KTK-Nutrition

New Food Labels Now Appearing on Food Packages:   new food labels were proposed by the Food and Drug Administration with an implementation date of July 2018.   While this date has been postponed to allow manufacturers more time to comply, many manufacturers are already changing their food labels.   Look at the packages of food you eat for these new labels.   Some companies are early adopters including Nabisco, PepsiCo, and KIND.   So, you will see the new food labels on Wheat Thins, KIND bars, Lay’s Chips, Fritos and Cheetos.   What are some of the things to look for on these new food labels? Added Sugars –One of the most important changes is the addition of “added sugar” to the label.   Food labels already include “sugars” but this is of little value as the label didn’t tell you if the “sugars” were added or naturally present in the food.   For example, milk naturally has the sugar, lactose, in it.   So, “sugars” are listed on the...

So many people focus on cutting back on carbs but not as many focus on cutting back on fat in their diets.   Some fats are truly the bad fats, the worst kinds of fat for your health.   These are trans fats.   Trans fats are so bad for your health that during 2007-2011, eleven counties in New York actually banned trans fats.   Restaurants, bakeries and concessions like park concessions could no longer sell foods containing trans fats.   This became a perfect experiment on trans fats and health as some counties in New York allowed trans fat in food sold in public places and other counties did not.   Granted, in every county in New York you could still go to the grocery store and buy foods containing trans fats, but not in restaurants and other public establishments that sold food.   So, what did the researchers find?   Heart disease – in counties that banned trans fats, heart disease declined even more than in counties that did not ban the...

Ever go to the grocery store and find “All Natural” written across the package front?    Doesn’t that sound healthy?    A good for you food?   As some of your friends what “natural” means and you will get a lot of different answers.   So what does a food labeled “natural” or “all natural” mean?   As noted in What Does "Natural" Mean to the FDA? ,   Unlike “organic,” which is legally regulated, “natural,” when seen in the aisles of your local supermarket, can mean pretty much anything the processors like. The federal government has yet to regulate the term “natural” or “all natural” so manufacturers use the terms to sell you on their product.   I was buying something once that said, “all natural ingredients”.   Then I looked at the ingredients and found “sucrose” or white table sugar listed. There is nothing “natural” about table sugar, it is highly processed food almost devoid of vitamins and minerals.   What is FDA doing about...

This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced proposed changes in our food labels.    Major changes in the food labels appearing on everything from chips to soup haven’t changed much in 20 years.   So what are some of the proposed changes? Serving sizes – ever look at the serving size on ice cream.   It states one half cup is the serving size, yet who eats only one half cup?   In teaching my nutrition class, I show a video in which the dietitian notes the one half cup serving size on ice cream.   The students are always surprised it is so low.   When I told my husband, he insisted that one half cup was too low and went to the freezer to prove it.   Of course, the ice cream container verified that one half cup is the serving.   So one of the proposed food label changes is to increase the serving size on foods such as ice cream to reflect what people actually eat.   Thus, for ice cream the serving size will increase from on...

One nutrition topic in the news this week was trans fats.   T rans Fats In the news because the federal government is pressing towards banning all trans fats in our food supply. What are Trans Fats?   This fat is made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil which makes it a more solid fat.    But by making the fat more solid, they create a fat that is bad for our health.   Why Are Trans Fats Bad for Your Health? Trans fats are known as the “bad” fats.   Actually, the worst of the fats as they have been linked to heart disease, stroke and developing type 2 diabetes.   In an article by the Associated Press, ( No More Trans Fat:   FDA Banning the Artery Clogger ) they called them “heart clogging trans fats”.    Good description as these fats have been linked to heart disease because they not only aise your “bad” cholesterol (LDL –cholesterol), but also lower your good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol)   and thus increase your risk ...