Nutritional value of foods.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 02:53

Today I saw an absurd statement concerning the protein content of fresh vegetables and went hunting an authoritative source be fore I responded. This is the web site that I found: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/list

Baconologist · Post by **Baconologist** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 03:05

It's very handy, I'm on a somewhat restricted diet and use it several times a week.
They updated it recently, it used to have several errors.
However, I do wonder about the accuracy of some of the information sometimes because they get the numbers from different sources, they're not determined directly by the USDA.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 03:39

I presume that university studies are a significant source. 7900 foods make for a very large study.

Baconologist · Post by **Baconologist** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 04:03

In correspondence they told me "Our data comes from the scientific literature, food companies and contracts sponsored by USDA." It's the food companies as a source that leaves me wondering.

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 09:26

Hi Bob,
You are so right. Large companies and especially multi nationals make us believe anything to lift their bottom line.
What amazes me is that governments fall for it everytime. A few letters behind some idiots name and every one must believe him. They know it all.
Common sense certainly is no longer applicable.
Regards,
Jan.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 14:18

The food companies must by law accurately list the ingredients of a product on their label. When they fail to do this the product is subject to a recall of at least that lot number. This has happened many times because food allergies are as dangerous as bacteria. When a food company knows the ingredient list of their product is it is relatively simple for them to complete a nutritional analysis and publish it. I often do it for my self with home made cakes, cookies and pies for both a cost analysis and nutritional analysis.

Baconologist · Post by **Baconologist** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 15:52

I really do wish that the nutrition information on food company labels was much more accurate and reliable, it would make life so much easier!

Here's an article and report that highlight just some of the problems.....

http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/12/02/nu ... gone-wild/

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food_labelin ... report.pdf

The biggest issue I have with food labels is with the listing of carbohydrates, often the serving size from which the carbohydrate level is determined is very small and the carbohydrate amount is rounded done to zero, when, in reality, it's not actually zero, so when a larger serving is consumed, the real level of carbohydrate can be a very serious issue for some. When combining several ingredients with the same labeling problem, it has the potential of being a very dangerous disaster for those of us who are carbohydrate-sensitive.