What's in a label?
I have a terrible sore throat. So I have been trying to dose myself up in order to make myself feel better. This has led me to realise the massive difference between products here and those in the UK. You see food and product labels here are massive. There is every type of information that you could ever need on food and medicine here, and I guess one reason is that the US has a massive litigation culture and as such producers want to warn users of every possible consequence of using their stuff.
For example I have taken some flu tablets. Similar to Lemsip flu tablets, and these ones are called Theraflu. The warning on the back of the box lists all the side effects, which are as follows:
Nervousness, dizziness, or sleeplessness
Marked drowsiness (how it can do this and the above I am not sure)
Excitability may occur, especially in children
Overdose may result in serious liver damage
All products as I say have these warnings and information as to what is in them, so coffee cups have the warning that the contents may be hot. Food lists all the calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein and total carbohydrates. This is even if the food doesn’t have any of them. So the bottled water I am currently drinking has the amounts listed in the categories above, even thought it is 0 in all of them:
Calories 0
Total Fat 0g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 0g
Protein 0g
Total Carbohydrate 0g
I think the labels are useful in most cases, but why put them on something like bottled water which has a zero balance for all of the chosen categories?
Also I will keep you informed if I display nervousness, dizziness, sleeplessness, drowsiness, excitability or liver damage. In
For example I have taken some flu tablets. Similar to Lemsip flu tablets, and these ones are called Theraflu. The warning on the back of the box lists all the side effects, which are as follows:
Nervousness, dizziness, or sleeplessness
Marked drowsiness (how it can do this and the above I am not sure)
Excitability may occur, especially in children
Overdose may result in serious liver damage
All products as I say have these warnings and information as to what is in them, so coffee cups have the warning that the contents may be hot. Food lists all the calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein and total carbohydrates. This is even if the food doesn’t have any of them. So the bottled water I am currently drinking has the amounts listed in the categories above, even thought it is 0 in all of them:
Calories 0
Total Fat 0g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 0g
Protein 0g
Total Carbohydrate 0g
I think the labels are useful in most cases, but why put them on something like bottled water which has a zero balance for all of the chosen categories?
Also I will keep you informed if I display nervousness, dizziness, sleeplessness, drowsiness, excitability or liver damage. In
posted by Nick at 9:35 AM
2 Comments:
Let's face it, most of the liquid you consumed in the UK had the potential side effect of liver damage...
Ah - good point. I still maintain that the Refresher is a sure copper bottom hit of a drink, if only someone would manufacture it.
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