Transcription:
Understanding The Nutrition Label Makeover

Melanie Cole (Host): The labels on the food you buy may look a lot different in the next two to three years and it may help you make healthier decisions. My guest today is Janel Hemmesch. She’s a Registered Dietitian at Abbott Northwestern Hospital Bariatric Center in Minneapolis. Welcome to the show, Janel. When did the labels last change? What has the FDA done recently that's different?

Janel Hemmesch (Guest): The last major change that they made was actually in 2006 when they put trans-fats on the label. But, they really have not had an overhaul since their original version. It has been long overdue and they’re finally going to make some pretty major changes to it, both format wise but then also, a lot of changes that are more of a reflection of the new research that we've had since they were originally made.

Melanie: Let's start with the format change, because people are just learning how to read those labels and understand what the different departments mean. What’s going to change with the format?

Janel: We know that if you’re going to look at anything on the label, the two things that are the most important are noting the serving size and how many calories. So, they have made the fonts bolder and larger for those two things so that people are drawn to those two. For most people, that might be the initial thing to look at but I eventually want them to go a little deeper and looking up the other things on the label.

Melanie: So, what’ else is changing that’s important that people do understand? The serving size and the calories per serving, because that sometimes can be a little bit confusing. What else is going to come out?

Janel: Very confusing. This is actually new information for me. What I thought was manufacturers were deciding what the serving sizes were, but I learned that there’s actually legislation that mandates that the serving sizes are a reflection of what we’re actually typically eating. So, those have not been updated since 1993 and we know that what we are eating, typically our serving sizes are a lot different than what was eaten in 1993. So, for a lot of foods the serving sizes might be going up and for some they’re going down. Overall, if you look at the fact that we have an obesity epidemic, we know that we're eating too much of a lot of not good choices and not enough of some good choices. So, there’s the danger of looking at those serving sizes as something that we should be eating because, obviously, that could just perpetuate the obesity epidemic if we continue to do that. So, I really try to encourage people not to look at serving sizes as a suggested serving size but to know what they should actually be eating for themselves.

Melanie: That’s great advice.

Janel: For instance, ice cream is going from half a cup serving to two-thirds a cup serving and that does not necessarily mean any of us should be thinking now we should eat two-thirds a cup rather than half a cup.

Melanie: That’s a little bit misleading, Janel. I agree with you there. So, your advice there as a Registered Dietitian is don't follow the serving size as a suggestion but only use it as a tool to understand how much of what you’re eating has these things in it.

Janel: It’s truly nothing more than a reference to all of the other information on the label. That’s it.

Melanie: So, important to understand. What about the sugar indicators? We're learning more and more about sugar and its contribution to diabetes and obesity, so what are the sugar indicators telling us?

Janel: Right. We definitely know that our biggest concern around sugars is the added sugar and up to this point, we haven’t been able to easily know by looking at the label what’s natural versus added sugar. They finally are going to add a line item that listed just added sugar right under the total sugar. So, people will no longer have to be investigators to try to determine what of the sugar listed might actually be natural versus added. It’s going to be listed very clearly.

Melanie: What about the updated daily values? Is that changing for what they expect us to get every day?

Janel: Some of them are changing, some of them are not. For instance, the recommended amount of dietary fiber is going up, so that’s going to impact what the percent daily value is going to be. The thing about the daily values that can be confusing to people is that it’s really designed around people who need 2000 calories. Most of us need around 2000 and that’s why they picked that number but you may or may not need that much. You might need more or you might need less than that. They’re trying to allow it to be a little bit clearer for most of the population as a generalization. So, some of those daily values are changing depending on what recommendations have been recently put out. Sodium levels are recommended now to eat less than what we used to in the past. Those are some of the main areas. Vitamin D, we’re now suggested to eat more now than what we have in the past. So, your daily values are going to be impacted by those new recommendations.

Melanie: There’s one part where it is fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein--these things. Then, there’s the nutrients required, your vitamins and minerals, and these are not necessarily required in food but they’re on the label to let us know where do the daily value of your nutrients come in.

Janel: Right. So, if you actually eat that serving size, how much of that nutrient for you day are you going to get in? They took off some of those vitamins that we really don't see deficiencies in anymore, like Vitamin C, which is going to be taken off, and they're adding vitamin D, and potassium is the other one that they’re adding because we know most of the population is not getting enough of those. So, again, it’s more of a reflection of what our current state is in nutrition rather than what it was when it was originally made over 20 years ago.

Melanie: So, they’re taking, as you say, the current state of nutrition and figuring out what we need to prioritize. Do you think this is going to-- because I'm glad they're putting potassium and vitamin D, calcium and iron, these things that we need. I’d like magnesium to be on there.

Janel: I agree.

Melanie: Do you think that this is going to make people make healthier choices or is it just another thing to look at food and people don't want to be bothered?

Janel: I think people are on a continuum in their journey for nutrition. I think people start out a lot of times maybe not caring about anything on the label but when they start label reading they’ll maybe look at the calories. That’s typically the first thing they look at. But, eventually, usually in our life journeys, there comes a point where people have to start thinking about nutrition more and, at that point, the information is there and just making those numbers actually means something to you.

Melanie: This updated label--when can we expect some of these improvement to show up on our food?

Janel: Just as most things with government, everything takes a really long time to progress along. They’re giving manufacturers a lot of time to come up with some of these numbers. So, they have two to three years, depending on the size of the manufacturer, to actually implement these changes. I think some of the larger food manufacturers will step up and we'll start seeing things like added sugar on the label much sooner than that. But, they certainly do have a pretty decent time frame here to move forward with it.

Melanie: Give us your best advice for label reading and how we can use these new labels to help ourselves understand the nutrition in the food, if we’re eating food with labels at all.

Janel: Right. Usually, when people are ready to go beyond just thinking about calories, I tend to then suggest really looking at them under the context of heart health. We know that heart disease is the number one killer of Americans and so, if you’re going to look at anything else beyond calories, I think looking at those in relation to heart health. As the big hitter has been our hearth health, looking at saturated fat, trans-fat and sodium. So, I usually have people start there and once added sugars are on that label, I would then suggest looking at added sugar as the other thing that we really newly have discovered is more related to heart disease than we thought. So, those are usually the four that I really want people to try to look at and do less of.

Melanie: That’s great advice, Janel. Thank you so much for being with us. It’s really important and you’ve put it forth so succinctly and clearly. Thank you again for being with us today. You're listening to The WELLcast with Allina Health and for more information you can go to AllinaHealth.org. This is Melanie Cole.