, in Croatia. They would sit down

together, and chat, and not be in such a rush.xviii

America as a whole is highly immersed in its own customs. This is understandable from a geological perspective as we are bordered by only two other countries and separated from the rest by entire oceans. The result of

this, however, is a nation unlearned in the daily structure many other countries choose to follow.

A characteristic inherent to the US but absent from Europe is the adherence to a ‘round the clock’ lifestyle. Furthermore, we’ve acquired a ‘running against the clock’ mindset. No longer do we need tables to complete the daily task of eating; we can order food through our car windows, eating off our laps as we drive away, thanks to fast food restaurants.This is not to say fast food is obsolete in Europe. In fact, while studying in Spain for twenty weeks during 2015 the common meeting ground for one of the authors and her friends was the Burger King in the city center. Burger King has locations in 14 European nations plus the UKxix (burger king). Yet, in thinking back over her time in Spain and visits to neighboring countries, she realized a difference between European fast food and American. While fast food is far from obsolete in the East, drive-throughs are nearly non-existent. When people in European countries choose to purchase fast food, they still take the time to sit down with friends or family to enjoy the consumption aspect of the meal. Americans on the other hand, speed away, eating in the mode of utmost efficiency.

Perhaps we have reason to be in such a hurry. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, results from 2014 indicate employed persons, on average, spend 40.5

hours per week working. In comparison to European countries: France 41.1, Spain: 41.6, Italy: 40.5, and Germany: 42.0… the US ranks… quite closelyxx (American Time Use). Thus, is it fair to say we engage in this rushed lifestyle because we physically don’t have enough time?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a catalogue titled, ‘The Better Life Index’ in which various factors regarding feelings of well-being in stable, established countries are measured. The index evaluates qualities such as education and skills, jobs and earnings, social connections, personal security, environmental quality, and—most important for us—work-life balance. America rates below average on the work-life balance with a score of 5.3 on a 10.0 scale. While France holds a rating of 7.6, Spain 9.3, Italy 7.5, and Germany 8.0xxi (OECD). The scores of four European countries are all at least 2.2 grades higher than America’s! This subpar rating explains that many of us find the time we have after 8.1 hours working and 7.8 hours sleeping to be unsatisfactory Bureau. Why?

One answer is offered in the film, “Eat, Pray, Love” when a conversation emerges between an American tourist and an Italian:

I feel so guilty. I’ve been in Rome for three weeks and all I’ve done is learn a few Italian words and eat.

You feel guilty because you are an American! You don’t know how to enjoy yourself!

I beg your pardon?

It’s true. Americans know entertainment. But they don’t know pleasure… I’m serious. Listen to me! You want to know your problem? Americans… you work too hard, you get burned out! Then you come home and spend the entire weekend in your pajamas in front of the TV!xxii

While this is a film written by Americans, it holds some validity. Perhaps we spend too much of our free time in unsatisfying ways. In 2014, American individuals ages 15 and older watched, on average, 2.8 hours of television each day. It is noteworthy to mention that this statistic is founded on a population of full, part time, and unemployed persons. Thus, it is not entirely indicative of our poor work-life balance. Yet it can hardly be said such long periods of time watching TV give us the great pleasure the Italian barber referred to. Rather, as he said, it simply entertains us.But how exactly do we achieve pleasure? How can we improve our work-life index? How can we enjoy the lifestyles of Europe which so captivate us? The answer could quite easily be found in food.

Each European nation has its own rich traditions surrounding food but

we can draw similarities from one to the next. In comparing these similarities, we may better understand the differences in American dining customs, thus solving the mystery of a poor ‘better-life’ index.Spaniards are famous for their afternoon break in the day, called siesta. During this period of time between 2:00 and 5:00 most stores and services close and workers return home. For Spaniards, lunch is, “an opportunity to get together with friends and family, talk about the day and relax a little before returning to work”. As a result of this midday break, Spaniards often work until 9:00pm. After work though, they find time to exercise and ‘tapear’. The verb tapear best equates to American bar hopping, though in a more moderate sense. Spaniards pass from bar to bar, taking it in turns to buy rounds of drinks for their friends. When drinks are served, they come with small, complementary portions of food. This tradition began with King Alfonso X who decided it best to imbibe while eating (so as not to become overly inebriated). For Spaniards, the act of eating each night is most notably a social one. As one individual claims, an American, “eats because he is hungry” whereas a Spaniard eats, “as an excuse to be with his family and friendsxxiii (Bulnes). A former European now residing in America seems to agree saying, “For some, the 2-3 hours I spend having dinner is a waste of time. For me, it is the best part of my day… I’d rather starve waiting for my roommates

to get home or call a dozen people to find someone to have dinner with than eat by myself” xxiv(eating habits). For Spaniards, the daily task of eating is not so much a task at all, but rather something to look forward to.

