From: sbhattac@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU (Shankar Bhattacharyya)
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg,misc.fitness
Subject: Re: Hidden Fat In Packaged Foods
Date: 28 Jan 93 01:50:02 GMT
Followup-To: rec.food.veg
Distribution: world,local
Organization: NYU Stern School of Business

In article <yyn3a0l@rpi.edu> cecchinr@gehrig.cs.rpi.edu (Ron Cecchini) writes:

>In article <35761@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU> sbhattac@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU (Shankar Bhattacharyya) writes:

>[Shankar's hotdog legalese deleted]

I am surprised that a few lines of legalese in a long post annoyed you.
The rest of the post was, I thought, fairly limited to the facts of what
is in hot dogs. Actually, there is rather a lot more to the law, and I
thought I exercised reasonable restraint.

>Look, Shankar, I'm not trying to be rude, but this is getting out of
>hand.  I cannot think of a *particular* brandname, but I have *definitely*
>seen "96%" fat free products being sold that had well over 60% of their
>calories coming from fat.

I accept, indeed, I happily proclaim that there are foods that are 4% fat
and yet get 60% and more of their Calories from fat. My point is that
they are not likely to be hot dog type meat based products, popular
assumptions notwithstanding.

I had no plans to hijack this thread, and I owe Steve Russell an apology
for having done that all the same. His point is important, and I agree
with him entirely. Current labels often allow people to be seriously
misled about how much fat there is in food.

Nor do I have any argument with Doug McDonald. It seems to me, after the
fact, that my response to him sounds somewhat combative, and I regret that,
particularly since I agree with him. In fact, I think he did people a
service. People need to be reminded now and then that a bare fat number is
not very informative.

I say only that Doug's post does not apply to the sort of food I thought
the claim was about, i.e. hot dogs, sausage, and such. I still think it
is very unlikely that there is such a product with 4% fat and 60% of its
Calories from fat. The original claim may have been about tofu based
products, and that is feasible, but my reading was that it referred to
meats.

I acknowledge that I have been somewhat insistent about wanting an example.
A single specific example of a product that meets this description would
be enough to show that my own assumptions are wrong. I'm open to that
possibility. If such a product exists, I would appreciate being pointed
towards the manufacturer, so that I can get some. I will learn something.

>In your research, "go over" to the hotdog/sausage/meat
>section, and look at every single label!  You'll see...

I have looked. I did not see. I went into two supermarkets and looked at
every brand of hot dog on the shelves. Of those that had nutritional
labels, none met the description. I was not very surprised. In order to be
legal such a product would need to have non-caloric extenders to the tune
of ~25% by weight, not including the water. I know that's only legalese,
but it's true.

Two brands had fat below 4%. Each declared 3% fat. One, Healthy Choice
Franks from Conagra, in Omaha, declared 24% of its Calories from fat. The
other, Oscar Meyer Healthy Favorites, declared 28% of its Calories from
fat.

There are plenty of valid, and serious, criticisms of meat in the diet. I
have questioned a questionable one. Horrors, what a terrible thing to have
done.

- Shankar