General > General Technical Chat
absurd marketing bullshittery
SiliconWizard:
I'm not going to get into this "gluten free" thing in particular, but I'm sure many people would be surprised to know the whole list of ingredients of typical food and how you would never have suspected some ingredients to be in there in the first place. Of course one of the most common is added sugar in just about everything. Do people naturally expect significant amounts of sugar in salty food? Yet it's there. But the list is endless.
Of course there is also hype around alleged "better" industrial food. Still industrial shit.
And some mentions are there just to help people choose their food based on the assumption that they might actually not know what food contains and why. It may sound obvious to you that lettuce is lactose or gluten free, but how many people actually know what lactose (or better yet, gluten) really is?
TimFox:
Kellogg's "Special K" cereal looks like a rice cereal that would therefore be gluten-free, but "wheat gluten" is actually the second ingredient on the list, after rice.
https://www.specialk.com/en_US/products/cereal/original-cereal.html
US regulations require ingredients to be listed in order of fractional quantity.
Just like one should read the manual, one should read the ingredient list if there be a problem.
Kellogg's "Rice Krispies" contain malt, so they are not labeled "gluten-free".
https://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/nutrition/are-rice-krispies-gluten-free.html
Zero999:
--- Quote from: CJay on May 23, 2022, 05:09:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: free_electron on May 23, 2022, 05:08:49 am ---Of course it's gluten free. it doesn't contain any wheat or other grains that contain glutenin.
:palm:
They might as well put things like "Does not contain elephants" or "Comes without steering wheel"
what's next ?
A bag of salad that says "Vegan friendly" ?
A bag of rice that says "No cows inside" ?
post your marketing bullshittery gripes below. i'm curious to see what other bullshittery is out there.
--- End quote ---
It's not bullshittery, a coeliac friend really opened my eyes to foods that *shouldn't* contain gluten but often do without listing on the ingredients (grated cheese for instance)
Having 'Gluten Free' on a packet is a written guarantee it is indeed gluten free so a coeliac can grab a snack without having to pore over the ingredients list or worry that there's somehting that's not listed or the product has been contaminated by another process in the same factory.
--- End quote ---
Few people with coeliac disease are so sensitive to gluten, the tiniest trace would cause them severe harm. An ex-girlfriend was gluten intolerant. At first she was really paranoid about it, but soon discovered traces weren't an issue. It's true there are degrees of severity and it's always better to err on the side of caution.
Nowadays I believe there's a gluten free food checker app available, but it might be too strict for many people.
Gyro:
--- Quote from: free_electron on May 23, 2022, 05:08:49 am ---I was munching on a bag of chips. Ingredients : Potato , safflower oil , salt.
In big bold lettering on the front of the package : Gluten free
Of course it's gluten free. it doesn't contain any wheat or other grains that contain glutenin.
:palm:
They might as well put things like "Does not contain elephants" or "Comes without steering wheel"
what's next ?
A bag of salad that says "Vegan friendly" ?
A bag of rice that says "No cows inside" ?
post your marketing bullshittery gripes below. i'm curious to see what other bullshittery is out there.
--- End quote ---
No it absolutely isn't bullshittery. I suffer from Coeliac disease, it isn't a gluten alergy, it is an autoimune condition. Exposure to gluten causes a T-Cell immune reaction which strips the vilii off the internal surface of the gut (causing so called smooth gut'), drastically reducing its surface area and so, ability to absorb nutrients. It can manifest in a number of confusing ways, often delaying diagnosis. If it goes undiagnosed for many decades, it leads to increased risk of small bowel T-Cell Lymphoma. After a bad gluten hit, it can take several months for the gut to fully heal which can be detected in by blood tests over that time.
Anyone who says that gluten free labelling is bullshittery should be made undergo the tests for Coeliac, which include several rather unpleasant endoscopies and small bowel biopsies, both to confirm the diagnosis and to ensure that the gluten free diet is working effectively. I have mixed feelings about people who diagnose themselves from womens [EDIT: lifestyle] magazines (sorry, I can't immediately think of a gender neutral term for such publications). I'm sure some of these people must have some form of gluten intolerance or alergy, but if they believe they are, then they should have it medically confirmed (to avoid potentially life threatening problems later) and be forced to follow a strict absolute gluten free diet, rather than a faddy one. At the same time, such interest has vastly improved the variety of gluten free food compared to what there was 20odd years ago when I was finally diagnosed. Back then, the only way to establish gluten free status was to look individual products up on a register, such as the Coeliac UK book (and as Zero999 says, the app too now).
Ingredients marking is still a nightmare but much improved, as is stability. As Pringles were mentioned above - once upon a time they used to be gluten free...then they weren't. No warning on the packaging, they just changed the ingredients one day. The same with many other manufacturers' products - you have to check each time. A hint, if you want decent English Mustard, buy the Colemans powdered in the tin - if you buy the glass jar you will find they have mixed it with glutenous shit! Porridge oats are ok for most (not all) Coeliacs, but did you know that a small proportion of wheat tends to seed among the crop too? You need the gluten free one.
Then you come to the unmarked products or the "May contain" / "Produced in a factory that also manufactures..." These are the ones where they just don't care, have ordinary wheat flour dust floating in the air, or run various products through their machines without cleaning them fully first (that one is a nightmare for people with potentially fatal nut, egg, etc. allergies too). The whole thing is a nightmare (particularly for the recently diagnosed) where actually having products specified as gluten free helps immensly.
So Mr free_electron, please excuse me if I tell you to take your "absurd marketing bullshittery" and stick it where the sun don't shine. You know not of what you speak. ;)
nightfire:
Also maybe of interest: At least in germany/EU law, some stuff is allowed not to be declared, when it is below a certain threshold and deemed a helper ingredient- like anti-clogging additives for flour, for example...
I had a colleague, that was very gluten sensitive, and another has problems with histamin allergy- and those told me lots of stories that in ready-made food lots of hidden ingredients are there, but came through the backdoor with some other ingredient and are therefore not declared in plain.
So apart from being able to read through ingredient lists, having some simple label on a bag of whatever stuff looks nice that declares it to be free of $incompatible_stuff, is for some people a certain decision maker- or reminds them of "hey, last time I had some tasty chips was long ago, lets take them"
And to be honest: If brands do not matter, and I stand in front of a display or rack with different brands, and one of them has clearly labelled to be free of stuff I do not want in my food, the other brand does not have that big label, and prices are in an equal range, my buying decision will automatically swing to the labelled one- simply because it saves me the effort to read the ingredient list...
Example from about two weeks ago: Went to a supermarket with a colleague, to fetch some beer and snacks to hang out later that evening. He told me some time ago, that he has issues with lots of chips, but the Pringles original version are fine with him (only salted). I then looked for other things, and asked if he determined what ingredient in that stuff he is not fine with, and he explained that it basically was trial and error to find out. After looking on a bag of tortillas (organic), and doing some work convincing him that there is nothing in there that is also not present in the Pringles version deemed good, we went for it- and now he is absolutely hooked on that stuff...
Means: Not everyone really reads (and understands) what the ingredient list means...
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