The aforementioned hardware store owner and grandfather to one of our authors, Edward Hackett, has visited Germany on a handful of occasions and is quite captivated by the Baltic style of eating. Each night he, his wife, and their friends would try out a new restaurant. The restaurants on average held only eight tables of six. Most restaurants are family owned and each owner expressed great pleasure when a group walking by would pause, and decide to enter. The happiness extended beyond the financial benefits, instead expressing sincere gratitude that others wanted to spend their evening in his/her restaurant. In reflecting, Mr. Hackett said one of the most enjoyable aspects of his time dining in Germany was the concept that the table was yours for the evening. Unlike in the States, there is no ‘turning tables’. European restaurants invite guests to stay as long as they’d like. “Once we’d finished out food” he said, “we asked for some more wine and they brought it to us, along with a bowl full of nuts; we were never pushed out the door”. Instead they had to request the check, signally they were done dining—contrasting greatly from the American restaurants eschewing their guest out the door

signaling the restaurant is done with you!

As we’ve glimpsed thus far, for Europeans, tradition is of utmost importance because it “keeps a sort of order to things” xxv(renegade). Tradition prevents overeating and encourages one to enjoy their food and company. The unspoken rules dictating how Italians drink their coffee exemplifies this. In Italy, “the cappuccino or caffé latte is something you drink in the morning, for breakfast. At other times of the day you’re supposed to drink black espresso, and only after meals… In America of course, once we embraced the caffé latte, we didn’t attach any traditions around it. Which means people have giant lattes loaded with sugar and calories several times a day!” xxvi(renegade).

The English have traditions rooted in afternoon tea, a time in the day offering people chance to break for a warm beverage and a sweet (renegade). The French on the other hand, are famous for their rich, creamy meals (renegade). Because they prefer such rich foods, often laden with butter and cream, they choose to balance by consuming smaller portions. Given a plate of food that falls on the small end of the spectrum, the French will not gobble it up then take a second trip to the buffet or look around for a refill. Rather, they choose to eat less to counter the calorie dense food.

So what’s American tradition? Being a melting pot of cultures our lengthy histories have mixed, and today, many traditions have dissolved, giving way to a new food culture. This culture is mixed; one common food practice is grabbing take-out from one of thirteen thousand fast food chains that reside stateside (90% of them providing drive-throughs). As far as grocery stores, we see shelves stocked with Little Debbies, snack pack Pringles, bags of Cheese-It’s, Lunchables, and gummies. These are just a few of our favorites that add variation to the McNuggets and Whoppers. Other norms are fat-free yogurt and granola, fruit and spinach smoothie blends, and quinoa dinners. So where do we stand?

As we saw on the first and second pages, Americans are not satisfied with our lack of time but we still choose to rush through our meals—be it fast food or a yogurt at our desk. Moreover, we are less satisfied with our work-life balance than people of other countries. And as we just discussed, our traditions are not so much traditions as a new ‘to go’ culture. While we are experiencing a shift toward perceived healthier eating styles (aisles of organic salad mix, Greek yogurt, and whole wheat bread mixed in between the aisles of Twinkies), we are still missing particular benefits of slower-paced cultures such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Therefore, we’d like to conclude by shedding light on the factors creating our fast

paced world and the consequence it has on all of us.

