Will New Food Labels Help Fight Obesity?
Will New Food Labels Help Fight Obesity?
The FDA announced today that it is updating the food labels that so many people in this country ignore completely. The new and improved design will highlight the parts of the label that are the most important for dieters, such as the serving size and calorie count (see images below).
New FDA Food Label
The idea behind this big change is supposed to make it easier for shoppers to quickly look at a food label and quickly determine whether or not it is good to eat. According to the FDA from their news release:
“Our guiding principle here is very simple: that you as a parent and a consumer should be able to walk into your local grocery store, pick up an item off the shelf, and be able to tell whether it’s good for your family,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “So this is a big deal, and it’s going to make a big difference for families all across this country.”
Some of the biggest changes to the labeling really are great, and I hope they are implemented. Among those are the following:
Added Sugars: Added sugar in our food is literally killing everyone you know. I know that may sound extreme, but do you know how much sugar we do consume? A few hundred years ago, a typical American ate 2 pounds of sugar each year. Are you ready to find out how much we eat today?
152 pounds!
New FDA Food Label
That is a ton of sugar, and a lot of that is added sugar to foods that have no need for sugar in them to begin with. If the new label will highlight this added sugar so at least it is easier for consumers to spot, then maybe, just maybe we can start eating less of it.
Serving Size: The new serving size on this new label is designed to reflect not what people should be eating, but what they are currently eating. I really don’t know how good of an idea this is, considering people are bursting at the seams from overeating but what do I know.
There are some other key changes such as the “calories from fat” label to reflect the type of fat being consumed, and not simply the calories from fat previously shown.
These label changes are designed to make it easier for us to see what is in the food we eat, but in my opinion that is only about 1% of the problem. The real problem as many people see it is that people are being told to eat the wrong kinds of foods. Lean meats such as chicken or pork are deemed “healthy” and for this reason, many people feel that eating these leaner meats leads to a healthy lifestyle.
Once you see the relationship between the types of so-called healthy foods eaten and disease and death rates, it becomes clear that lean meat and high “organic” sugar are still killing plenty of people, and making many more fat and sick and feeling terrible.
