Label Makeover

Finally! The food labels are getting a makeover!

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has decided it's time. The new label will be the first update on the labels required on food since the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act almost twenty years ago. The changes are intended to make labels easier to understand by putting the information into a context consumers can more clearly comprehend.

Some of the proposed changes are (courtesy of Tara Parker-Pope's Well blog):

1. Put calorie and serving size information in larger type at the top of the label so it’s immediately clear how much you are eating.
2. Make the ingredient list easier to read by printing it in regular type instead of all capital letters. Use bullets to separate ingredients rather than allowing them to all run together.
3. List minor ingredients and allergens separately from the main ingredient list. Highlight allergy information in red.
4. List similar ingredients together and show the percentage by weight. For instance, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and grape juice concentrate are all forms of sugar and should be listed in parenthesis under the catchall heading “sugars.”
5. Use red labeling and the word “high” when a product has more than 20 percent of the daily recommendation for fats, sugars, sodium or cholesterol.
6. Make it clear which sugars are added to the product versus those that occur naturally.
7. Display prominently the percentage of whole grains contained in a product.
8. List caffeine content.

This image shows some of the proposed revisions. You can see and read more here.

I'm curious to see what the labels finally end up looking like!

Thanksgiving Yogurt Adventure

As I sit writing this, I am at Chris' mom's kitchen table trying to get motivated to do homework. Yesterday's celebration at his dad's house was really nice, and afterwards, Chris and I stopped by the house of one of my friends from college. A whole collection of people I know from the Boston poetry scene were there, so it was great to catch up.

This morning involved going to the gym with Chris' mom and then enjoying some hot coffee while looking out over the river. Since she's only been in this apartment for about a week, there wasn't a whole lot in the fridge, but there were a few containers of Stonyfield Farms yogurt she told me to help myself to. There was also a half-finished container of whole milk plain yogurt left by the previous tenant.

I tend to prefer plain yogurt, so I will admit, I actually tasted the leftover stuff. It was still good, but I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of whole milk yogurt. I'm sure if I were used to it, I wouldn't have found the taste so weird, but it was just kind of...funny. So I reached for one of the "berry pomegranate" flavored varieties.

The yogurt was pretty good, if a little sweet. While scanning the ingredients, I noted the organic evaporated cane juice (sugar) and the organic fruit juices and the ubiquitous "natural flavor." I always find it funny how companies try to convince you that their product is somehow healthier because it's sweetened with fruit juice or with evaporated cane juice. I mean, sugar is sugar is sugar, and gram for gram, different varieties have the same nutritional value (nil). This yogurt also had pectin in it, which is a naturally occurring substance (a polysaccharide, which is a sugar) found in fruit peels and skins. It's basically what allows cooking apples to gel, and it's often used as a thickening agent.

While I guess it's better than the gelatin I saw listed in a suspisciously-thick Yoplait Light yogurt I had at a rest stop on Wednesday, it just seems weird that one would want to have their yogurt specially thickened. I mean, what's wrong with regular yogurt? It seems thick enough to me. This stuff felt a bit like eating creamy jello.

I don't think that people who buy pre-sweetened, thickened yogurts are bad or anything. Sometimes it's a better alternative than other offerings, especially if you're traveling. I just think it's annoying that the food companies add such weird stuff to otherwise innocuous products.

Anyway, that's my two cents for the day. Tonight we're going to a dosa restaurant in Central Square and to see some of Chris' high school friends. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday!

Michael Pollan's Rules

I know that posting about Michael Pollan on a nutrition blog is kind of like posting about jeans on a fashion blog, but the guy is popular for a reason...

This January, he has a new book coming out in which he offers 20 Rules to Eat By. Part of his research included posting a request on Tara Parker-Pope's Well blog on NYTimes.com, asking readers to submit their own rules. Within days he had over 2,500 responses.

