# Pointless food labels.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 30, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150 "2007-01-30T19:36:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150/41 "2007-02-02T00:29:09Z")

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[QUOTE=rjk]  
🆒  
Locatelli brand Romano cheese comes with a label that says “Naturally low in CARBOHIDRATES!” (Yes, they spell it that way.) So is that cheap Romano next to it full of sugar, or full of starch?  
[/QUOTE]

You’ve no idea what kind of trouble this type of labeling caused some years ago when my mother was still living. She _insisted_ on paying for _name brand_ vegetable oil, because the label proudly proclaimed: Contains _NO_ cholesterol!!  
I tried to convince her that, by definition, 100% _vegetable_ oil could _not possibly_ contain cholesterol. But she just wouldn’t listen. So I guess that type of labeling really does work, some of the time (notwithstanding the misspelling).

I, personally, was amused when I read the label on a box of Chewable Children’s Benadryl: “Warning: may cause drowsiness. Do Not operate heavy machinery or drive while taking this medication”. So, if my six-year-old had _asked_ to borrow the car, I’d have had to tell her NO!

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**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150/42 "2007-02-02T03:05:46Z")

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[QUOTE=norinew]  
I, personally, was amused when I read the label on a box of Chewable Children’s Benadryl: “Warning: may cause drowsiness. Do Not operate heavy machinery or drive while taking this medication”. So, if my six-year-old had _asked_ to borrow the car, I’d have had to tell her NO!  
[/QUOTE]

The same drug, in a higher dose works for adults. If an adult doesn’t want to swallow a pill, or has problems doing it, then he or she might use the chewables. We sell liquid Benadryl to adults all the time. You just take a higher dose than children.

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**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150/43 "2007-02-02T16:25:56Z")

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[QUOTE=chaoticbear]  
The same drug, in a higher dose works for adults. If an adult doesn’t want to swallow a pill, or has problems doing it, then he or she might use the chewables. We sell liquid Benadryl to adults all the time. You just take a higher dose than children.  
[/QUOTE]

Well, I do understand that. It just seemed incongruous to me to have cautions on a children’s medicine about driving a car and operating heavy machinery! 😉

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**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150/44 "2007-02-02T17:28:01Z")

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[QUOTE=gigi]  
:o Someone gave me a homemade tamale once and really built up how great it was going to be. I’d never had them and I prepared it as instructed. Of course I was faced with the cornhusk which I couldn’t imagine I was supposed to eat, but the only thing inside it was mush and that didn’t seem like a real food item either. Was there supposed to be breadlike anything in there? I ended up tossing it all.  
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Real homemade tamales ARE great. “Mush” could be an accurate description of the outside (INSIDE the cornhusk, OUTSIDE the filling) of a tamale - it’s cornmeal mixed with lard 😃 Inside that is usually pork or beef or chicken, sometimes vegetables or cheese… I’ve even had dessert tamales filled with fruit (though I didn’t care for those.)

An over-steamed tamale would likely fall to pieces… not attractive, but still yummy.

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**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-food-labels/390150/45 "2007-02-02T17:50:09Z")

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There’s a yummy salad dressing that has a drawing of an artichoke on the label, and says “tastes great on artichokes.” Below that is the notice “does not contain artichokes.” I always found that funny.

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