Does "Good stuff" mean "Good for you"?

Coca-Cola brand insulated neoprene can sleeve

According to the Coca-Cola website, Coca-Cola is made with "CARBONATED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVORS, CAFFEINE". (Source: https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en/brands/coca-cola/products/original#accordion-c55f229edc-item-93131ee8b3) 

I'm not 100% sure that everyone would agree that the ingredients listed above are all "good stuff".

While everything listed on the label has been approved for human consumption, many people feel that an ingredient like high fructose corn syrup is an inferior sweetener to cane sugar. 

Most consumers would be surprised that 90% of the phosphoric acid production ends up in fertilizers, and yet it is still an ingredient in products deemed safe for human consumption. 

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes caffeine as "generally recognized as safe".  Hardly an overwhelming endorsement.

As American poet John Godfrey Saxe said in 1869, "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made".   (The quote is most often attributed to Otto von Bismark and reported as, "Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made". But there is no evidence that Bismark ever said it.) 

I'm sure if we looked hard enough at many things we consume, we'd change our eating habits.

Is sugar really all that bad?

Sugar container, Bowen Island Coffee Roasting Company, Bowen Island, BC

Sugar, like most other foods, is fine in moderation. It is the 250 grams of the stuff in a 2 litre bottle of soft drink that causes the problem.

30 or 40 years ago the average portion size for soft drinks was a fraction of the enormous "Big Gulp" and "Super Big Gulp" that some people seem to require today.

Is using sugar irresponsible? Probably not, and anyway I prefer to have my coffee with sugar than aspartame.

It's green so it must be good for you

Pepsi Next truck and trailer, West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC

Pepsi Next trailer, West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC

Pepsi Next was launched in Canada in 2014. The company made a big deal out of the fact that it does not contain any artificial sweeteners. And the green-coloured vehicles seem designed to reinforce the natural appeal.

But even with 30% less sugar, and no artificial sweeteners, Pepsi Next is still a sugary, carbonated beverage. The question that remains is whether consumers will come to like the taste of  stevia. And if the bulk of consumers can be convinced that stevia is better for them than aspartame then the move will pay off.

Despite the fact that Pepsi is dropping aspartame from the ingredients in the US version of Diet Pepsi, it will remain in the Canadian formulation. Negative consumer reaction to aspartame has been growing for years with fears over the product's safety. Despite FDA and Health Canada approval, and over 100 studies that appear to reinforce the safety of the additive, many consumers remain unconvinced.

It will be interesting to see if the backlash against aspartame continues and other beverage firms, such as Coca-Cola, also abandon the chemical.

Which one is healthiest?

One of these cereals contains 500% more sugar per serving than the other two. Any guesses about which one is the healthiest?

Cheerios packaging

Multi-Grain Cheerios packaging

President's Choice Toasted Oat Os packaging (Loblaw)

Okay, hands up if you think that Multi-Grain Cheerios are the healthiest option? They do contain the most fibre; 3 grams per 30 gram serving.

How about the Toasted Oat Os? They are tied with regular Cheerios for the amount of protein; 3 grams per 30 gram serving.

The regular Cheerios have the lowest carbohydrates per serving; 20 grams. (But the serving size for the regular Cheerios is only 27 grams, while the other two cereals have a serving size of 30 grams.

But how about sugar? General Mills makes a big deal out of the low sugar content of Cheerios cereal.

Cheerios magazine advertisement touting the low sugar content of Cheerios

And how about Multi-Grain Cheerios? Well, as far as sugar is concerned Multi-Grain Cheerios is the unhealthy choice. While regular Cheerios and Toasted Oat Os both have 1 gram of sugar per serving, Multi-Grain Cheerios have 6 grams of sugar per serving?And why? Because sugar is ingredient number three.

The cereal may contain five whole grains, but it contains more sugar by weight than three of the five "whole grains" touted on the front of the package.

Just another reason why reading the packaging is critically important.

It may be low fat, but it is almost 10% sugar

Special K "low fat Granola"

My wife picked up a package of this cereal on sale at the grocery store. Special K has a reputation for being a healthy cereal and the "50% less fat" statement on the front of the box looks pretty persuasive.

But the side panel is where the truth really lies.

Special K "low fat Granola" Nutrition Facts

Special K "low fat Granola" Nutrition Facts (Detail)

A 1/2 cup (54 gram) serving of this cereal does have only 3 grams of fat, but it does have 10 grams of sugars.

