{"id":2849,"date":"2010-06-01T12:18:33","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T12:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/labels_reveal_nutritional_minefield_in_afterschool_snacks\/"},"modified":"2020-07-07T10:59:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T10:59:00","slug":"labels_reveal_nutritional_minefield_in_afterschool_snacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/labels_reveal_nutritional_minefield_in_afterschool_snacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Labels reveal nutritional minefield in afterschool snacks &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><strong>By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like many Americans, I like having nutritional labels on the foods. And I pride myself on being savvy enough to read them carefully and parse out the fat, sodium, protein, and calories and most importantly, how many servings per container.\u00a0 In that spirit, I recently arrived home triumphantly clutching a new item that would serve as alternative to the Lean Pocket afterschool snacks I usually buy for my 14-year-old son. He wants something quick and tasty, and I want something that gives him good nutritional.<\/p>\n<p>Lean Pockets are pretty good on calories and fat, but they have 490 or so milligrams of sodium per serving, and each package has 2 servings, and my growing kid eats the whole thing without blinking. A recent <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/30\/health\/30salt.html\">New York Times article<\/a><\/em> this week described the food industry\u2019s growing resistance to government and consumer groups\u2019 demands that the amount of sodium be reduced in processed foods.<\/p>\n<p>As the article noted, \u201c<em>By all appearances, this is a moment of reckoning for salt. <a href=\"https:\/\/health.nytimes.com\/health\/guides\/disease\/hypertension\/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">High blood pressure<\/a> is rising among adults and children. Government health experts estimate that deep cuts in salt consumption could save 150,000 lives a year<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So my organic alternative quesadillas looked like a great option; they had same number of calories, cost the same, but had 1\/3 the sodium per serving. I grabbed the box from the freezer and asked my kid to read over the ingredients so he could see why I chose the organic version. But he quickly pointed out that the so-called healthier choice was a 3- serving a box cheese quesadilla at 260 calories a serving \u2013 that\u2019s 780 calories for a snack! And nearly 600 mg of sodium at three times 190 mg of sodium per serving (600 mg is one fourth of the daily recommended allowance for salt).<\/p>\n<p>This compared to the Lean Pockets snack, which, granted, has way too much sodium at 710 mg per serving but only 330 calories, 7 grams of fat and a whopping 20 grams of protein. I thought the organic alternative was Lean Pockets&#8217; superior equivalent, but how wrong I was! So all in all, the Lean Pockets are a healthier choice (despite having about 110 mg more of sodium). Unfortunately I had exuberantly purchased five of the organic quesadillas, only to have to exchange them for our old standby.<\/p>\n<p>Which just tells you that even a consumer advocate, who should know better, can misread labels and make poor choices. Let the buyer beware, I say, and to my fellow consumers, first read those labels carefully but before you make a final choice, consider having a 14-year-old check your work!<!-- content_before_flip_end --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director Like many Americans, I like having nutritional labels on the foods. And I pride myself on being savvy enough to read them carefully and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11256,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/11256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}