The Tea with Tina
The Tea with Tina is going to be your new favorite weekly chit-chat that will feel like a good, juicy sit-down with your BFF. This podcast isn't your average (and boring) radio talk show-styled podcast. We dig deep, get personal, and have lots of fun along the way. Hear some relatable stories and a different perspective on various topics from health and fitness to pop culture. I am Tina Wieland, a certified fitness trainer and nutrition coach. Grab your caffeinated drink of choice, get comfortable, and be ready to hear the TEA.
The Tea with Tina
253 | Nutrition Label Deception: Are You Being Fooled by Food Labels?
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Ever wonder why that "high protein" bar doesn't seem to satisfy your hunger? Or why your expensive collagen supplement hasn't transformed you into the muscle-building machine you expected? The answer lies in the murky world of nutrition labels—where what you see isn't always what you get.
The nutrition space has certainly improved over recent years, with more companies prioritizing organic ingredients and removing harmful chemicals. But as we explore in this eye-opening episode, clever marketing tactics and regulatory loopholes allow many products to make claims that range from misleading to downright deceptive.
We dive deep into three major nutrition label traps: collagen supplements that advertise impressive protein content while showing 0% daily value (yes, you read that correctly), the confusing world of "net carbs" that lacks scientific consensus, and the frustratingly arbitrary use of "high protein" labels on products containing minimal amounts. Along the way, we uncover dangerous practices surrounding unlisted caffeine content and excessive vitamin fortification that could potentially harm unsuspecting consumers.
What makes this conversation so important is that these deceptive practices directly impact our ability to make informed health choices. When a collagen product prominently displays "19g protein" but buries the fact that it's an incomplete protein your muscles can't use, how are we supposed to meet our nutritional goals? When products can claim to be "high protein" with just 8-10 grams while nutrition experts recommend 20-30 grams per meal, who's looking out for the consumer?
Ready to become a more informed shopper who can see through marketing hype? Listen now to arm yourself with the knowledge you need to navigate nutrition labels with confidence. Your body (and wallet) will thank you.
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Welcome to the Tea with Tina, your favorite podcast, where we talk all things health, fitness, lifestyle and maybe a little bit of tea gets spilled.
Speaker 2:We chat all about this in a super casual environment, so grab your beverage of choice, sit back, relax and enjoy.
Speaker 1:relax and enjoy.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Tea with Tina podcast. Today we are talking about misleading nutrition labels. Okay, this is a big issue that I stumble upon, and I think the reason we struggle with nutrition as a whole across the board is lack of proper education. Right, a lot of these things that you see is rooted in false marketing and you know it may say one thing to essentially get you to buy a product and feel good about it. Well, I definitely think the nutrition space has improved over the years compared to maybe, what diet foods used to be.
Speaker 2:I think there is a growing section of healthy foods that really go out of their way to be organic, to get rid of chemicals, to make things taste good and have good things. They do usually come with a little bit of a higher price tag, and usually for good reason. They probably require more time, resources and money to create that product. Hence they have to sell it at a higher rate, which is why usually the junk food or the easy, cheap food is cheap because they can. You know they use the cheaper chemical, they use the shorter route to push more product, make it cheaper for you, but it comes at a cost right. So you weigh your pros and cons, because there are some things where it's like you know what, if it saves me a couple bucks, it's worth it, or if it means more to you to spend a couple extra dollars, that could be worth it as well. But I do want to chat about three main misleading nutrition labels Collagen, net carbs and protein.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we'll be talking about these. Let's start off with collagen. So this actually came to my attention about a week ago from a client and around collagen. If we know collagen, you might see like the vital collagen powder and I'm not here to bash any certain brands, but a lot of people will, you know, drink it. It's usually like a flavorless powder. You could also take it in capsule form and people are like, wow, I feel amazing. Look at all this protein I'm getting. It has 19 grams of protein and a lot of my clients would put it in like coffee and things.
Speaker 2:And I never really thought much of it until, you know, someone brought up in a group and they were like collagen is an incomplete protein and I was like you're right, like it was something that I knew. But I never put two and two together, you know, if you know, the simplified version of science behind protein is that proteins are made up of amino acids. There's 20 amino acids and there's some essential ones and there's some non-essential ones. There's some our bodies produce, there's some that our bodies don't produce, and if you have the right combination, it becomes a complete protein and otherwise, if it's not, it's an incomplete protein. Okay, well, collagen is incomplete.
