Simple Nutrition Facts for Complicated People

Food for thought for winners of the fattest nation contest

Nutrition labels have been much in the news lately, presumably because we have once again won the fattest nation contest. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and various nutrition researchers have all put out some thought-provoking information for us to ponder.

The problems

First, people don’t understand nutrition labels. The FDA learned this by conducting extensive and expensive Internet-based research that showed that if you ask people to compare products made by different manufacturers to determine which is “healthier” (whatever that means), they will not get it right. In other words, they will get it wrong. I learned the same thing, much less expensively, by talking to the more strident members of my family at the dinner table.

Also, pretty much no one reads nutrition labeling on menus. Among the reasons cited are “confusion” and the “priority of... hunger.” Good luck fighting that one. Hunger has been a priority since we descended from the trees or crawled out of the primordial soup or whatever your view of creation might be.

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Comments

Real Food Doesn't Need Nutrition Labels

Dear Ms Egan,

Are we giving up on trying to get people to back to food? And, no, almost nothing in the center aisles of a grocery chain store counts as food. In my opinion, we've given up enough control to the "food" industry already.

With actual food we may not have to be so concerned with portion control or nutrition labels. I think nature has programmed us, our bodies, with robust control mechanisms that way.

I read Michael Pollan's "In Defence of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" a while ago. And, one advice is forever etched in my brain: Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Perhaps we should work not on making nutrition labels better, but getting rid of the need for them altogether?

Best regards, Shrikant Kalegaonkar (twitter: @shrikale, LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shrikale/)

Kimberly

"and men don't" is too exclusive!!! Perhaps, "many men don't", or "most men don't" --- I read labels with or without my wife. We have a long list of no-nos that we will not buy -- and one of them is American made choclates -- we have yet to find any without trans-fatty acids.

Thanks for your interesting article.