# Article: The calorie delusion: Why food labels are wrong



## cpush (Jul 16, 2009)

Article arguing the current food labeling methodology is outdated and inaccurate.

I thought this was interesting, although most readers here are aware that manipulating foods in different ways can alter their caloric value, as well as the effects of fiber.

The calorie delusion: Why food labels are wrong - health - 15 July 2009 - New Scientist


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## Yanick (Jul 16, 2009)

I didn't get through the whole thing but the guy does make some decent points except for the fact that in reality, it is mostly mental masturbation. Take his example about revamping labels to a lower kcal per gram count for protein/fiber. He uses the nice example to fit his scenario of choosing between a brownie and a muesli bar which hinges on kcal content. It all works out great, or not so great for the hypothetical dieter. But lets take a different scenario or a person who always eats that muesli bar and all of a sudden notices that there are less calories in it than she/he remembers (old age moment? brain fart? did they change the label?). Now she/he eats 1.5 because she/he can get away with it, because now she figures that she has that extra hundred calories or whatever to spare. Regardless of what the true kcal absorption is, she has been eating a certain amount of food and maintaining a certain weight, if she eats more food she will gain weight and vice versa. The actual number doesn't matter, we can arbitrarily assign numbers to each food (ala WeightWatchers) and have people count that. It works...because its not pinpoint precision that matters. Its consistency over the long term. I agree with this;



> For many nutritionists, the answer is nothing. While they acknowledge that the current system isn't perfect, many argue that sticking with the Atwater system makes it easy to calculate a ballpark calorie count. They also say that overhauling such a widely used system would require a huge amount of research in both animal models and human volunteers, plus a more complicated labelling system than consumers are used to, for little real public health benefit. "There will be errors, but not very serious errors, and nobody can do their calories anyway so what difference does it make?" says Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University.



As Lyle McDonald said on his board a little while back, [paraphrased] if you think 5-10 grams is making a difference then you have already missed the dieting mark completely.


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