Food labels to get calorie clarity, says FDA
Packages to list what percentage of daily needs product contains
November 5, 2004
ROCKVILLE, Md. - How much did that afternoon snack cut into your daily allowance of calories? The U.S. government wants food companies to make the answer clear on product labels.
A Food and Drug Administration proposal, expected to be released next month, would tell food manufacturers for the first time to list on packages the percentage of daily recommended calories the product contains, Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said Friday.
The purpose is to “shock you and tell you (that) you have consumed 50 percent of your daily calories,” Crawford said at a meeting of the FDA Science Board.
The percentage will be based on a daily diet of 2,000 calories.
“So that milkshake may have been great, but it may have been costly,” Crawford said.
The FDA wants food labels revamped in order to help consumers get more useful information about fat, calorie and carbohydrate content, and to encourage healthy choices to help fight the U.S. obesity epidemic.
Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. adult population is overweight or obese, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Anyone with a body mass index (a ratio between your height and weight) of 25 or above -- that’s someone, for example, who is 5-foot-4 and 145 pounds -- is considered overweight, according to the National Institutes of Health. Anyone with a body mass index of 30 or above -- such as someone who is 5-foot-6 and 186 pounds -- is considered obese.
Three hundred thousand people die each year due to obesity-related causes, making it the second-leading cause of death after smoking. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers.
Fifteen percent of youngsters ages 6 to 19 and 10 percent of children 2 through 5 are considered seriously overweight.
About 45 percent of women and 25 percent of men are
trying to lose
weight at any one time, but only one-fifth are using
the recommended combination of fewer calories and increased
exercise.
Americans spend more than $33 billion a year on weight-loss products and services. However, the economic cost of obesity in the United States was about $117 billion in 2000.
Choose low-fat, lean foods from the five major food groups; eat sensible portions, and use fats, oils, sweets and salt sparingly. Total fat intake should be no more than 30 percent of daily calories. Exercise moderately for at least 30 minutes on most days. If you need to lose weight, do so gradually -- aim to lose about 10 percent of your body weight over 6 months.
With many Americans trying “low-carb” diets to lose weight, the FDA will specify how manufacturers should describe carbohydrate content on their packaging.
The rules will aim to “demystify” carbs for consumers, as well as set forth standards that FDA can enforce, Crawford said.
“This will give our regulatory people the means to control this,” he said.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index or BMI — a weight-for-height ratio — of more than 30. For an average woman, that usually means being 30 pounds overweight and, for an average man, 35 to 40 pounds.
The FDA will take public comments on the proposals before making them final, Crawford said.
Source:http://msnbc.msn.com
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