Never mind

I feel kind of like a dope now for actually believing for a split-second that the FTC's December 15 forum on food marketing to kids and the proposal that I blogged about a few days ago might actually hold some promise. It never fails to amaze me how one source of media will paint a completely different picture from another. I guess during finals week I was a bit lazy about not checking various sources of important stories. Haha but at least finals are over now and I have no excuse!

If you've never read Marion Nestle's blog, Food Politics, or any of her books for that matter, I'd recommend having a look—I find what she writes eye-opening. I went back a few entries today and found some more specifics on what exactly the group proposal (which I posted about a few days ago) entailed.

I'd read that it proposed restrictions on saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and sodium for foods marketed to children, but what I hadn't seen was what those limits were: 1 gram saturated fat or less per serving and not more than 15% of total calories; less than half a gram of trans fat per serving; no more than 13 grams of sugar per serving; and no more than 200 mg of sodium per serving.

You don't have to be a student of dietetics to see that there are a lot, a lot of unhealthy foods can still meet these guidelines. Not only that, but there's still a lot of discrepancy over what a serving size should be in the first place. Besides that, there's a whole slew of other hazy details complicating the matter. Talk about a mess. While I'm glad the issue is getting some attention (not that it hasn't been getting attention), it's disheartening to see some of the ways in which food companies get around regulations both in place and proposed.