WITH obesity rising across the developed world, you鈥檇 think the revelation that food labels get their calorie content wrong would lead to an outcry and calls for a change. Well, you would be wrong. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) looked at the issue a few years ago and decided to do nothing. That means that the calorie counts recorded on the packages in your shopping cart may be out by up to 25 per cent.
So say nutritionists who have come to realise that the standard way we calculate the calorie content of foods 鈥� basically burn it and see how much energy it gives off 鈥� is a poor model for how we digest food and extract calories. Regardless of how much raw energy is in the food, factors such as texture, cooking method and fibre content can all alter the number of calories your body is able to extract from it (see 鈥淭he calorie delusion鈥�). That is why the apparently identical hamburgers on our cover have different energy values, depending on whether you like your patty rare or well done.
鈥淭exture, cooking and fibre content can all alter the number of calories your body extracts from food鈥�
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As a result, food labels routinely over-estimate the calorie content. On one level that might be a good thing. If your 150-kilocalorie yogurt only contains 130, then your waistline is the winner. Not so fast. The problem comes in comparing different foods. Say you鈥檙e weighing up whether to buy a vegetable curry or a pizza. You plump for the pizza because the label says it has fewer calories. But the curry contains a lot of fibre. Even though it has a higher raw calorie count you will expend more energy digesting the curry so in fact it鈥檚 the lower calorie option. Marginal differences like this may seem like an insignificant diet detail but can add up to a lot of weight gain over an adult lifetime.
Isn鈥檛 it time to make food labels reflect reality? Actually, no. The FAO concluded that changing the way that calories are calculated would require huge upheaval and expense for a marginal gain, given our ambivalent feelings about food labels.
They鈥檙e probably right. Survey after survey reveals that consumers are confused by food labelling. Adding another layer of uncertainty will do no one any favours. Consumers鈥� relationships with food labels are a bit like their relationships with art galleries 鈥� we know where they are, are glad they exist, but few of us actually bother to use them.
The FAO has said it will continue to monitor the calorie problem and may recommend changes eventually. If you鈥檙e concerned that you鈥檙e not getting the information you need, look at it this way: think twice about buying any food with a calorie label.
The food that is best for you and the environment is slow, fresh and often locally produced. In other words, it鈥檚 the kind of food that usually comes with no label at all.