From Your Health Journal…..”Recently, I read a great article from Yahoo! by Elizabeth Palermo called, Better Food Labeling Could Stem Obesity. We have written here many times about food labeling, and recently, we discussed changes being made in the UK on this topic. Many wonder if improved labeling on food products help consumers make healthier / better choices? A recent study by the FDA shows that it can. The FDA is in the process of updating the 20-year-old nutrition facts label that appears on all food and beverage products in the U.S. The organization’s researchers believe that improved labels may assist consumers in making healthier decisions about the food they buy. It appear that the new concept will be easier to read, with more columns, one for single serving, and one for the entire package. This is an important article to read. I have included a short snip, but please visit the Yahoo! site (link provided below) to read the complete article.”

Can improved labeling on food products help consumers make healthier choices? A new study by the Food and Drug Administration shows that it can. The FDA is in the process of updating the 20-year-old nutrition facts label that appears on all food and beverage products in the U.S. The organization’s researchers believe that improved labels may assist consumers in making healthier decisions about the food they buy.

The FDA commissioned the study as part of the action plan for its Obesity Working Group. The researchers’ goal was to determine whether modifying the key elements of the nutrition facts label might help consumers better understand the nutrition label , and in turn make more healthful decisions while purchasing and eating food.

“Survey research conducted by the FDA has shown that consumers have come to rely on the food label to determine the nutritional content of the food they eat. In fact, the percentage of consumers who report that they often read a food label the first time they purchase a food rose from 44 percent in 2002 to 54 percent in 2008,” said Amy M. Lando, who co-led the study along with Serena C. Lo, Ph.D., also of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Md.

To test the effectiveness of different labels, researchers created one new label that used two columns to display the nutritional details for a single serving of a product alongside the details for the entire package. The researchers also created labels that only displayed nutritional information for the entire package, rather than using the method of citing per-serving nutritional information.

“In particular, we were interested in studying products that have two servings per container but that are customarily consumed in a single eating occasion,” said Lando.

To read the complete article…..Click here