Walter Lippmann states there are several factors that affect our pseudo environments. These factors operate on the left side of an equation; when added together we can see the consequence they have on us. The factors include:

DistortionArtificial censorshipMeager timeLimitations of contact

+       Fear of facing the factsPseudo environment

The first factor suggests reality is distorted in our mind's eye, which becomes clear when we look at our average life spans. The life expectancy in the US averages to 78.80 years (world life expectancy). The combined countries of France, Spain, Italy, and Germany have a life expectancy average of 82.11. Whether American or European, we have quite a lot of time on this earth. The perception that life is short and we must fill every moment with errands, tasks, and work is simply absurd. The US life expectancy in 1915 was an average of 54.65 (Berkeley). We’ve added over twenty four years to our lives in the past hundred years and somehow we still don’t feel we have enough time. Yet, if we slow down our pace to match that of our European neighbors, we’d actually gain time, based on their life expectancies in comparison to our own.

Artificial censorship, the second factor, comes into play when nutritional labels aren’t the source of accuracy we perceive them to be. For example, the FDA mandates ……[cupcake fat content/serving size example]…….. As a result, people are not making the informed decisions they think they are. The briefness of a food label is a positive factor because it informs non-nutritional experts about their food quickly; however, the artificial censorship creates inaccuracies thereby causing detrimental effects on our country.

The next factor in the equation is the meager amount of time available in each day. This corresponds to our choices to ‘simplify’ our lives by using time-savers. An example of a time saver would be cooking a frozen pizza instead of making one from scratch. While we think this is simplifying our evening, it is probably just giving us more time to pay taxes later or do a load of laundry. It is not making our life easier but more hectic. Because we feel pressed for time, we are eating something that most likely has less nutritional value and we’re also losing out on opportunities to share this time with our friends or family. The time you spend cooking can allow you to share family recipes with your children or discus your childhood memories of cooking with relatives they may never have met. Through sharing these personal matters, we form closer bonds with people. Without these

leisurely time periods, these bonds are harder to form.

The fourth factor—limitations of social contact—is grounded in the title of this chapter: a look across the Atlantic. The implications of this factor take root in the cultural sharing between nations. Few implications exist between European nations just as few implications exist between US states. However, when cultural sharing occurs between the two continents, the dynamic changes. The result is Americans looking across to Europe with a telescope that only transmits a broken, fuzzy view of what actually exists. Take for example the French crêpe. While it is doubtful that the French think anyone but themselves can create true crêpes, the Spaniards to their south are doing a pretty good job. When we Americans have a go though, they increase to four times the thickness of a real crêpe, are stacked a mile high, slabs of butter placed between each, and maple syrup cascading down. It’s evident there’s some disparity between the two…

The final factor in Lippmann’s equation is our fear of facing facts that threaten our routine. This varies in severity. For some, the fear of not accomplishing everything on a daily to do list is nothing short of incompetent. It threatens face, and would make us feel we are somehow less successful. For others, a routine change is equivalent to a diet change. The thought of eating less

Egg McMuffins or buying fewer boxes of Easy Mac is bothersome. There are those who think neither of these options is pleasant. But-- the outcomes are. The results of say, taking on a Mediterranean diet and fashioning that diet around family meals or taking it with you when you dine out with friends could be as significant as elongating your lifespan! Longer lives means more opportunity to vacation or maybe even see your grandchildren get married.

Now we are able to look to the end factor of Lippmann’s equation. When you take distortion, artificial censorship, meager amount of time, the limitation of contact, and fear of facing the facts, what we have is a pseudo environment. A pseudo environment differs from reality and, in the case of Americans, is a shared perception of what really doesn’t exist. It’s as if we’ve found a photograph that had been left outside and it’s become damaged by the morning dew, faded by the afternoon sun, and smudged with fingerprints that all work together to distort the image.We like the picture though, so we write on the back naming who each person is and the time stamp at the bottom. We then stick it in our photo album which will be passed down for generations to come. Unfortunately, our inscription on the back was not entirely correct. Who we thought was great uncle Pat standing next to the grill was really grandpa Kilmer. And what we read as 1953 was actually 1943.

These subtle discrepancies may not have much impact on us based on one picture. But as you can probably guess, given many pictures—say a whole album full—we will have created an inaccurate sense of reality. Because of this, we don’t fully understand our family tree or the different artifacts and pastimes of various decades in our history.

