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Our Food Labels Need to Tell Us the Bad News

...says a new report that wants calories, fat listed on the front of packages

By Emily Rauhala,  Newser User

Posted Oct 14, 2010 2:30 AM CDT

(Newser) – It's time for food manufacturers to come clean about what's in their products, a new report on food labeling suggests. In addition to trumpeting the good (high fiber!) food labels should fess up to the bad ('high sodium!') on the front of the package, argue experts from the Institute of Medicine. The report, which hopes to inform new FDA regulations on labeling, focuses on the nutrients most responsible for obesity, namely: calories, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium, notes the New York Times.

But the industry may not like the idea of telling customers why not to eat their food. Nutrition information on food packaging is all about food industry marketing, says one nutrition expert. “If it weren’t about marketing, all this stuff would go off the packages and we would go back to packages that just said what the products were.”

Front-of-pack nutrition labels may not be popular with the food industry.
Front-of-pack nutrition labels may not be popular with the food industry.   (Stuart Ramson/Feature Photo Service for Smart Choices Program)
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What we’re suggesting is that food products be labeled in a consistent way with information that will help the general public decrease their risk for chronic diseases. - Tufts University professor of nutrition
Alice H. Lichtenstein

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
2-bits
Oct 15, 2010 2:48 AM CDT
Fair enough, seeing as how cigarettes have big nasty labels on them and every one is getting fat anyway.
scubasteved
Oct 14, 2010 10:27 AM CDT
Rather than have a product covered with "This will make you fat! But it is also high in fiber!" why don't we just teach people how to read the info that is already on the freaking box. The only health class I had throughout K-12 was taught by an obese, unhealthy guy who informed us that STDs are bad and o yeah watch how many calories you eat.
Paleo Girl
Oct 14, 2010 10:07 AM CDT
Saturated fat does not make you FAT. Grains of all kinds and sugar in all its incarnations and all things processed and carbohydrate based make you fat. YES, even the so-called \"good ones\". When is the US and Canada going to recognize the insanity that is their ridiculous food pyramids. http://thehealthyskeptic.org/new-study-blasts-the-ridiculous-low-fat-dietary-guidelines?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-study-blasts-the-ridiculous-low-fat-dietary-guidelines And then read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html and this: http://www.drbriffa.com/2010/10/13/more-evidence-that-weight-control-is-determined-by-much-more-than-calories-incalories-out/
 

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