If you look closely at the list of ingredients, and let's be frank, most people don't, you'll see that two of the first three ingredients are sugars, and four of the first nine ingredients are sugars. Given the current justifiable obsession about the amount of added sugar in our diet, and the fact that sugars are almost 20% of the weight of a serving of this cereal it is no wonder that Kellogg's is boasting about the low amount of fat. The firm sure as heck does not want you to start thinking about the amount of sugar you are consuming.

Oh, and by the way, "evaporated cane juice", number eighteen on the ingredient list is just another name for sugar.

Designed to fail

Rogers Sugar packaging

They say not to, but you know that most of the customers will pick up this bag of sugar by the fold. So if you know that customers are going to pick up the bag by the fold, and the fold is a weak point, you have two choices.

1. Improve the strength
2. Warn people not to pick up the bag by the fold.

The first would be the rational thing to do, because you obviously know that is how customers are picking up the product. But it is cheaper to print "Please Do No Pick Up By The Fold" than improve the quality of the glue. (And I'm not even going to talk about the fact that the notice is in English only, while I'm pretty sure that it should by bilingual.)

Limited Edition Junk

Box from Vachon's "Red Velvet Log"

The first ingredient is icing sugar, the second is sugar, and the third is vegetable oil. Is there anything about this that is remotely healthy?

And how, in any meaningful way, is this a limited edition?

The ingredients are basically a catalogue of everything that is horrendously bad for you, but the baker tried to dress it up as a "limited edition" to make it more attractive.

Well, I'm not falling for that again. Serves me right for not reading the ingredients.

How not to confuse the syrups

Syrup bottles at Starbucks

My daughter has a hot chocolate habit, and Starbucks has a great deal ($1.25) on kid's hot chocolates.

While we were at the counter one of the staff was washing the syrup bottles. With all of the demand for syrups in the various beverages, the bottles get sticky and every day they need to wash them down.

I think that just keeping your eyes open exposes you to a wealth of learning opportunities. And asking questions about everything sure helps. (One of the advantages of being with a young child is people expect lots of questions.) So, why are the plungers on some bottles white, while the middle bottle has a black plunger?

There is actually a very good reason, and it makes a lot of sense. The white plungers are for the syrups sweetened with sugar, and the black plungers are for the sugar-free syrups. Makes sense, white is the colour of sugar.

It is little things like this that can prevent mistakes in drink preparation. And as every mistake costs money and eats into the profits, there is no reason not to do something as simple and basic as this to reduce the likelihood of errors.

Can this sort of colour coding be used in other restaurants and other industries? Anytime two things look similar but are functionally different it would make sense to use some for of cue to alert users. Two bolts, one in stainless and one in regular steel. Milk and soy. Men's and women's. The choices are endless. But providing some for of cue to users will reduce if not eliminate errors. So, if there any reason to do do something like this?

I thought it was "sugar"

Covered Bridge Potato Chip package

Covered Bridge Potato Chip ingredients

Do you know what "organic evaporated cane juice" is? You probably know it under its more common name, "sugar".

So, why does this firm use the phrase "organic evaporated cane juice", when they really mean "sugar"?

Well, I guess that it sounds better. Sugar has got somewhat of a bad reputation recently, especially with the connection between high rates of sugar consumption and high obesity rates. (In the US the maps that shows obesity rates and diabetes rates are very similar. The logical conclusion is that high rates of sugar consumption, combined with low levels of physical exercise, contributes to both diabetes and obesity.)

Will the use of this euphemism really fool anyone? Probably not. People who read the ingredients will probably see through the terminology straight away.

And the people who should be paying attention probably won't even read the content label. Do I think that consumption of sweet and fatty foods leads to health problems? It can, but I think that there are two main issues. 1) How much of this stuff do you consume? and 2) How much exercise do you get?

When I'm doing a long mountain bike race, like the 7-day TransRockies Challenge, I eat a huge amount of sweet and fatty food. But I'm also burning off 6,000 to 8,000 calories per day. You can't eat the diet of a Victorian farm labourer, while living the life of an Elizabethan office worker. (Here endeth the lesson.)

What colour is sweet?

I picked up these four packages at a local coffee shop. I am not an artificial sweetener user, but I am intrigued by the use of colour as a branding tool.

Equal (yellow) is filled with aspartame, Splenda (blue) is filled with sucralose, Sweet'n Low (pink) is filled with sodium cyclamate, and Sugar is filled with, well, sugar.

I am going to keep looking at packages of artificial sweeteners to see if there is some standardization between the chemical and the colour.