Now put the photograph analogy in terms of our eating and lifestyle choices and it becomes clear that the latter has more dire consequences. Given a false sense of reality, an upward battle such as fighting weight gain can turn into a flat faced, 90º climb because our food labels are full of inaccuracies. What we think we are taking in is not what we are in taking in reality. A skewed understanding of stress can take years off your life. A slanted version of what’s important

in life can, in reality, make you sick with depression.

If we use Europe as a template, we can choose as a nation to alter our perceptions until they come to align with reality. The way to get there is to change your personal pseudo environment. If you personally like red meat, maybe a Mediterranean diet isn’t for you. But perhaps taking your kid out to the tree stand and teaching them how to hunt, and reaping the benefits of your efforts around the kitchen table is the way for you. By altering our lifestyles we can save lives. We can enhance lives. And, we can lengthen lives. So that trip you always wanted to take with your wife to Paris or the family vacation to Rome you’ve longed to take may not only result in lifelong stories to tell but a more fulfilling and life for you and your family.

Chapter III: Consequences of Food Labeling

Inaccurate food labeling has many consequences including but not limited to, obesity, allergy attacks, and over eating of certain foods due to the misinformation on the food labels. People all over the world are being misinformed about health and nutrition. Results of this misinformation can have serious consequences. One of which is obesity. Obesity can cause and advance several different diseases such as Coronary Heart Disease, High-blood pressure, Stroke, Type 2 Diabetes, Abnormal Blood Fats, Metabolic Syndrome, Cancer, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome, Reproductive Problems and Gallstones. One way that inaccurate food labeling can cause obesity is a misinformation about calories. A calorie is a measure of usable energy. According to IFLScience, food labels say how many calories a food contains. But what labels don’t say is that how many calories you actually get out of your food depends on how highly processed it is. Food processing includes cooking, blending and mashing, or using refined flour instead of unrefined flour. (IFL Science)

Depending on what it is, food can come processed already from the manufacturers before being purchased or raw and processed by the consumer. Regardless, the impact of consuming food cooked

versus raw is astronomical. For example, if you eat your food raw, you will tend to lose weight. Raw foods such as fruits and vegetables supply us with high nutrient levels and are generally low in calories too. Raw vegetables are dramatically low in calories and we probably only absorb about 50 calories a pound from raw vegetables. (Food Saftey Magazine) However, if the same food is being consumed but cooked first, you will tend to gain weight. when food is cooked, only small amounts of nutrients are lost with conservative cooking like making a soup, but many more nutrients are made more soluble.(The Conversation) The lack of specifics on food labels are not the only thing being misunderstood by consumers; serving sizes and particular amounts of each ingredient are also misleading to consumers due to inaccurate information. (Food labeling Chaos) Animal experiments show that processing affects calorie gain whether the energy source is carbohydrate, protein or lipid (fats and oils). Researchers fed rats two kinds of laboratory chow. They had some rats eating solid uncooked pellets, and others eating the same pellets but they were cooked and therefore like a puffed breakfast cereal. Both sets of rats ate the same weight in food but the rats eating the puffed pellets grew heavier and had 30 percent more

body fat than their counterparts eating the regular, raw chow. In almost every case, more processed foods give a consumer more energy. (The Conversation)

Carbohydrates  provide more than half of the populations calories. Their energy is often packaged in starch grains that are dense packets of glucose that get digested mainly in your small intestine. If you eat a starchy food raw, up to half of the starch grains pass through the small intestine entirely undigested. (the conversation) When this happens, your body is only getting two-thirds or less of the total calories available in the food you are consuming, the other one-third that is not being consumed  might be used by the bacteria in your colon or just passed out of your body whole. Not to say that cooking your food will guarantee that you will get 100 percent of the desired calories; digestibility varies amongst people. Given the importance of counting calories correctly, the public demands more education on the effects of how we prepare our food on our individual weight gain. Calorie-counting is too important to allow a system that is clearly limited to be the best on offer. We need major scientific effort to produce adequate numbers on the effects of food-processing as well as knowing directly what the content of ingredients is in the food we consume. Specifics should be labeled clearly and be present on every product we consume.

