There are many pieces to the puzzle about obesity. One more has been discovered—food and restaurant labels may not tell you the truth about the calorie count.

Many people eat on the run. Right, wrong, that is how it is. When there is a significant under-count on how much the eater actually is consuming, no wonder the needle on the scale won’t budge.

This is from a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, based on research done at Tufts University.

Los Angeles Times

“Dieters beware: Food and restaurant labels might be sabotaging your calorie-counting efforts.

“So found a study published in the current edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Assn. Researchers from Tufts University took commercially prepared foods — both prepackaged and from restaurants — and analyzed them in a bomb calorimeter. The measured energy values of 10 frozen meals purchased from supermarkets averaged 8% more than originally stated, and foods from 29 restaurants (both fast-food and sit-down venues) were on average 18% more than reported.”

Source: Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2009

Citation: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 110, Issue 1 (January 2010)