| Get With the Program! Basics |
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| The healthiest vegetables are always green. Greens are undoubtedly healthy, but vegetables and fruits in other colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple—all bring different nutrients to the table. You’ll get the most antioxidants, vitamins and minerals if you keep your plate colorful. |
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Almost everyone agrees that food labels desperately need an overhaul to reflect current nutritional guidelines, and finally, it looks like it may be happening. A report sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, Food Safety and Inspection Service and Health Canada provides the principles needed to update the existing labels, which are based on guidelines from 1968.
Obviously, there have been advances in the science of nutrition in the intervening 35 years, and the new labels will reflect them in order to better serve the consumer. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, the changes are going to take time to implement.
Since 1997 the Institute of Medicine, which produced the report, has been issuing nutrient reference values called Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), which basically tell people what they need to eat regularly to be healthy. These DRIs replaced Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) in the United States and Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RDIs) in Canada, and will form the science on which the new labeling information will be based. (Part of the goal of the new labels is to help the United States and Canada harmonize food values so that manufacturers can use one standard label on products sold in both countries.)
 The new labels will look pretty much the same as the current labels and will continue to be based on a 2,000-calorie diet. What will change are the numbers expressed as a percentage of those calories, and there’s already disagreement among some consumer groups about those numbers, which are set to apply to all healthy individuals ages four and older (except pregnant or lactating women).
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, for instance, is arguing that the new numbers will reflect average needs of the average American, suggesting that mixing old and young women with teenage boys may not be the most advantageous way of moving forward. On the other hand, Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg, chairman of the committee that produced the report and Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, says it would become too cumbersome to have a different number for each of the 13 different stages of life on the labels--hence, the report’s recommendation of simply having the numbers apply generally to healthy people over four.
One thing almost everyone agrees on: Daily values for artery-clogging saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids and cholesterol should be set at the lowest levels possible.
As I said about the steps being taken to provide a new and much-needed food pyramid, click here, stay tuned. It may take time, but hopefully the wait will be worth it.
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