Many processes and additives are in food whether they are mandated to be labeled or not. The FDA has limits that can be reached by food corporations that are legally acceptable, some of these limits are more shocking than realistic to the average consumer. Food manufacturers are allowed to round to zero for any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving. So if you eat three servings of trans-fat-free chips, you could actually be getting up to 1.5 grams of trans fats. “Incidental additives” do not need to be listed on the label. Incidental additives include substances transferred to foods via packaging, and “ingredients of other ingredients” that are present at “insignificant levels.” “Clean labels” are rampant. Consumers don’t have to look too far to find foods with clean labels. People are more interested now about what’s in their food, how it’s made and where the ingredients come from. They’re checking labels more closely so “natural” and “clean label” are becoming more defined, though the Food and Drug Administration continues to be reticent about creating a definition for them. (Food Processing) Clean labeled foods are no longer only found at small obscure health food stores; they are increasingly impacting major food manufacturers and ingredient manufacturers. today, clean, simple foods are changing America’s eating habits. (Hg.org)

Not only are “clean labels” hard to come by, there are various ingredients that food labels tend to have misinformation on as well as food not being presented in the way that it should. Food fraud has become an increasing concern among consumers. As a result of the growing number of cases of food fraud, a new database has been created to track faked food products called the Food Fraud Database.  Currently, the Food Fraud Database only has records of cases of food fraud dating from 1980 to 2012. One of the biggest potential offenders of food fraud is honey. In several recent instances, investigators were unable to determine the origin of various store-bought honeys because they lacked any pollen. (Hg.org) “Usually, honey contains some about of pollen, identifying the source of the honey, like honeysuckle, orange blossom, or avocado. Honey that happens to be so thoroughly filtered to the point where it does not contain any pollen, violates the Food and Drug Administration guidelines regarding what can legally be called ‘honey.’” (Hg.org)

Food manufacturers know that certain ingredients are frowned upon, but instead of taking them out of their products, they may just attempt to hide them on the label using a name you won’t recognize. For example, sugar could be labeled as sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, anhydrous dextrose, corn sweetener, cane sugar, malt syrup, crystal dextrose, etc.

(healthy eating) All of these words account for the same ingredient but they are said different ways so that you won’t know what it is.With that they also could include the same ingredient several times but each time they use a different name. Many other additives are also exempt from being labeled, or may be stated in a way that makes it harder to find for the average consumer. This would include genetically modified ingredients, irradiated ingredients, and ingredients from cloned animals. “Natural contaminants” are also allowed and present in your food, they include things like insect parts, insect eggs, and rodent hairs. According to CBS News, the FDA handbook called “ Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazard for Humans,” says that filth is “objectionable matter contributed by insects, rodents, and birds; decomposed material; and miscellaneous matter such as sand, soil, glass, rust, or other foreign substances.”(Food safety magazine) Not only is inaccurate food labeling not telling consumers the particulars in their food, it can also be a deadly combination for people who have food allergies and don’t know exactly what they are getting; as well as it can create new allergies due to their GMO content.

“In December 2012, 10 year old, Nicholas Vanech ate a bag of M&M’s then went into anaphylactic shock, a severe allergic reaction

that caused his tongue and throat to swell, making it difficult to breathe and landed him a trip to the emergency room. Nicholas was allergic to tree nuts, also known as almonds, on the package of M&M’s it only said that it “may contain peanuts” to which he was not allergic to and therefore he ate them.” (CBS) After this incident, his mother called the manufacturer asking if their product could have been exposed to tree nuts and they told her that it was the same facility. An ABC News analysis found more than 400 recalls for undeclared allergens in food reported to the FDA since march 2009. A few weeks after Nicholas’ allergic reaction, the Food and Drug Administration and manufacturers had issued 20 recalls for undeclared allergens in food products, including Chicken of the Sea tuna, which had undeclared soy; two kinds of Wegmans brownie mix with undeclared milk; and two kinds of ice cream with undeclared pecans according to the FDA records. Eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, soy, and wheat make up 90 percent of food allergies, according to a 2008 CDC report that found an

18 percent rise in children diagnosed with food allergies between 1997 and 2007. (CBS)

Federal law requires manufacturers to list (CBS) The law is called the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, which when into effect in 2006. Of the eight top food allergies only soy is commercially available in genetically modified varieties. According to Food Safety magazine, seven years after the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act when into effect, unlabeled allergens continue to be the leading cause of recalls and a leading cause of reportable foods for U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulated foods. Allergic consumers rely on food labels to be complete, clear, and accurate so that they can avoid exposure to foods or ingredients that can provoke potentially life-threatening reactions. According to the CDC, data shows that the number of food-allergic consumers is increasing as are the number of hospital visits related to food allergic reactions. (CBS)

