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Comment by marcusgarvey | Hacker News Reader

>“The consumer has turned the definition [of healthy] upside down,” she says. “If it is non-GMO, natural, or organic, but high in sodium and high in sugar and fat, it’s okay.”

True and important to note when you're grocery shopping. Organic, natural, non-GMO do not mean that thing you're holding in your hand is actually good for you.

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When I moved here ~12 years ago one of the things that surprised me the most was how comfortable companies were at flat out deceptive marketing. The lesson I learned very quickly was to assume any claim made on any package by any company was unsubstantiated and usually a lie.

What I took away from this is that as a consumer you have to be very engaged in evaluating your food choices. Unfortunately most people aren't, it seems. I continue to be surprised by how many otherwise intelligent people fall for claims of "low fat", "sugar free", "high calcium", "organic", "natural", "gluten free", "kale", other fads etc.

The other thing I learned is if you want to be a low-information consumer, there are far better countries in the world for you to live than the US, places where the government takes a stronger hand in enforcing population health and consumer protection. If you live in this country, you had better be smart and look out for yourself, because the companies and the government not only don't care, they are actively trying to screw you.

All marketing is deceptive. By its very nature, it presents the version of the "truth" that is most favorable to the seller of a product. No savvy consumer should rely on the claims of any packaged good.

I wish someone would start a no-added-sugar movement. I have a sweet tooth, but the amount of sugar added to even fruit products disgusts me. Dried mango without sugar costs 2x. Raisin bran does not need more sugar. That's the point of the raisins! I like creamer in my coffee, but I cut it with milk.

The problem with "no sugar added" labels is they allow the use of things that happen to contain a lot of sugar, like apple and grape juices. It's just as misleading as many of the other call-out labels.

To you and siblings, true. That speaks to a need to stop misleading consumers with marketing terms that don't mean what they mean. I'm speaking more from my personal taste than from public health - I just don't want my food to be so sweet. The industry has jacked up sugar and salt content, in all its forms, to where what the mass market demands is well outside my taste.

(Another example - my local coffeehouse has a half-sweet latte drink which is itself almost too sweet. I'm guessing the full-sweetness version makes room for more cane syrup by taking out actual coffee.)

Relevant read: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary...

One other problem with "no sugar added" is a workaround that allows them to add artificial sweeteners and still be able to claim "0g of sugar". To me, that is not only untrue but intentionally deceptive. I want to drink iced tea without any sweeteners, eat tart Greek yogurt, and yes, eat fruit without sugar.

Other words like "natural" and "organic" have suffered a similar bastardization fate where these words mean nothing anymore (look at this Gatorade bottle for example: "Naturally flavored with other natural flavors". http://cdn-jpg.thedailymeal.net/sites/default/files/u58340/o... What??)

Since you mentioned dried fruit twice, I thought you might find interesting that WHO recommends counting dried fruit as added sugar (also honey and natural syrups, such as maple, in addition to what we usually count as added sugar).

My favorite (== most hated) example of this was some soy milk I saw at whole foods. In big letters on the front it said "NO ADDED SUGAR!". Flip the box around and the #2 ingredient was "dehydrated cane juice."

It's no surprise even the CEO of whole foods says most of the stuff they sell is crap. I used to shop at their original two stores in Austin before they decided to expand and they sold a very different class of product.

Sure - I either eat fruit as a meal, or add it as the sweetener. The nice thing about eating actual fruit is that you know what's in it. The key is just being cognizant of what's actually going in your body, and its effect. Sugar is sugar regardless of provenance.

Trulia's co-founder Sami Inkinen and his wife are actually on it. Feel free to read more at http://www.fatchancerow.org/act-on-sugar/

no sugar in what? drinks, snack, etc?

Triscuits solved my snack problem and they are high in fiber and whole grain with only three ingredients; get the low salt variety as they taste just fine. You can top them will all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables to where each day is something different.

Sugar is so hard to move away from, I know many who got into juicing only to gain weight because they juiced what their tastes buds told them tasted best, fruits!

Sugar free naturally, stick to the vegetable isle. Drink lots of water and if you like it, experiment with different varieties of tea either hot or iced

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