Speaker 2:It does benefit us and it does have protein, but it's more so targeting our hair, skin, nails and joints. Collagen is in the joints. We actually stopped producing collagen from the last study that I've read, read it could be different at the age of 25, um, so that's why it's good to supplement for those reasons, people who have a lot of joint issues um, you know, maybe brittle hair, skin and nails and need that support. It's beneficial. I actually used to take it, um, I don't now, for this is really weird. This only happens to some people, but if you take biotin with collagen, it could cause breakouts, and my energy drink that I drink has biotin in it, and when I take collagen it causes me to break out. So, unfortunately, I like my energy drinks more, so the collagen had to go, but when I used it, people complimented me on my hair, skin and nails all the time because it just like, gave me this enhanced glow, right.
Speaker 2:But the misleading part is this isn't gonna get you your daily protein goals, okay, because it's not complete, so it's not going to be used. The same way, it's not going to go into your muscles, you know, and help you build muscle, preserve muscle. All of that okay, and I can tell you. The thing that shocked me is when my client, because I never had vital proteins before she sent me the nutrition label of this protein container. And if you look at the label which this pisses me off. It says, like you know how you have your carbs, your fat, your sodium, your protein proteins at the bottom and it says you know the grams and the percent of your daily value. It says 19 grams of protein. Percentage of daily value zero. I think that is misleading as hell. I don't know if there's a loophole there. This makes me want to sue them. I can actually add a bonus misleading label that I'll tack on to this because this reminded me of this, but that pisses me off because it's saying 0% daily value. What does that mean? People might not even be paying attention to that. Like if she didn't send me that I wouldn't think that Right on the front it just says 19 grams of protein.
Speaker 2:What it should do because it's a supplement technically, but maybe it's skirted under, you know, on a technicality what it should do is if you look on supplements on the back they don't have the percent daily value usually unless it's like a multivitamin or something. They will just break down. What is in it, like it'll say there's especially like a BCAA. What is in it, like it'll say there's especially like a BCAA. Google a BCAA, a branched chain amino acid drink. Branched chain amino acids make up proteins. Right, if you look up those drinks, they'll say there is 0.5 grams of L-lysine in here and there's 1.2 grams of this. That is what that should be doing. It should not be saying that there's 19 grams of protein. That's very misleading. Misleading and then having the zero percent daily value. So that's messed up. So if you've been thinking that you've been hitting your protein goals because you've been drinking your collagen, you're wrong. Okay, it does still give you benefits, but you're going to need to replace that with food if you want to hit your dietary protein goals. All right, on top of this this was the one that I just thought of. That, I think, is very misleading. So I was talking about suing. I won't actually sue, but it would be a good opportunity for anybody out there who wants to pursue it.
Speaker 2:Another one is caffeine. This really bothers me as well. I would say caffeine, and I'm going to say we'll combine caffeine and nutrients in general like vitamins and minerals, because here's why, especially in today's world, caffeine in general you can safely consume about 450 milligrams a day. So there is a regulation not saying that you can't go above that, but they're saying, hey, humans shouldn't consume over 450 a day. Now I know there's some of you, my ADHD people, adhd, you can just chug it and like go to sleep. Some people have a higher tolerance. In general, though, you know, above 450, you're going to start to see some anxiety racing heart.
Speaker 2:There's some people with underlying misdiagnosed heart conditions or, I'm sorry, undiagnosed heart conditions, that maybe they drink more than 200 grams and then they end up having a heart attack, right. This happened to Panera with their lemonades. They were like recharged lemonades and they of weren't like directly saying like hey, this has caffeine in it. It was just like a recharge lemonade, right. And the little drinks by the soft drink machine. I know me, I'd be like, oh yeah, that's just a regular lemonade. And they had free refills, unlimited refills. So these people were chugging this. Turns out the person one of the people had an underlying heart condition and was in their early 20s and they passed away because they had way too much caffeine.
