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Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hehe! 
Looks really healthy! 😱 😉
Looks really healthy! 😱 😉 
Lilian
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Many years ago Cadburys and Tesco were promoting a chocolate drink. On front of package it said low (or could be no) sugar and banners in the store advertised it as low/no sugar. I was quite exited to have a lovely chocolate tasting drink, which I bought and did enjoy. Until afterwards when I became quite ill. I looked at the package and it had glucose as one of the top ingredients, and several other 'ose'. It was however lacking in sucrose. I wrote to both Cadburys and Tesco saying how misleading their advertising of this product was. Tesco immediately took the banners down. Cadburys replied saying that legally they were entitled to say it was low (or no) sugar because sucrose was what the public thought of as sugar and sucrose is what is legally termed as sugar, and that if I was concerned I should read the label. I wrote back pointing out that if in bold letters on the front it says low (or no) sugar there should be no need for me to read the label. I also pointed out that surely Cadburys had a good enough reputation to rely on it's products selling without having to lie about them. It was not long after that when I saw their little chocolate drink packets being labelled as 40 calorie drinks. However what shocked me out of all this is the fact that legally only sucrose is counted as sugar and ever since have read labels of things purporting to have no or low sugar.
Vicsetter
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Technically glucose is a simple or monosacchiride. It's also known as dextrose. What we know as table sugar (granulated, icing, caster) is a disacchiride and is broken down by the body into fructose (another monsacchiride) and glucose.
I posted it as a funny, my bad, looks like only Alan has a sense of humor this morning. Or was it that Krsipy Kreme donut I had last night.
I posted it as a funny, my bad, looks like only Alan has a sense of humor this morning. Or was it that Krsipy Kreme donut I had last night.
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
That's terrible @Lilian - well done for raising the issue 🙂 Food companies - or rather their marketing departments - should be subjected to tighter government rules. Much of the marketing is based on deception and obfuscation rather than promoting true health benefits - you only need to look at the plethora of products promoted as low fat that contain huge amounts of salt or sugar. Something else that has also always bugged me is that large swathes of a product's packaging will be given over to bright, eye-catching slogans and designs, but the important nutritional information is generally in the smallest font they can get away with. This is particularly noticeable to me since my diagnosis as I get older as my eyesight is naturally not as good as it used to be and I now have to check ingredients more closely. The whole concept of 'small print' should be outlawed - it's purely used as a method to put people off reading it
I wrote this poem about it:
I spy with my little eye,
A hundred food labels that just pass me by
Perhaps, Mr Food Man, you could explain why
The writing’s so small as if hiding a lie.
In bright coloured letters, and bold as can be
The packet says ‘I’m healthy! And almost fat-free!!
But in tiny black letters you can hardly see
Is an excess of sugar that’s harmful to me.
Oh please, Mr Food Man, I’m not being rude!
Why can’t you be honest in labelling food?
If this was America, you’d likely be sued
For hiding the facts with a method so crude.
So, buck your ideas up and please make it clear
That your food’s really healthy, we’ve nothing to fear!
It would make our lives easier and fill us with cheer,
And perhaps, if you did it, we’d buy you a beer!
😱
I wrote this poem about it:
I spy with my little eye,
A hundred food labels that just pass me by
Perhaps, Mr Food Man, you could explain why
The writing’s so small as if hiding a lie.
In bright coloured letters, and bold as can be
The packet says ‘I’m healthy! And almost fat-free!!
But in tiny black letters you can hardly see
Is an excess of sugar that’s harmful to me.
Oh please, Mr Food Man, I’m not being rude!
Why can’t you be honest in labelling food?
If this was America, you’d likely be sued
For hiding the facts with a method so crude.
So, buck your ideas up and please make it clear
That your food’s really healthy, we’ve nothing to fear!
It would make our lives easier and fill us with cheer,
And perhaps, if you did it, we’d buy you a beer!
😱
Robin
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And that was pre diabetes. I remember reading out the small print on the back of a Sunny Delight bottle ( being marketed as a healthy alternative to lemonade) to my kids, to explain why I wouldn't be buying it. (It contained, inter alia, vegetable oil, which I thought had no place in a fruit drink, and was stuffed full of things like emulsifiers and preservatives, they used to put it in the refrigerated section even though it didn't need to be there). Another shopper passing by stopped to listen, and commented to me how shocked she was, and she'd no idea that was what was in it. I wondered why she hadn't read it for herself.
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Lilian
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Robin, I went on one of those diabetes courses. One part of the course was to take us to a local supermarket and going round all the foods talking about what is good and what to look out for and what the labels mean etc. It was not only very interesting to us, but it seems to all the other shoppers in there too as we ended up with quite a crowd round us listening to what was being said.
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Perhaps that's an idea for a general public health awareness drive, not just people at risk or diagnosed with diabetes? I was watching 'Eat well for Less' last night and cringed every time they stressed how 'low fat' things were in their suggested alternatives. People need a much broader education about food - it should be compulsory in schools. Mind you, the teaching would probably just cement the narrow old myths in place 🙄
Robin
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Eek, I noticed that. The dietitian was congratulating herself on using less oil in her stir fry. I assume a programme like that will get the advice based on what the dietitian learnt at college, which will have peddled the Public Health advice at the time. It's going to take time for new concepts to trickle their way down. Talking of which, wonder how Stitch is getting on with her Eatwell Plate course.....
Bloden
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
It's making a comeback in Spain, being marketed to active teenagers - I've got a mixed group of young footballers at work, so I made sure I put them straight as to the ingredients...they were horrified about the veg oil!😱Sunny D got a really bad reputation very quickly, and rightly so! 😱 Poison in a bottle!
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