Efforts are underway to convince US and UK consumers eat healthy foods-and aujourd ' hui, the proposals of the government led on both sides the Atlantic, predictably, generating much debate.
in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today held a public meeting to discuss the changes proposed project in February to its label the nutritional value, the cliff note summarizing the amount of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, sugars, and in food and drinks. FDA has not reviewed the food label in 1993. Since then, the rate of obesity, dietary habits and understanding of various nutrients have changed considerably. "The evidence requires rethinking," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. That is the only point on which everyone seems to agree, but achieving consensus seems unlikely. FDA has received more than 4,000 comments on its draft proposal, and has recently extended the comment period in early August.
Like other nutritional defenders, Jacobson, who spoke at today's meeting in downtown Washington, DC, embrace the suggestion of the FDA to include so-called sugar -from sugars that are added to foods to added labels. "Added sugars exert detrimental effects on health beyond empty calories," agreed Frank Hu, who studies nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston and who also spoke. It has " irrefutable evidence, "he argued, they contribute to obesity and diabetes, and other health problems. One question, however, is whether simply list the quantity of added sugars, such as FDA proposes, is sufficient. Jacobson wants the agency to include the amount in percentage of a recommended daily dose after all, consumers are unlikely to deduce whether 1 gram, 5 grams and 15 grams are problematic unless that they are provided context. FDA says it lacks a scientific basis for setting such a deadline.
This is a place diverges FDA scientific Advisory Committee UK on nutrition. He has published a report mastodon 366 pages earlier today recommending that the population as a whole have an average consumption of "sugar" which is 5% of the diet. (Sugar Free contains added sugars, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and unsweetened fruit juice.) In both countries, people consume sugar much more added than what is considered healthy; the United States, it represents on average 16% of calories.
Industry groups are not satisfied with some of the recommendations. "We believe that some aspects of the proposal are missing some merit, particularly the addition of added sugar," said Donna Garren, who represented the American Frozen Food Institute at the FDA meeting. A story from the BBC about the U.K. proposal cited the sugar industry saying that "demonizing one ingredient" will not solve the obesity epidemic.
FDA offers many other changes to its nutrition label. Among them: dropping the obligation to list the amount of vitamin A and vitamin C in food, because evidence suggests deficiencies in these vitamins are rare. Instead, the FDA wants manufacturers to list the amount of vitamin D and potassium foods include their, because of the importance of the first in the bones and the second in the control of blood pressure.
As nutritional progress of science and, in some cases, becomes more balanced, it is feared that efforts to simplify the labels so that consumers can quickly understand the risk of going too far. The FDA, for example, wants to expand the number of calories in food. Hu has this instinct, but stresses that calories are not everything, highlighting the risks of sending customers to buy products with artificial sweeteners that are less healthy, rather than high-calorie foods such as nuts and seeds that are healthier. FDA proposes to remove the label "calories from fat" because more and more evidence suggests that some fats are good for you.
After lunch today, speakers rose to comment on the plan from the FDA, which usually suggests the agency was either not doing enough or going too far. If the sodium recommendations be less than? If phosphorus is added to the labels, as a useful guide for people with kidney disease who may need to keep an eye on phosphorus intake? If labels FDA food try to reduce the consumption of saturated fats? The list is as well as research analyzes the many variables of our diet.
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