Speaker 2:The caffeine amount was not clearly listed online on the item and I think this is an issue because if we kind of mindlessly which again I think is the reoccurring theme we kind of mindlessly eat and maybe back in the day we could get away with that, but now you have to be conscious of what you're putting in your body. Because let's say, you know, maybe you have an energy drink, then you drink a Diet Coke, diet Cocos, you know 70 to 100 milligrams of caffeine, maybe you have a little cup of coffee. You know you could be above that 450 amount easily or above an amount that you're comfortable with, because you're not thinking that these things have caffeine in them and you end up having like a panic attack or you can't sleep and your heart's racing or you end up in the hospital. You know this is important. Now most products do list the caffeine content in them, like all the ones I listed are going to show it.
Speaker 2:But I will say I ran into the Instant, which, again, I don't know if there's a loophole they get under, probably because it's not a beverage, it's powdered. The Instant Coffee. Dunkin' had this cold brew Instant Coffee packet and I was like this is great, you know, it's just powdered. I mix it with some water. It's a little bit stronger because you're meant to put ice in it, so it dilutes it as the ice melts. I was like, wow, this is like really strong when I was drinking it, right, and I was like I want to know how much caffeine is in it. Look on the whole box, looking, looking at the package there's no nutrition, nothing, no nutrition information. I'm looking on the website nothing. Sent them an email, no response back. I'm like what like? Is this legal? Because these are coffee beans, like I think I should know, I should have the right to know how much caffeine is in this, because it felt really strong and I didn't want to go over my daily limit, so that could potentially be dangerous. Right, that's really dangerous.
Speaker 2:And going to the vitamins and minerals, a perfect example I can tell you is body armors okay, I love body armors. I think if you're someone who doesn't eat a lot of whole food and you feel like you're lacking in vitamins and nutrients, that could be a great way to get some in, because there is a lot of good stuff in there. It's better than Gatorade. There's actually no sodium if you are sensitive to sodium, but a ton of vitamins and minerals, but I think one of them is zinc, okay, and it's a pretty high amount in there. I want to say it's like 50 to 80 percent, I don't know. Off the top of my head, um, but I was thinking you know zinc. I looked it up because sometimes I would drink two of those in a day. And I know most vitamins. They're water soluble.
Speaker 2:You're going to pee them out, but not all of them, right? You can overdose on vitamins. You're not necessarily going to die, but you can get really negative side effects that could land you in the hospital, have an upset stomach you know there's some weird things, right. And have an upset stomach? You know there's some weird things, right. And I was looking. I was like zinc, wow, if you go for your daily value, um, you can start to get some negative side effects. And I was looking and I'm like, if I drink like a bigger because they have bigger ones, right, if you drink a bigger one and then whatever you get in your daily food and then you take a multivitamin, you're easily gonna go over the daily amount. That's actually why I stopped taking a multivitamin you're easily going to go over the daily amount. That's actually why I stopped taking a multivitamin, because I learned that they pump so much stuff in those multivitamins that you know 80% of it is you're going to pee it out. The other 20%, though, that you can potentially overdose on, I was like I'm getting way too much, like it's not worth it for me to pretty much overdose on these nutrients. So that's something to be aware of too, especially if you are someone who tends to consume more of the health conscious products, even bread, they add shit to it. They just like. Just to be like yeah, look, it has vitamins in it. Like a lot of things. They just put vitamins in it to say, look, it has vitamins in it. Like a lot of things. They just put vitamins in it to say, look, it has vitamins, it's healthy. And it's like we need to take a step back and be like is this necessary Like, is it worth it? Because if you eat a slice of bread that has this in it, and then you have your multivitamin and then you have your body armor, it's like you're gonna be doing too much, excuse me, and you're gonna feel like crap. So definitely things to be aware of, right.
Speaker 2:The next thing is net carbs. This one's confusing, so let me break it down to you. If you get like six, four, seven bread, for instance right, it's pretty low calorie, it's usually like 45 calories a slice. Their bagels are amazing, they're like 180 calories and they taste amazing, but they go off of net carbs. They show like, oh, it only has has nine carbs, but if you look on the back it'll be like 50 carbs. So what's going on?
