Food labels are wild 🧃

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Greetings, friends -

There is an interesting ethical dilemma presented by food labelling practices. Take this bag of chips/crisps as an example - the front of the bag says "Hand Cooked with Olive Oil", but the ingredients list shows that olive oil only makes up 5% of the ingredients, and the majority of the cooking oil used is actually sunflower oil.

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You might be thinking "how are companies allowed to advertise on their labels like this?"

Most of it seems to just be a very generous use of the English language. Technically, saying that something is cooked "with" something doesn't mean that it's cooked exclusively with something.

In other words, even if olive oil only makes up 5% of the ingredients, technically the chips were cooked with olive oil... they just happened to also be cooked with way more sunflower oil.

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The word "with" is a pretty common offender on food labels on other food and beverage products. Take fruit juices for example - many of them state that they are "Made With 100% Real Juice". The reality, though, is that almost every single product like this has more sugar in it than actual juice squeezed from fruit.

How are companies allowed to use the term "100%" if that's the case? Notice the placement of the word "with" relative to the term "100%":

1. Made 100% With Real Fruit Juice
2. Made With 100% Real Fruit Juice

In the first example, the drink should be made only with 100% real fruit juice for the label to be accurate, but in the second example, the drink only needs to made with some real fruit juice - the fruit juice it's made with, however, has to be 100% real.

Confused? Basically, the juice component of the beverage is 100% real, but the drink itself is not 100% made from real juice.

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What can we do to revolt against our corporate overlords who market products in such a sneaky way?

The best thing is just to read the ingredients lists for anything you buy. Ingredients are listed out in decreasing order. Simply put, the earlier on something is listed in a list of ingredients, the more of it is present in the food or beverage product. The further down the list something is listed, the less of it is present.

If you see a product that has a label which looks too good to be true, always remember that the ingredients list will reveal all, and will let you know exactly what is present in your food or drink item, and in what relative quantities.

The space in between ♒️

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This past Sunday, we put out a video that was a complete departure from the kind of videos we usually make - and the response from you all was overwhelmingly positive.

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Originally, I (Em) was thinking of writing about the process of creating the video, but instead, I actually want to talk about the part that was the hardest: not second guessing whether we should make this video at all.

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As I mentioned briefly in the video, the concept came to me about six months ago, but I sat on it because I doubted whether there was any point in talking about a topic where I didn’t feel like there was any definitive takeaway. A big part of this was because, as with all social media, there is always the pressure to make life look perfect and like you have all your shit figured out.

This feeling was aggravated by the fact that we used to work as corporate lawyers - a career that is frequently associated with “having your shit figured out” - so it almost felt like a “downgrade” to admit that I do not, in fact, have everything figured out.

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Despite all of this internal doubt though, the feeling that the video was still worth making stuck for reasons that were hard to articulate…and here we are.

I think this experience was a good exercise in learning to understand how we feel in the face of other voices without second guessing ourselves - which is both very important and very hard to practice, not just in respect of creative pursuits but in life generally.

We’re incredibly thankful for all of the wonderful and heartwarming feedback we’ve received so far, and if you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out here.

Something Cool - Artificial Fancy 🍦

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Do you know where Häagen-Dazs ice cream comes from?

If you guessed any country in Europe, you'd be mistaken - good ol' HD was created in the Bronx in NYC back in 1960!

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You might be wondering why a company started in the Bronx would have such a distinctly European-sounding name.

The name "Häagen-Dazs" was invented as an homage to the Danish roots of creator Reuben Mattus. Mattus, who was Jewish, also wished to give a nod to Denmark for its support and good treatment towards the Jewish population during WWII.

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Interestingly, however, the use of "-zs" at the end of "Häagen-Dazs" is something which is distinctly Hungarian, while the letter "ä" is not used in the Danish alphabet at all!

Some have suggested that the use of a European-sounding name may also have been partially due to an effort by the founders to brand their product as being more luxurious and premium. Using a European-sounding name allowed the brand to leverage the old-world traditions and quality of craftsmanship often associated with Europe at the time.

Whatever the reason, it's undeniable that Häagen-Dazs has become a household name (and, in fact, is Lloyd's favorite brand of ice cream).

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Bonus fact: the first three flavors released by Häagen-Dazs were vanilla, chocolate, and coffee! Strawberry didn't come out until 6 years later, after much experimentation.

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