Chapter IV: Government Involvement:

America has prided itself since birth in its many freedoms. Our government was founded on principles that differed drastically from our mother country’s power-house structure. We chose instead to be a nation of checks and balances, a nation of the people, a nation with transparency. Transparency is a key attribute to our system, enabling citizens to keep an eye on the operations of elected officials, ensuring both businesses and government be open with their practices. Once public awareness of the food labeling situation became widespread, many Americans looked to the House of Representatives for further information and possible solutions. What they found instead was a lack of transparency in the form of the DARK Act. ‘DARK’ serves as an acronym for: Deny Americans the Right to Know.

The DARK Act appears to have come about as a result of a state

law, signed by Vermont governor, Peter Shumlin, in 2014. This law specifies the state of Vermont will require any partial or entirely genetically modified foods be labeled as of July, 2016 (CNN). Vermont is not the only state taking initiatives to enhance public awareness of GMO’s; both Connecticut and Maine have trigger clauses in place. The occurrence of additional GMO labeling laws passed by other states will trigger the passing of Connecticut’s and Maine’s laws into effect (CNBC). While these states have taken the actions requested by their citizens, they may be federally overruled. The next step for the DARK Act is put to the test in a Senate vote (Foodcoop).  If the DARK Act is signed into law it will preempt state laws mandating the labeling of GMO products (Just Label IT).

Cathleen Enright, the executive vice president for the

Biotechnology Industry Organization stresses that GMO products are as safe as those products that don’t contain GMO’s. Enright says, “these same GM crops have enabled farmers to produce more on less land with fewer pesticide applications, less water and reduced on-farm fuel use” (CNN). If this is the case, the reasoning for the DARK Act passing the Federal law-making bodies is flawed. If GMO and non-GMO foods are equally safe, states should be able to call for labeling as it doesn’t hurt the people, it simply requests more knowledge from the food industries.

Yet some call into question why government should be involved at all. As to that we can simply look back to the early 1900’s when Upton Sinclair’s book, “The Jungle” was published. Sinclairs book is well known for its attack on the meatpacking plants when countless examples portrayed the horrors of the industry. At the time when the book was published in 1906, there was not the governmental restrictions in place that there are today. Thanks to Sinclair, much of the population became aware they were not only being cheated out of money but also being hoodwinked into buying disease riddled products. Some industries, for example, created a premium smoked sausage which was nothing more than meat meddled with by the company’s chemistry department. Instead of using the time exhaustive (and therefore money demanding)

methods to smoke the meats, they would preserve it with borax and use gelatin as a die, making it brown in color (Conditions in). Sinclair stated, “all of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it “special,” and for this they would charge two cents more a pound”(Conditions in). As the public read on, they came to realize the conditions in which their meat was stored.

There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together”(Conditions in).

The Jungle provides evidence that we’ve only recently escaped the fates of a government who took a laissez faire approach to its food system. Business should not be the sole regulators when the matters at hand concern something as large-scale and health consequential as the public's food supply.

Many big food companies have seen error in the way the House of

Representatives has been handling the DARK Act. For example Ben & Jerry’s, one of Just Label It's silver sponsors, personally wrote the House of Representatives regarding this issue and where they stand. Ben and Jerry’s conducts its business in over 30 countries, many of which require mandatory GMO labeling. While Cathleen Enright (mentioned above) warned, “ labeling could make food costs for the average household could go up as much as $400 a year (CNN). Ben and Jerry’s contradicted that argument saying, “we make changes to between 25% and 50% of our packaging. Over the last 7 years, we at Ben and Jerry’s have gone through three full line redesigns. In other words, we have changed the packaging on every single point in their product line as a matter of normal business. I can tell you unequivocally that changing labels does not require us raise the price of our products” (justlabelit).

