June 2, 2020 — Nutrition Live Online 2020 opened with NIH Director Francis Collins and the Presidential Symposium on the ethics of eating. We had expected to be wowed by Director Collins. And of course, he is impressive. However, Harvard’s Anna Grummond impressed us even more. She explained that it’s ethically OK to put warnings on food that might […]
February 23, 2020 — People seem to be getting the message. Stop the sugar. Sugar is bad. A recent study tells us that traffic light labels are a good way to get that message across to consumers. Even if they don’t know much about healthy nutrition, they’re getting the message about sugar. In fact, these findings did not surprise […]
January 31, 2020 — The Associated Press calls it a win for anti-obesity activists in Mexico. A decade of fighting about food warning labels has brought a victory. Front of pack labels in Mexico will put big black stop signs on products with too much sugar, salt, or saturated fat. Finally, people will learn what not to eat. But […]
January 16, 2020 — Every problem is an opportunity. Right? So we’re not surprised that food industry innovators see an opportunity to exploit climate change to differentiate their brands. Quorn plans to put carbon footprint labeling on their meat substitute products. Maybe the planet is burning up. But you can feel good about eating mycoprotein that hurts the planet […]
July 7, 2019 — How much added sugar is in a five-pound bag of sugar? It’s taken a while, but FDA has come up with a final answer to this challenging question. None. It’s all sugar, nothing added. The same goes for honey, molasses, or maple syrup. It turns out that the definition of “added” can be quite tricky. […]
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, […]
January 17, 2019 — Regulations are all around when it comes to food formulation and labeling. Some of the regulations are a simple matter of science and safety. Ingredients must be safe for human consumption. But some of it is a matter of principle. People have a right to know what’s in the food they’re buying. Even with all […]
November 9, 2018 — At ObesityWeek in Nashville next week, it will be easy to miss some gold nuggets of insight. Because so much is there, all at once. But a session you should truly not miss is The Scoop on Food Labeling from Inside the Industry. Why? It’s especially timely. The fine print for added sugars is finally […]
June 14, 2018 — You might think that “added” means just what it says. But we’re finding out that this might not be the case when we’re talking about added sugars. Cranberry, honey, and maple syrup makers are finding out that added is supposed to mean bad. So it seems like FDA may end up twisting the definition for […]
June 2, 2018 — Hi Alan. I’ve still got a bee in my bonnet about oranges only getting 4½ stars when you ran them through the Australian Health Star Rating system for May GI News despite their being packed with good stuff like vitamin C, fibre, potassium, folate and over 170 different types of phytochemicals that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, […]
