Oops!

If you read this blog regularly, you probably remember me saying "READ LABELS" many times. Well, please know that bad choices and rushed decisions affect us all. My son and I stopped by a new, locally-owned grocery store after a busy day. I just needed five or six things, but I was also hungry (which is a big no-no while shopping). I bought some mini whole-wheat bagels, because they looked good and we rarely eat bagels. I checked the label to make sure they were in fact made with whole-wheat flour, but I was in a hurry and stopped right there. I knew there were more ingredients than there should have been, but I was rationalizing and telling myself they were ok since I was a hungry shopper (with a tired yet very talkative 7-yr-old) wanting to get home and eat one!

After getting home, I was ready for my snack so popped a bagel into the toaster. As I was putting the bag away my eyes caught the word "fructose." Ugh... I checked and right there was HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS). How did I miss that? Well, because I didn't READ THE entire LABEL!

Now the dilemma. Throw them out? That's my first reaction, but I don't want to waste food. Give them to someone else? No, can't do that. It's like saying "these aren't good enough for me, but ok for you!" :) Unfortunately they'll probably sit in the kitchen until they get stale, then I'll need to find a use for chemical crumbs!

Action Item: Read. Food. Labels.

For Further Reading: My blog post about HFCS

Nutrition Facts

By now, many of you have seen or heard about the new (proposed) nutrition labels.

To get started, you can read the FDA's press release here. The biggest differences are:

• More clearly defined number of servings per container.
• Number of calories' font size is drastically larger.
• A new line item for added sugar.

It's a good idea, in my opinion, for the calories to be listed in a hard-to-miss font size, and I especially like the proposed idea that serving sizes need to be what people are likely to eat. For example, even cereal is often listed as 3/4 cup serving size. I don't know about you, but I usually eat more than that it my bowl. Measure yours and see how much you are eating. So that 17grams of sugar in your cereal (if you haven't switched cereals yet) is misleading, because you're probably eating 1.5 to 2 times that. Now think about ice cream that's listed as a 1/2 cup serving size! Yikes. That's why it's good to make the calories so prominent. Who has tried not to look at the label when you know you're eating something "bad"? Raise your hand...

Dr. David Kessler, who was commissioner of the FDA when the original labels were created, said the proposed update is a "critically important" advance in public health. "The food label is not just about giving consumers information but about creating incentives for the industry to create healthier products," he said in an interview. "No company wants their product to look bad on the food label."

After a 90-day public comment period, the FDA will draw up final rules. These updates will take about three years to take effect.

Final Thoughts

Now all that being said... these are good steps, but please keep in mind that INGREDIENTS are what's really important! If you can read the ingredients and there are only a handful of them, then all the other will probably fall into place. For example, we buy tortilla shells that are made from corn, water and lime! I really don't even need to read the nutritional information, because I know I am choosing a product without added sugars and sodium.


Action Item: Do you have comments about the new labels? Read all about the new labels, the goal, and the research behind them, then leave your comments on the FDA website.

For Further Reading: U.S. proposes major update to food labels in bid to combat obesity