June 25, 2023 — We take it as a given – we want to eat healthy. Since 2016, FDA has been working on developing an updated definition for the meaning of “healthy” if a food seller wants to say that about one of its products. The agency is still struggling with this question today. So we were glad to […]
May 6, 2023 — Nope. We are not done with fighting obesity by selling water, fruits, and veggies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama is starting a healthy food and beverage company with the help of private equity. Ordinarily, we’re supposed to think of private equity as the bad guys – helping the rich get richer and driving wider disparities. […]
April 8, 2022 — We are in the midst of a great reformulation of food products. A little more than a decade ago, Robert Lustig stirred everyone up with his bold claim that sugar is toxic. So added sugar took over the role of dietary bad boy in place of fat. In 2015, U.S. dietary guidelines started recommending a […]
May 10, 2021 — Brace yourself for sugar 2.0. Processed food makers are loading up on sugar that’s not sugar. The push to drive added sugar out of the food supply means that allulose – a rare, but natural form of sugar – is suddenly popular with the industry. It helps that food companies can add this sugar to […]
October 2, 2020 — Remember when Jared the Subway guy was riding high on the story that he lost 200 pounds eating only Subway sandwiches? Though he’s long gone, the chain kept on cultivating a healthy image. But now the Irish Supreme Court tells us that the bread in those subs is not even bread. Nope. It’s a confection. […]
August 18, 2020 — For the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, this was a relatively easy question. Americans typically consume too much added sugar. So the committee recommends a lower limit. In the 2015, the limit was ten percent of total calories from added sugars. But now the committee says that limit should come down to six. Not so fast, […]
January 28, 2020 — Editorial Note: After this post was published, we learned from sharp-eyed scientists that the analysis in the study referenced below suffers from a Difference in Nominal Significance error. For more on this issue with this study, we refer you to this explanation of the problem, which includes links to other publications about this issue. To […]
November 15, 2019 — Toddler diets can’t seem to fall in line with dietary guidelines. About 98 percent of toddlers are eating added sugar! That’s the headline in the New York Times today on a study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In that same article, the Times buried the fact that added sugar consumption […]
April 20, 2019 — We are in the midst of a great change in how our food is labeled for nutrition. The Nutrition Facts label goes back to 1993, with no changes since 1999. That’s when trans fats gained a place on the label. Now, starting in 2020, the label will call out added sugar. That should be simple, […]
December 28, 2018 — As 2018 winds down, we have a chance to gratefully reflect on the fact that more than 100,000 users took the time to read some of the content we provided this year. No, this is surely not the New York Times. We admit that we have a very narrow focus. But given this narrow focus, […]
