Food labels are something that diabetes educators spend a lot of time on. There’s some very good information and teachable moments in food labels. The Food and Drug Administration is now proposing some changes/updates to food labels.
The whole point of having food labels is to help people make healthier food choices. Some of the proposed changes include making the servings per container, serving size and calorie count bigger and bolder. I definitely like the idea of servings per container being emphasized more. Up until now, it’s been easy to look quickly at a food label, see the number of grams of carbohydrate and forget that it’s just one serving. What if the container has three servings? Big difference!
As far as making the number of calories more prominent, I have mixed feelings. In the diabetes world we don’t focus on calories as much. It seems as if the focus on calories has diminished in general. What’s important is to get a well-balanced meal plan with emphasis on plant foods, whole grains, low fat dairy, high fiber, and lean protein.
Another proposed change is including types of fats and getting rid of calories from fat. Knowing the types of fat in a product is definitely important. For healthy outcomes, we want to limit saturated fats and stay away from trans fats. We also want to decrease our sodium intake to less than 1500 mg/day, but the proposed changes base recommendations on 23oo mg.
Come to think of it, if we stick with mostly whole foods, we won’t have to read many food labels anyway!