Can you trust health labels?

CBC Marketplace, Canada's award winning investigative consumer affairs show has also rightly targeted Health Check as being deceptive and a program that may well be misleading consumers into buying less healthy choices. Last year they did a feature on Health Check and last Friday they hit them again in their "Busted" segment.

Click to watch the CBC report

There is a mental disconnect between what the Canadian heart and Stoke Foundation says and what appears to be indorsed by their Health Check approved eymbol.

The following is from the Heart and stroke web site.  

Dietary sodium contributes to 17,000 cases a year of stroke and heart disease in Canada, study says 

OTTAWA, June 11, 2008: As many as 17,000 fewer Canadians would have a stroke, heart attack or suffer from heart failure every year if they consumed the recommended optimal daily level of dietary sodium, according to a study published today in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

The study, produced by researchers at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute, University of Calgary and Simon Fraser University, concludes that "reducing dietary sodium could dramatically improve the health of Canadians," says co-author Dr. Norm Campbell of the Canadian Stroke Network.

By reducing dietary sodium in Canada from current consumption levels of about
3,500 mg a day to the adequate intake range for adults of 1,200 to 1,500 mg a day: 

• Between 8,300 and 17,000 fewer people would suffer from strokes, heart failure and heart attacks each year depending on how effective the reduction in dietary sodium is
• major strokes would be reduced by 10% to 20%
• heart failures would decline by 10% to 25%
• heart attacks would decrease by 3% to 7%

"This further supports the urgent need to reduce the sodium in our food supply," says Kevin Willis of the Canadian Stroke Network. "Stroke and heart disease are leading causes of death and disability in Canada. Reducing sodium consumption is a relatively easy and practical way to have a huge impact on these devastating diseases."

Heart and StrokeFoundation's Helth Check

The Foundation's team of registered dietitians evaluate each participating company's product or restaurant food item on the basis of total fat, saturated fat, trans fats, fibre, sodium, calcium, sugar, vitamins and minerals, depending on its category. When food products meet these standards, they are allowed to join the program. To make sure products continue to comply with the nutrient standards, our dietitians randomly inspect products and menu items on a regular basis.

Read more about Health Check's nutrient standards for fat, fibre, sodium and sugar.

The Health Check symbol can be found on more than 1,700 foods, including vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk products and alternatives, as well as meat and alternatives.

In addition, the Health Check symbol can be found on a growing number of restaurant menus. Look for the Health Check symbol in these food establishments: Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Druxy's, White Spot, The Bay and Zellers.

Unhealthy foods have the Health Check symbol. From Dr. Yoni Freedfoff's blog

I follow Dr Freedfoff's blog on a regular basis and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stay current with what is happening in the world of food. The blog is more about weigt control and general healthy eating habits but much also applies for those of us who are diabetic.

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff Family doc and founder of Ottawa's Bariatric Medical Institute - a multi-disciplinary, ethical, evidence-based nutrition and weight management centre.

"Two slices (284 grams total) of a large Rustic Italian pizza at Boston Pizza contain 2,580 mg of sodium"

(or about 1,000 mg more than an adult's daily recommended daily maximum)

Read more about what Dr. freedhof has to say on his blog

Check out some of the other unhealthy foods bearing the Health Check endorsement from Dr. Freedhoff's blog.

Weighty Matters: The Beef Information Centre "Dietitian" Speaks

The Food Industry Delivers the Most Damning Indictment of Health Check

To conclude, CBC updated there review of the Heart and Stroke Foundations Health Check. What they have to say about the Health Check can be used as good advise for most of the health endorsments used as marketing tools on food packaging. If the claim from the Heart and Stroke Foundation about the Health Check symbol being like shopping with a Registered Dietician can we trust the RD's.

  Click to watch the CBC report

Bottom line, become educated and be your own health advocate. Don't trust food labels and health symbols. They are often misleading and more about marketing than good health advice.