{"id":357709,"date":"2010-02-24T09:45:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T14:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/?p=5156"},"modified":"2010-02-24T09:45:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T14:45:58","slug":"claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/357709","title":{"rendered":"Claims of vitamin-fortified, sugary foods hard to swallow"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5196\" title=\"cerealbox\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/cerealbox-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"cerealbox\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" \/>Walking down the cereal aisle at the supermarket, it\u2019s impossible to miss the declarations of health benefits prominently located on the fronts of the colorful boxes. The Nutrition Facts Panel\u2014a valuable consumer resource that lists a product\u2019s sugar, salt, fat and calorie content\u2014is usually printed on the side of the box. But do parents searching for a healthful choice even bother to read the nutritional information when the front of the box suggests the product is made of \u201cwhole grain goodness\u201d and \u201cimmune-boosting\u201d vitamins?<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately many don\u2019t and that\u2019s a real problem, says David Ludwig, MD, PhD, in a commentary co-authored with Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). \u201cWe\u2019ve arrived at the deplorable situation of Cocoa Krispies being marketed as a way to protect children from H1N1 flu, because it has a few added vitamins,\u201d says Ludwig.<\/p>\n<p>Consumers tend to believe claims on the front of packages, according to recent research, and perceive health statements to be endorsed by the government. But few health claims on food products have any basis in science at all. And unlike medications, food product labels don\u2019t have to disclose their potential ill effects, such as obesity from high added sugar content.<span id=\"more-5156\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since the early 1900s, when the FDA prohibited food labels from bearing statements that were \u201cfalse or misleading in any particular,\u201d food manufactures and the federal government have been at odds over using unsubstantiated health claims in marketing. Now, the FDA is intending to examine the entire issue of front of package labeling, with the goal of making the systems used \u201c\u2026nutritionally sound, well-designed to help consumers make informed and healthy food choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Ludwig and Nestle think it\u2019s logistically unfeasible to come up with system to validate health claims, and are advocating an all-out ban on front of package health claims. Read the <a href=\"http:\/\/jama.ama-assn.org\/cgi\/content\/full\/303\/8\/771\">excerpt of the commentary in JAMA<\/a> and let us know what you think. Should misleading health claims be allowed? Is there any middle ground?<\/p>\n<p>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"mailto:?subject=Claims%20of%20vitamin-fortified%2C%20sugary%20foods%20hard%20to%20swallow&amp;body=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Fhealth-claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow%2F\" title=\"email\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/email_link.png\" title=\"email\" alt=\"email\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Fhealth-claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow%2F&amp;t=Claims%20of%20vitamin-fortified%2C%20sugary%20foods%20hard%20to%20swallow\" title=\"Facebook\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/facebook.png\" title=\"Facebook\" alt=\"Facebook\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Claims%20of%20vitamin-fortified%2C%20sugary%20foods%20hard%20to%20swallow%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Fhealth-claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow%2F\" title=\"Twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/twitter.png\" title=\"Twitter\" alt=\"Twitter\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?phase=2&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Fhealth-claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow%2F&amp;title=Claims%20of%20vitamin-fortified%2C%20sugary%20foods%20hard%20to%20swallow&amp;bodytext=Walking%20down%20the%20cereal%20aisle%20at%20the%20supermarket%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20impossible%20to%20miss%20the%20declarations%20of%20health%20benefits%20prominently%20located%20on%20the%20fronts%20of%20the%20colorful%20boxes.%20The%20Nutrition%20Facts%20Panel%E2%80%94a%20valuable%20consumer%20resource%20that%20lists%20a%20product%E2%80%99s\" title=\"Digg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/digg.png\" title=\"Digg\" alt=\"Digg\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Fhealth-claims-of-vitamin-fortified-sugary-foods-hard-to-swallow%2F&amp;title=Claims%20of%20vitamin-fortified%2C%20sugary%20foods%20hard%20to%20swallow&amp;notes=Walking%20down%20the%20cereal%20aisle%20at%20the%20supermarket%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20impossible%20to%20miss%20the%20declarations%20of%20health%20benefits%20prominently%20located%20on%20the%20fronts%20of%20the%20colorful%20boxes.%20The%20Nutrition%20Facts%20Panel%E2%80%94a%20valuable%20consumer%20resource%20that%20lists%20a%20product%E2%80%99s\" title=\"del.icio.us\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/delicious.png\" title=\"del.icio.us\" alt=\"del.icio.us\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/childrenshospitalblog\/~4\/lto9tWrAXto\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walking down the cereal aisle at the supermarket, it\u2019s impossible to miss the declarations of health benefits prominently located on the fronts of the colorful boxes. The Nutrition Facts Panel\u2014a valuable consumer resource that lists a product\u2019s sugar, salt, fat and calorie content\u2014is usually printed on the side of the box. But do parents searching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}