Speaker 2:So net carbs is supposed to be the carbs that your body absorbs. So you know, usually it's counteracted by fiber, like. So if you, let's say, you just have 40 grams of carbs and there's 10 grams of fiber, it's gonna have like 30 grams of net carbs. Um, so you're only absorbing the 30, because the other 10 come from the fiber which is just going through your system to help clean things out. You're not absorbing it, um, the issue with net carbs is that they don't know.
Speaker 2:The FDA itself is actually not even clear on the effect that the carbs as a whole has on your blood sugar. So, no, you're not absorbing all of those carbs, but we don't know how it affects your blood sugar as a whole. Is it causing it to spike? Maybe potentially all those carbs are they Like? Is there a study done where to see if they truly all are not absorbed? I don't know.
Speaker 2:So there is some question as to how truthful it is, right, like what the effects are. Is it the same as eating? Like if something has 10 grams of net carbs and you ate something with 10 grams of carbs, would it have the same effect, right? So that's interesting. I'd actually be curious if someone had like one of those glucose monitors on that you could put in your arm and they had something that had the net carbs, maybe like high carbs, but the net carbs are low, and then, like I said, try to pick something that has the same amount of carbs. But there was, like no issues with net carbs, right? So I would be curious about that. But there is just a little bit of iffiness. The research is very unclear and you'll see people kind of be on both sides with, like I'm keto, yes, I love the net carbs, you know low carb. And then there's some people are like you know, if it says 50 grams of carbs, just count the 50 grams of carbs. And that's not necessarily right either Because, like we said, with the fiber and things, so you'll see both ends of the spectrum there. Um, everything in moderation, right, but just be mindful, be aware.
Speaker 2:And then the last one I want to talk about is high protein. Um, this one irks me. I actually got some trolls coming after me, for I made a post like last year and I was like anything under I think I said anything under 20 grams of protein shouldn't be considered high protein, and you know, these guys were like they were like getting mad at me for some reason. But I think it's true because we see I actually get my hopes up sometimes. When there'll be like a granola bar, like high protein, I'm like, yes, let's see what it is, and it's like 10 grams, and I'm like that not high protein. Or there's things that it'll claim to be high protein, but they didn't change anything to the formula. Right, it'd be like Doritos randomly slapping high protein on their chips, but they didn't change the formula to like add any additional protein. It would just be that amount normally. So I definitely see this, particularly with granola and bars. That's a big one and it's usually it's literally like eight to 12 grams. While that's considerable, it's a decent amount.
Speaker 2:You have to look at the ratio of like carbs and protein and sugars, like if something's 200 calories and has 10 grams of protein, okay, versus you can drink a protein shake that has 20 to 25 grams of protein for like 100 calories. That's more bang for your buck, right, and I know it depends on the person, but it's not as balanced. I think bars are usually a shitty way to eat your protein because usually they have more carbs, fats and calories and it's more of like a snack bar than like a solid protein source, if that makes sense. So that really it really bothers me Because at the end of the day, I'd say most women, even very small women you're looking to get at least 100 grams of protein a day, okay, and if you're eating three meals a day, okay, let's say you eat 30 grams of protein a meal. That leaves you 10 grams of protein at the end of the day. So, and 30 grams of protein can be challenging for some people to eat. So let's say, if we break it down into four meals, you're averaging about 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, including snacks. So, yes, I think it's accurate to say that.
Speaker 2:You know, if something had 20 grams of protein, that should be considered a high protein food. Anything below that is moderate to low, honestly. So again, be mindful when it says high protein. Don't like just think you know what I'm gonna eat this and I'm gonna be hitting my protein goals. Really, look at the grams on the back and just see and be like, oh you know. I would even go as far to say 15 grams. Let's say anything. 15 grams and under is on the low end, right? Not as much bang for your buck, all right.
Speaker 2:So that is my little rant for today. I hope this makes you a little bit more conscientious of your nutrition choices. I know sometimes it gets exhausting. The last thing you want to do is think about. You know what you're putting in your body, you know you're tired. It just seems like a lot. But once you kind of get your staples into place and you know what you like and you can pick out the brands that are better quality, it gets easier. So the more you know, stay knowledgeable out there and I'll catch you in the next episode, guys, bye for now.
