FDA Finalizes Nutrition Label Update

washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/20/heres-a-first-look-at-the-fdas-new-nutrition-label-and-10-reasons-why-its-different-from-the-old/
The serving sizes now reflect what people currently eat — rather than whatever the companies decide seems reasonable. So serving sizes that were equivalent to only a few chips might now reflect the whole package.

The total calorie count is now highlighted in huge letters rather than being in the same type size as the other nutrition information.

Added sugars, a completely new category is important given recent updates to the dietary guidelines urging Americans to cut down on sugars that come from processed foods such as cakes and cookies. Added sugars are measured in both grams and as a percent daily value.

For some food products that could be consumed in multiple sittings — or in one single swoop if you really have the munchies — there will now be two columns to indicate the per-serving and per-package calorie and nutrition information that will save you from doing some math. This will include items like that pint of Ben & Jerry’s. Packages or containers that are between one and two servings — such as 20-ounce bottles of sodas — will now be labeled as one serving.

Sodium and dietary fiber. The percent daily values for sodium, dietary fiber and vitamin D will change for many foods based on the new 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that call for up to 28 grams a day (up from 25).

In the past, labels only had the percent daily values for vitamin D and potassium, but they’ll now also show the gram amount.

Vitamins A and C will no longer be required on labels, since deficiencies of these vitamins are rare nowadays.

Based on research that shows the type of fat is more important than the amount, the “Calories from Fat” line will disappear. However, “Total Fat,” and the subcategories “Saturated Fat,” and “Trans Fat” will still be required.

Do Americans even know what a gram is? They should show the weight in horseshoes or something.

>there will now be two columns to indicate the per-serving and per-package calorie
I think this is a step in the right direction. The per-serving labeling has just been a way to hide how many calories actually are in the products.

Ostensibly the US Customary system on weights uses ounces for things smaller than a pound (16 oz = 1 lbs), but even then it takes 28 grams to equal just 1 ounce.

So even our system of weights and measures is obese.

>white font on turquoise background

Someone needs to be fired for that.

Don't american food labels have "Calories per 100g" or another standard weight?

Fucking finally. Ever see a pack of instant ramen where it says "servings per container: 2"? What bullshit. Who eats half of one of those?

QFT

The standard serving size for Oreos is technically THREE cookies. Supposedly a standard 14oz bag should give you 9 uses. NINE.

>Added sugars, a completely new category is important given recent updates to the dietary guidelines urging Americans to cut down on sugars
it's jsut stupid. sugar is sugar, it's irelevant if you consider added sugar or natural sugar

>Buy orange juice
>producer removed all natural sugars to be sold as sucrose, replaced them with white sugar

>"LOL XD why do you care YOLO"

*to be sold as fructose, obviously

I'm okay with that. Seems pretty solid and an overall upgrade. In fact I don't see anything worse about it. More information, more proper, utilizable information instead of and shit where one eighteenth of a steak is the proper serving size.

I think it's a good idea, and will help push people away from processed food toward natural sources of sweetener like whole fruit and dairy. It will also help alert people to shadow sources of extra sugar in their diets like canned soups and white bread.

nope, but they should. could be wrong, but i think the US is the only country that doesn't do it that way

I like more information, but dislike less or obfuscated information in food labeling. I still want the calories from fat category as well as a breakdown on omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. I don't care that vitamins A and C deficiencies are rare–I still want the information. I like the total calories per package, but I dislike the updated serving sizes. What are the guidelines on what is considered a serving size? They may be trying to make serving sizes on labels relevant to people by reflecting what they commonly eat, but this still means nothing. I think a useful category would be the calorie count of the smallest unit (or average) of food in the package: 1 cookie, 1 pretzel, 1 slice, etc. Harder to measure foods could be in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8; or 4oz, 8oz, 12oz. There could be three columns of portion sizes like that in every category and the government dingleberries can slap a color highlighted stripe down whatever portion size column they deem a serving size based on a 2000 calorie diet.

I'm afraid some of these changes may end up dumbing down nutritional information so no fat child gets left behind.

>so no fat child gets left behind
That's basically what it is for: the fat and the stupid.

Doing the smallest unit makes sense because you could multiply out how much it would be, on average. But fat people are going to inhale to whole package anyways and stupid people can't math.

And they won't make the label take up too much space, or else the companies will run out of room to put their sales pitch next to it.

Stop trying to be reasonable about American government agencies. Every time that happens some rich guy has to settle for the medium sized yacht and a politician can only afford the 6 person jacuzzi.

Dropping calories from fat doesn't make sense to me. Comparing it with the total calories is a relatively quick way to determine if something is somewhat healthy. Or at least replace it with calories from saturated and trans fats if that is what needs watching.

>producer removed a mixture of glucose and fructose, replaced them with a mixture of glucose and fructose
A tragedy

I think each government worker needs a label so we can figure out if they're useful, and, if not, fire them.

This is why we still need a calories from fat category

natural juice vs from concentrate HFCS

theres a difference in taste come on now

>I'm afraid some of these changes may end up dumbing down nutritional information so no fat child gets left behind.
look at the dietary guidelines, they are shit, and teh RDA are if you dont want to be diseases not actually healthy

i agree with your points, it seems the FDA like every othe independent executive agency and independent legislative commission takes any step possible to "ingrain" their positions even at the cost of the publics knowledge

We use grams as a unit for weighing drugs in the states m8

In the shorter-term, trials have examined the effects of naturally-occurring fructose in the body. Researchers in Ontario, Canada, completed a six-month study of 152 individuals with type 2 diabetes who were randomized to either a high-fiber or a low-glycemic index (GI) diet (both diets also conformed to standard guidelines around reduced fat and cholesterol).6The low GI diet encouraged consumption of fruits of GI of less than 70 (e.g., citrus, apples, pears, and berries). Higher GI fruits (e.g., bananas, raisins, grapes, melons, and tropical fruits) were recommended as part of the high-fiber diet. At the end, the results suggested several benefits in the low-GI fruit group including: a reduction in blood sugar (about a -0.5% change in HbA1c), an increase in healthy HDL cholesterol (7.3% improvement), and a reduction in blood pressure (4% improvement).

A different study in Mexico evaluated the effects of a low-fructose diet (

It's no surprise Americans are so fucking fat if you have to bust out a calculator every time you want to know how much calories are actually contained in a food item in relation to its weight. The whole "serving" thing is so fucking asinine and just goes to show how truly diseased the American mind is.

This is because a "serving" is not a "meal". You're expected to eat like 16-20 servings per day.

It's like when you buy a single packaged hot pickle, it says "servings: 5" because they don't want you to have 109% of your daily sodium intake from one little hot piece of cucumber.