Eating For Health

New Food Labels Now Appearing on Food Packages:   new food labels were proposed by the Food and Drug Administration with an implementation date of July 2018.   While this date has been postponed to allow manufacturers more time to comply, many manufacturers are already changing their food labels.   Look at the packages of food you eat for these new labels.   Some companies are early adopters including Nabisco, PepsiCo, and KIND.   So, you will see the new food labels on Wheat Thins, KIND bars, Lay’s Chips, Fritos and Cheetos.   What are some of the things to look for on these new food labels? Added Sugars –One of the most important changes is the addition of “added sugar” to the label.   Food labels already include “sugars” but this is of little value as the label didn’t tell you if the “sugars” were added or naturally present in the food.   For example, milk naturally has the sugar, lactose, in it.   So, “sugars” are listed on...

So many people focus on cutting back on carbs but not as many focus on cutting back on fat in their diets.   Some fats are truly the bad fats, the worst kinds of fat for your health.   These are trans fats.   Trans fats are so bad for your health that during 2007-2011, eleven counties in New York actually banned trans fats.   Restaurants, bakeries and concessions like park concessions could no longer sell foods containing trans fats.   This became a perfect experiment on trans fats and health as some counties in New York allowed trans fat in food sold in public places and other counties did not.   Granted, in every county in New York you could still go to the grocery store and buy foods containing trans fats, but not in restaurants and other public establishments that sold food.   So, what did the researchers find?   Heart disease – in counties that banned trans fats, heart disease declined even more than in counties that did not ban...

Ever go to the grocery store and find “All Natural” written across the package front?    Doesn’t that sound healthy?    A good for you food?   As some of your friends what “natural” means and you will get a lot of different answers.   So what does a food labeled “natural” or “all natural” mean?   As noted in What Does "Natural" Mean to the FDA? ,   Unlike “organic,” which is legally regulated, “natural,” when seen in the aisles of your local supermarket, can mean pretty much anything the processors like. The federal government has yet to regulate the term “natural” or “all natural” so manufacturers use the terms to sell you on their product.   I was buying something once that said, “all natural ingredients”.   Then I looked at the ingredients and found “sucrose” or white table sugar listed. There is nothing “natural” about table sugar, it is highly processed food almost devoid of vitamins and minerals.   What is FDA doing a...