From Discover Magazine online, referring to an Institute of Medicine article.
"Even when you’re trying to eat healthy foods, it can be hard to know what to buy: Few us have the time to decipher the nutrition facts on every item we’re considering at the grocery store, and the dizzying number of health claims plastered on labels make the task, if anything, more confusing. The Institute of Medicine offered a possible solution in a report released yesterday: put a simple, standardized rating—zero to three stars or checkmarks—on every food package.
The system is designed to be similar to the Energy Star ratings, which let consumers pick out an energy-efficient appliance without wading through complicated specs. Instead of energy consumption, however, these food stars would track levels of three often over-consumed nutrients: saturated and trans fats, added sugar, and sodium. A food will get one star for each of these nutrients it contains in a healthy (i.e., moderate to miniscule) amount. Foods that are off the charts in at least one category—say, candy or butter—automatically get zero stars. Posted on the front of each package, this rating would let consumers assess a food’s healthfulness at a glance, the report says. It’s up to the FDA to decide whether these ratings should be required, and to hammer out the details.
We’re all for making things easy on people trying to eat right, and an easy-to-understand labeling system is a positive step. But a healthy diet isn’t like an electricity bill; it’s not as simple as using less salt or sugar as though you were cutting down on your kilowatt hours. In addition to picking healthy foods, people also have to know where those foods fit into balanced diet—something the new rating system doesn’t reflect. Plus, it disregards other important factors in a food’s nutritional value, such as whether it’s made with whole grains or what additional vitamins and nutrients it contains."
The last paragraph says it all. Until people take personal responsibility for their food choices no amount of government regulation or education can physically make someone choose the right foods that would create a balanced and nutritious diet. We all know that time is an issue when it comes to grocery shopping. None of us enjoy it and most of us would rather spend more time in the magazine aisle than staring at the back of a plastic bag or carton, but if we keep letting things go in this direction the country will only get worse. Sure, we could all pick reasons why our economy is in the toilet, but an undeniable fact is that health care costs are on the rise due in no small part to the obesity epidemic. I realize how hard it is to think of pulling a fat guy out of Denny's or slapping ice cream out of a chunky kids hand, but if that's what it comes to then maybe we could consider it. Do you honestly want your tax money paying for someone elses healthcare, directly or indirectly, when it could have been avoided?