In today's world more people are becoming aware of the food they are putting into their bodies and also the ingredients of that food item. But what if the labels weren't completely  accurate? Would you still feed that food to your family? Would you still buy that food for yourself? Its when these types questions arise that people look for a course of action to take in order to be fully informed on what they are consuming. In this case what the people see as being informed is the specific, clear, and accurate labeling of foods. “It’s getting

harder and harder for opponents of GMO labeling to ignore the mushrooming opposition to the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act.”(Sciammacco, Sara) This is when many have discovered the efforts of online campaigns such as “JustLabelIt”. “JustLabelIt” is a campaign created to promote the labeling of GMOs on all food product.  Since GMOs have become known to the public many people have begun questioning what is in their food and how it got there without being labeled. “It has been shown that 90% of Americans support the mandatory labeling of GMOs on their foods. Ever since GMOs entered the market 20 years ago, we’ve been kept in the dark about whether foods we feed our families contain GMOs.” (Genetically Modified) After finding out more about GMOs a multitude of American families now look more carefully at what food they are feeding their families. When the states discovered this issue some decided to address it while others stood back and evaluated the possible courses of action. Some states such as “Vermont, Connecticut and Maine have already passed labeling laws and, in the past two years, more than 70 labeling bills or ballot initiatives were introduced across 30 states.  In response to these state efforts, legislation backed by big food and biotechnology corporations- dubbed the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act- has been introduced and seeks to halt labeling efforts.” (Genetically Modified) But not

everyone in the country was ready for such a big change. Other states such as California had another idea when it came to labeling their foods. “In November 2012 California voters rejected the similar Proposition 37 by a narrow majority of 51.4 percent. “All we want is a simple label/For the food that's on our table,” chanted marchers before the elections.” (Labels for)

 Once Americans realized the issue is present in their own country the question come up about other countries around the world. As the average american begins to look at the issues regarding GMOs on a global scale we soon come to realize that other countries have already addressed this. When we look at places such as Japan, Australia, and China we see established laws regarding the labeling of GMOs. But when we look at the our own country we come to realize that “the U.S. has no national law requiring labeling of genetically modified foods. Yet polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of Americans. As ABC News stated, “Such near-

unanimity in public opinion is rare.”(SOURCE) Government regulation is needed, public opinions are clear and the time is now to work towards change.

When we think to ourselves ‘Why has no one addressed this yet?’ we have come to the realization that President Obama has not yet honored his pledge to require the labeling of GMOs. With knowing his stance on GMO labeling, it is important to also look to the polls to see where the current presidential candidates stand regarding the fight to label GMOs. It has been said that “All of the major candidates are in complete opposition to GMO labeling.” (Virtually All) In fact many candidates directly attack the labeling of GMOs on food products by saying that it is ‘anti-science’. One of the republican candidates, Mike Huckabee, said that he agreed with his competitors stating “GMO labeling just made a lot less ‘sense’ to him than labeling foods by their country of origin”(Virtually All).

Conclusion and Recommendations

In light of understanding how and why accurate food labeling is so important for the well being of our society, we may now ask ourselves what can we as consumers do to help solve this problem. Alongside staying informed with what is going on in Congress and at big food corporations, invest time towards educating yourself on the importance of a transparent food system. Understanding the roots of a problem make finding a solution much less of a hassle. Not one person can change the world, in this case to change innacurate food labeling. But having elevated awareness on the health consequences involved, denied rights we have as consumers in America and unknown ingredients we eat without knowing makes this social issue more relevant than we think. We offer the following recommendations to our readers.

The DARK Act is refraining our society from having a more transparent, understandable food system and educating yourself further on how to help is possible. Follow this link to take action petition to the FDA why accurate food labeling is crucial. http://www.justlabelit.org/action-center/take-action/

Genetically modified organisms are in 80% of the

foods we consume so having further understanding on what they are and the effects they can potentially have on us is important to realize. Research is being conducted and will continue to be for many years to come, staying updated on any new findings related to GMO’s can be found at: http://www.gmo.news/

Understanding other cultures ways of eating can expand our options towards living a more positive lifestyle, especially in regards to slowing down and enjoying more of our time.

Multiple consequences as listed above may be the result of poor eating habits, but as shown that is not entirely our fault as consumers. Doing your best to understand the content of your food can improve your chances of living an honest and healthy lifestyle. The following website may be used as a guide to you in helping further understand nutrition labels: http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm

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