Monday, November 9, 2009

Labeling packaged food...

"When I shop these days, I can't help but notice the number of competing health logos on packaged foods. As you are lured to purchase "natural," "smart choice" or "high fiber" foods, their meanings have become fuzzy and unreliable. Labeling that was initially intended to aid consumers to make healthier food choices has turned into a nightmare of confusion and even distrust.

According to our Breakthrough News for this week, in the United States, health and nutrition statements on our prepackaged foods have never depended on genuine, overall food quality. It goes on to say that a kid's ready-to-eat cereal can contain over 2 teaspoons of sugar per cup, have sugar as its number one ingredient, and still claim "now provides fiber." A good example of this is the recent labeling of Froot Loops as nutritious enough to sport a big checkmark on the front of boxes signifying that choosing the cereal was indeed smart.

When people ask me what makes the World's Healthiest Foods so special, one of my first answers is "because they are nutrient-rich." That's why I was so heartened by the potential use of a new research tool developed by researchers at Nutrition Impact, which measures nutrient-richness and overall food quality to lead the way in providing reliable food labeling for consumers.

Nutrient-richness takes into consideration the number and quantity of nutrients in relation to the number of calories a food contains, so we are never just focusing on one nutrient. That's why a food such as romaine lettuce, which contains only 16 calories in a two cup serving but supplies a good, very good, or excellent source of almost 20 nutrients, is one of the most nutrient-rich of the World's Healthiest vegetables."

-- The George Mateljan Foundation

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