Changes May Be On the Way for Nutrition Labels

In what would be the first substantial change in more than 20 years, a new proposition by the Food and Drug Administration would alter nutrition labels in ways intended to provide more clear and important information to consumers. Among the possible changes are a new emphasis on calories, as well as a clearer representation of serving size.

The proposed new labels would include larger text for calories and place less importance on “calories from fat,” as the FDA has concluded that these types of calories have a much smaller bearing on a person’s overall health than the types of fat consumed. Thus, information about fat will remain on labels. However, another change would require companies to disclose nutritional information in concordance with the actual serving size of entire products, rather than fractioning the item into smaller serving sizes, then only representing numbers for those sizes.

Additional updates to the information on labels includes listing information about added sugars, as well as new categories to represent foods that were not prominent years ago. It wasn’t until the 1960s that nutritional information started appearing on food, and very little has changed in the past couple decades.

One of the biggest proponents of the new nutrition labels is Michelle Obama, who stated that labels should be clear enough to allow parents and consumers to accurately assess whether a product will be good for their families, just from a quick glance at the label. The First Lady referred to the new proposition as “a big deal” that would “make a difference for families all across the country.”

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/health/nutrition-labels-changes/

The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.