In the fight against obesity, powerful health officials want to see chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Wendy’s display calories on their menu boards. Lesley Stahl reports.
Archive for category Food labeling
Given the low level of understanding, it’s no surprise that most people also have trouble deciphering the difference between multi-grain and whole-wheat flour in a loaf of bread.
Americans are fast becoming overweight but yet remain undernourished. The newly formed Nutrient-Rich Coalition, was formed to address and clarify consumers’ misconceptions and help them understand how to get more nutrition from the foods they eat and drink.
This coalition takes a new approach to defining “healthy foods” by promoting a nutrient-rich approach to eating. It follows the advice of the dietary guidelines and MyPyramid by encouraging getting the most vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from foods while staying within calorie recommendations.
The coalition is a partnership that brings together leading scientific researchers, communication experts and twelve food commodity associations. They recently launched a new web site, www.nutrientrichfoods.org/ which provides user-friendly tips, recipe ideas and grocery shopping lists to help consumers simplify, and even enjoy, the process. The site also contains helpful resources for health professionals, including the Live Well! Tool kit. The tool kit is easily downloadable from the site and was created as an education guide for health professionals to use with their clients.The coalition sums it all up by stating “The Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition is advancing scientific and market research to develop tools that make it easier for people to get the most nutrition from their calories, as recommended by the dietary guidelines and MyPyramid.”
On the Scientific Advisory Committee you find:
Adam Drewnowski, PhD, University of Washington
Victor Fulgoni, PhD, Nutrition Impact, LLC
Robert Heaney, MD, FACP, FAIN, Creighton University
Eileen Kennedy, PhD, Tufts University
Janet King, PhD, University of California, Berkeley & Davis
Paul LaChance, PhD, Rutgers University
Esther Myers, PhD, RD, American Dietetic Association
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is inviting companies in the food industry to Partner with MyPyramid. Both food companies and consumer electronic companies have the chance to step up to provide new opportunities for families to connect to good nutrition and activity where they work, play and where they purchase and prepare food.
View this video below for a quick introduction visit http://www.mypyramid.gov/Challenge/
For companies a downloadable Action Kit has been developed. On June 10 this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture will host a media event to kick start this new initiative. And in January 2009 the first annual symposia will be organized.
This also includes the possibility to use MyPyramid as front-of-pack food labeling. More info can be found here.