As the current Nutrition Facts Panel was launched in the early 1990’s, there’s no doubt that it needs a refresh, a redesign, something.  Since 2003, the regulatory and policy agencies have been looking at changes that need to be made.  Earlier this year, Good Magazine and the University of California Berkeley launched a competition to rethink the food label.  The winning design, and all the submitted designs, can be seen at http://berkeley.news21.com/foodlabel/designs/renee-walker.  The FDA recently announced it’s going to take a hard look at the label, consider updating the serving sizes, emphasizing calories more, deleting information that is meaningless to consumers.

But back to the question I started with in this post.  There are many consumers who are most interested in how natural a product is, whether it contains preservatives and additives.  Individuals with heart disease are focused on the saturated fat and sodium in a product.  People with diabetes are closely looking at the carbohydrates and sugars.  Others want to know if the product contains gluten.  What about artificial sweeteners – are they in there?

We live in a time of individualization.  I get to choose what is good for me.  I want the information I want to make my own decisions.

At the same time we are in the midst of a public health crisis – startling rates of obesity, startling rates of childhood obesity, heart disease and cancer deaths crippling our health care system.  The federal agencies mission is to protect consumers, and a part of this is providing information that protects consumer health.  But the information the agencies deem important may not be the same as what each of us as individuals deems important.

But can the label do it all?  Can it be the one source of information that meets the regulatory agencies’ goals of consumer protection and at the same time meets my individual needs? 

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that factors in 30 elements of good nutrition in one score, simplifying and enhancing the information on a label.

Many consumers are dedicated to choosing organic foods, and believe that they are healthier options.

I bring this up because today, two retailers out West are launching the NuVal™ System, the system I work on every day in my job.  What’s intriguing about these launches at King Soopers in Colorado and Raleys in California, is that these markets have a very high interest in organic and natural products.  We’re already seeing many questions from their consumers on how the organic status of a product plays into the product’s overall nutrition, which is what is measured by the NuVal™ Score.

While there are many reasons to buy organic – lower pesticide and chemical use in the growing of organic foods, better conditions for the farmers – science doesn’t support that organic foods are necessarily more nutritious.  Take an apple, for example.  A medium apple has 5 grams of fiber no matter whether it is grown organically or conventionally.  When you move into processed foods it’s even trickier.  There is an example of an organic macaroni and cheese product that has 10 grams of saturated fat, half of what the average person can have in an entire day.  Yes, it’s organic, but is it necessarily a good nutrition choice?

When it comes to food, there are multiple elements that contribute to the overall health – portion size, nutrition quality, and organic status are just a few.  But you can’t assume that the USDA organic seal on the product label means the food is more nutritious.  If you’re an organic shopper, it’s important to also consider the overall nutrition of these foods as well – is the product lower in saturated fat, free of trans fat, higher in fiber and calcium, lower in sodium? Shoppers in Denver and California now have a way to find organic foods that also have the best overall nutrition quality.

Visit www.nuval.com to find a retailer near you that helps you find foods of higher overall nutrition quality.

When I started my career, there were still smoking rooms in workplaces.  But since then, we have seen taxes on cigarette packages, bans on smoking in all public places, increased insurance premiums for smokers, and in some cases, companies that now refuse to hire smokers.  Government intervention, environmental and policy change were all effective in making huge strides in this public health issue.

There is much debate today as to whether the same approach should be taken with food.  Should a “fat tax” be assessed against junk foods?  Should obese individuals be assessed higher insurance premiums?

I read quite a bit on this topic, and understand the rationale.  We have an obesity epidemic in our country, and our behaviors are contributing significantly to this problem.  Obesity and its related disease are burdening our health care industry and national debt.  Individuals don’t appear to be taking responsibility for the issue.

But the issue for me in this argument has always been that cigarette smoking and food are not the same.  You can completely cut cigarettes out of your life.  You can stop cold turkey one day and never go back.  You can never start and live your whole life without ever smoking.

But food is necessary to live.  We need to eat food every day.  Several times a day in fact.

So the real issue is treating food responsibly.  Managing food in order to manage our health, and it gets tricky to understand how government involvement would help us with this task.  Take a fat tax, for example.  What foods would get taxed?  Many entities have tried to suggest soda pop should get taxed.  But then shouldn’t you also tax fruit juices, as they often have the same or more calories per serving and not any nutritional value to mention?  Does chicken at KFC get taxed but not the fried chicken you make at home?

Then there’s the genetic component of obesity, with experts suggesting that our genetic make-up contributes to about 30% of obesity.  Should the individual be penalized for their family history?

It’s a complicated issue, with many sides to it, which will continue to be debated until the health crisis in our country changes.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system that can help you take personal responsibility to manage your food choices and manage your health.