"My premise," he says, "is that for all the authority we grant to science in matters of nutrition, culture still has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this popular wisdom is worth preserving — perhaps today more than ever, in this era of dazzling food science, supersize portions and widespread dietary confusion."

You can read more about these rules here.

Wanna see some of Pollan's favorite rules?

Doctor's Orders

I'll tell you a secret: I hate getting on the scale—absolutely dread it—because the number is often lower than I'd like. Though I make an effort to eat enough to keep up with my busy lifestyle, I go through phases where I have a hard time keeping weight on. 

That's a big part of why I tend to think negatively on the rampant weight loss industry and the media's obsession with weight loss. However, I suppose my perspective does help balance my viewpoint and requires me to take several sides of an issue into account when I read nutrition and health articles, especially those concerning weight. 

Today I had a check up with my doctor, and was frustrated to find I'm not quite where I should be. While most people would be thrilled with the prescription she gave me: "peanut butter, shakes, and ice cream," it's tough to consciously go against pretty much everything I hear and read. 

Guess it's back to sneaking nuts and cheese and dried fruit into things and trying to be mindful to take in more calorie-dense foods. One good thing about having some knowledge of nutrition and how to meet my needs is that it does make it easier to know what to do to keep myself healthy. The issue, of course, is always habit, turning off the autopilot once in a while. 

Oh well, at least summer's coming, which makes ice cream a pretty easy choice. I wish New York would adopt Dairy Queen, that's one of the few things from the suburbs I miss!

Happy Memorial Day. Hope you have a great long weekend planned!

Nothing says "Good Morning!" like a Diet Coke?

So I have this tendency towards drinking Diet Coke in the morning the way some people drink coffee or tea. I get it from my dad, who likes to start this day with something carbonated...

For years I did this until one morning this fall I just kind of woke up and decided I was ready to stop. It's been tough adjusting, but I usually do all right just having a cup of green tea instead. 

Some mornings, though, like on rainy Mondays, it's just not the same. This morning as I walked towards the subway to work I wondered, as I often do, if I should stop by that deli next door to the office...No. Yes. No. Maybe? 

Eventually, I just decided that not spending the $1.50 was a good enough excuse for me today. I'd also slipped some green tea in my purse to make during the day if I got sleepy. Having a back-up helps. 

The back-and-forth in my head, though, did get me thinking about the great debate that goes on about diet soda and artificial sweeteners in general.

There's so much conflicting information. Some studies claim it leads to obesity, cancer, and a host of other ailments like diabetes.  However, some claim it doesn't have that much of an effect if you don't consume too much of it. A study performed at the University of California San Francisco suggests that diet soda may actually help reduce the risk of forming kidney stones. 

It's hard to say which sources are worth listening to and which ones aren't. It's dizzying trying to keep up with it. I feel like if there's this much uncertainty, though, maybe that's a sign. 

The reason I cut back and stopped keeping diet soda in the house is that I can't just have a little bit. I could drink an entire two-liter bottle all by myself and then go looking for more. After a while I started thinking about how many chemicals I was taking in, and it creeped me out enough to convince me to try going without it. After the first week, it was pretty easy. 

Still, sometimes it's a nice treat, and if I'm paying (way too much) for an individual can, I actually can just stop at one. 

Sheesh, you'd think I was talking about alcohol or something...

Brooklyn Food Conference

For those of you in the New York area, the Brooklyn Food Conference is going on in Park Slope this weekend at PS 321 and John Jay High School. 

All day, there will be workshops, presentations, film screenings and other activities taking place that are free and open to the public. 

Topics range from "Why co-ops matter" to "Eating for a healthy pregnancy" to "Food and the elderly: Food insecurity as a way of life" to "School food activism: Making it better."

Some featured speakers include:

*Dan Barber—Executive chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Restaurant

*Anna Lappé—Author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen

*Raj Patel—Author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System

*LaDonna Redmond—President and CEO of the Institute of Community Resource Development in Chicago.

For more information, visit: http://brooklynfoodconference.org