Nutrition Facts Scams Really Happen: Just Round & Multiply!

Originally published at: Nutrition Facts Scam: Dose Low, Round Down, & Multiply!

“Supplement math”. That’s the phrase we love to use when we see a label that’s just not adding up. We find ourselves saying it when a label’s active ingredients cannot possibly add up to what the serving size states, an unfortunately not-uncommon occurrence. Oftentimes, it’s fueled by a ridiculous proprietary… …(Read more on the PricePlow Blog)

3 Likes

Am I allowed to guess who made the buckets of ballz?

You’re not not allowed… but I won’t have a comment

I have a feeling its one of the companies I scared off, shame they make BEST products.

This is why the statement of “if the FDA was involved this industry would be better positioned to protect consumers” is a bit false. The rounding and labeling concerns for these products is not as transparent as one may think.

And, because of that, you can easily size down a serving to make it look more appealing to a consumer while potentially hiding the fact of carbs or fat being in a product in small amounts.

1 Like

No offense, but that was, in fact, one of the main points in the article.

Don’t take all the credit! I think that was something of a group effort.

Well ChristianMelon was a little more subtle than I might have been. Anyway, I actually worked at GNC when these were released. I tried I think 2 flavors and I hated them. I actually never saw any of them sell at the few stores I worked in.

I got in the first few good punches but you had the sicker burns I will admit.

Ya, It’s generally better to let criticism die down rather then trying to argue against it

You know unless you have an argument.

I think company reps would do better if they stuck to a more passive pimping of their products.

I remember when I started counting macros and calories a few years ago and wondered this same issue. The labeled macros for a lot of foods didn’t correctly add up to the listed calories.

As far as I can tell, to figure out the number of calories shown on a label, just take your carbs/protein/fats grams multiplied by 4 or 9 and round it to the nearest 10. It gets weird because you’re then rounding off a number which was calculated off a rounded number. Pretty cool.