Should we buy food with health claims on the label?

These days, we are seeing more and more health claims that go beyond the usual. These include “trans fat-free,” “gluten-free,” “heart healthy,” and foods spiked with vitamins, such as my new favorite: Diet Coke Plus, with vitamins and minerals.

We see whole-grain Pop Tarts and Tyson chicken with misleading labels such as “raised without antibiotics.” We see natural sweeteners called Sweet Fiber. We see whole-grain Cheerios that are still full of sugar.

Now you can get “health food” like salads at McDonald’s, but with salad dressings that have more calories than a Big Mac.

And we also see antioxidant-spiked junk food and ginkgo-spiked energy drinks.

What should we make of all these marketing claims? Do they provide any benefit?

I just watched Michael Moore's new movie, "Sicko." Today, I'd like to talk about what I saw.

This is not my usual solution-oriented blog about health problems. 

But stay with me, because I want to help you understand what has to happen for meaningful change to occur in our "sick" healthcare system.

And it is NOT what Michael Moore suggests.

Now back to the movie. 

I must say I was disappointed. I was hoping for a novel look at the problem of not only access to healthcare, but of the type of healthcare that is practiced.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm all for more access to healthcare, better healthcare, and lower costs.

But I am not for getting more people access to a broken healthcare system that creates more problems than it solves.

Your children will die younger than you will.

That's a scary thought -- and one that's going to become a fact if we keep following the same bad habits of the last 30 years.

There's no doubt about it.

We're living in a toxic food environment.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

This week, I'd like to share with you some critical information from a very important new book.

It's called "Ending the Food Fight, Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World."

This book was written by a friend of mine, David Ludwig, MD, PhD. He's an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the OWL (Optimal Weight for Life) Program at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Simply put, his book is a manifesto that provides a solution to our frightening epidemic of childhood obesity and disease.

With a strong voice and a clear head, Dr. Ludwig tackles the problem of our toxic food environment and the unparalleled decline in our children's health straight on. 

I was in a grocery store yesterday. While I was squeezing avocados to pick just the right ones for my family's dinner salad, I overheard a conversation from a couple that had also picked up an avocado.

"Oh, these avocados look good, let's get some."

Then looking up at the price, they said, "Two for five dollars!" Dejected, they put the live avocado back and walked away from the vegetable aisle toward the aisles full of dead, boxed, canned, packaged goods where they can buy thousands of calories of poor-quality, nutrient-poor, factory-made, processed foods filled with sugar, fat, and salt for the same five dollars. This is the scenario millions of Americans struggling to feed their families face every day.

The odd paradox is that food insecurity--not knowing where the next meal is coming from or not having enough money to adequately feed your family--leads to obesity, diabetes and chronic disease. Examining this paradox may help us advocate for policies that make producing fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole other foods cheaper, while rethinking the almost $300 billion in government subsides that support the production of cheap, processed food derived from corn and soy.

At the same time, a Food Revolution, along the lines of that advocated by Jamie Oliver, a radical chef, can help Americans take back their table and their health from a food industry that has driven us to eat more than 50 percent of our meals out of the home compared to less than 2 percent 100 years ago. And most of those meals eaten at home are produced in plants, not grown on plants, are from a food chemist's lab, not a farmer's field. Cooking and eating whole fresh foods at home, can be cheaper, more fun, and simpler than most people think.

So I would ask you to consider: Have you ever made poor food choices because of cost? What is the REAL cost of this cheap food--the cost in dollars, on our health, on our environment, and even on the fraying fabric of our social and family systems?

This is what you need to remember:

1. The true cost of unhealthy food isn't just the price tag--in fact, the real costs are hidden.
2. Eating healthy doesn't have to cost more.

Sure, it seems cheaper to eat a burger, fries, and a soda from McDonald's than to eat a meal of whole foods, but there are healthier options. Let me review why the true costs of eating unhealthy food are hidden, and give you some suggestions that will help you save money and suffering by eating well for less. Poverty or financial limitations do not preclude eating well, creating health and avoiding disease.

Let's start by looking at how our economy and public policy are geared toward the production of cheap, unhealthy food.

You could be eating sawdust -- and not even know it!

Sound crazy?

Let me explain.

On a recent plane ride to a medical conference, I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me to pass the time.  I told him that I was a physician working in the area of nutrition.

He exclaimed that the new low-carb craze was a boon for business.  I assumed he was in the food business -- but I was wrong. 

When I asked him what he did for a living, he replied that he worked in the wood pulp industry.

So what’s the connection between wood pulp and low carbs?

As it turns out, cellulose -- an indigestible fiber starch -- is one of the main ingredients in processed low-carb foods.

And what’s another name for cellulose?

Sawdust!