{"id":434961,"date":"2010-03-16T16:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calorielab.com\/news\/?p=6965"},"modified":"2010-03-16T16:00:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T20:00:33","slug":"front-of-package-health-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/434961","title":{"rendered":"Front-of-Package Health Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Contributor: “Dr. J”<\/strong>
\nDr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.<\/div>\n

Front-of-Package Food Labels: Public Health or Propaganda?<\/h3>\n

Ever since I heard the maxim, “The more important it says it is on the outside of the envelope, the less important it is on the inside of the envelope,” from Andy Rooney<\/a> on 60 Minutes, I looked at all my mail and found it to be very accurate.<\/p>\n

Marian Nestle PhD, MPH recently had a commentary article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association where she has applied Andy’s observation to the front-of-package food labels<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Her article, co-authored by David Ludwig MD, PhD, discusses the history of food labeling from the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, which prohibited food labels from bearing statements that were “false or misleading in any particular” to the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, through the current state of package labeling with its “bewildering array of claims for increasingly remote health benefits.”<\/p>\n

Their conclusions<\/h3>\n

Doctors Nestle and Ludwig feel that the current practices of front-of-package food labeling may mislead the public in several ways:<\/p>\n

(1) They feel that few, if any, of these claims can be verified.<\/p>\n

Although specific dietary components may be linked to improved health outcomes, food products containing that dietary component might not have the same effect.<\/p>\n

(2) Claims based on individual nutritional factors are misleading.<\/p>\n

Front-of-package health claims usually only focus on one ingredient: ignoring the presence of potentially unhealthful aspects (e.g., the sugar or salt content in a prepared breakfast cereal).<\/p>\n

(3) Even if the front-of-package labels were restricted to nutrient content, they still can be deceptive by presenting information out of context.<\/p>\n

For example, an 8-ounce serving of a sugared beverage may have fewer calories than a 1-ounce serving of nuts.<\/p>\n

(4) Using the term, “Healthier” for a processed food does not necessarily mean healthy.<\/p>\n

By manipulating snack food ingredients by replacing fat or sugar with refined starch, for example, manufacturers can improve the rating score without a meaningful improvement in nutritional quality.<\/p>\n

(5) Front-of-package claims produce conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

Without an FDA specific dictate for allowable claims for each food product, the food industry’s business of selling the product will undermine the educational purpose of labeling.<\/p>\n

Their Recommendations<\/h3>\n

If health claims are allowed on food packages, they should be regulated more strictly according to rigorous evidence based on national standards.<\/p>\n

Because of the difficulty in doing this, an outright ban on all front-of-package claims would seem more prudent. This would hopefully encourage the public to eat whole or minimally processed foods and to read the ingredient lists on these processed foods.<\/p>\n

My Thoughts<\/h3>\n

I may have glanced at the outside of envelopes before opening them pre-Andy Rooney, but now if the outside emphasizes the importance of the content, I just throw them in the recycle bin.<\/p>\n

I really minimize my purchasing of processed foods, and when I do, I first turn the package over and look at the nutritional information on the back, followed by reading the ingredient list. At that point, I make the decision to either put it in the cart or back on the shelf.<\/p>\n

One of the editors at CalorieLab, Sarah White, had a series not that long ago on what I’m eating now<\/a>. As you can see, she’s all about eating non-processed, healthy and whole foods.<\/p>\n

After all, rules 5-7 in the Dr. J rules for healthy eating<\/a> are 5) If it comes in a box or wrapper, it’s bad for you. 6) If you can’t pronounce its ingredients, it’s bad for you. 7) If it only has one ingredient, it’s good for you.<\/p>\n

I may have to add one more rule to the 10 rules: The more healthy the front-of-package label says the product is on the outside, the less healthy it is in your inside.<\/p>\n

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News<\/a> (REF3076322B7)<\/p>\n

Front-of-Package Health Claims<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributor: “Dr. J” Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200. Front-of-Package Food Labels: Public Health or Propaganda? Ever since I heard the maxim, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434961","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\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}