The 2008 American Dietetic Association’s annual Food and Nutrition Expo and Conference is over, and we’d like to end our coverage on a high note. From the survey conducted earlier this year, and presented at the conference, there are some encouraging signs that people are starting to make better food choices. You can listen to a webinar presentation or download the slides here.

Some highlights from WebMD:

* Consumption of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits is up.
* Trans fat, beef, pork, and dairy consumption is down.
* More Americans have a good attitude toward diet and exercise and say they’re doing their best to eat healthfully.

Here are the top five foods or nutrients that survey participants say they’ve increased during the past five years:

* Whole grains: 56% say they’re eating more
* Vegetables: Half of participants say they’re eating more vegetables
* Fruits: 48% say they’re eating more fruit
* Low-fat foods: 48% say they’re eating more low-fat foods
* Omega-3 fatty acids: 38% say they’ve boosted their consumption

Let’s hope the trends accelerate.

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The Smart Choices food label program launched this weekend at the American Dietetic Association’s annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. In a previous post, we briefly outlined the history of food regulation and labeling.

Today we’ll explain the background for Smart Choices, what it’s doing right, and where it can improve.

Background:
Starting with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act in 1990 (NLEA), The USDA and FDA have required food manufacturers to disclose the following information on their food packaging: ingredient list, allergy warnings, and nutrient information. The information must be displayed in a uniform standardized manner. In return for this effort, manufacturers were allowed to publish health claims prominently on the front of the product package.

Consumers embraced the nutrition information that became available, and began making more educated purchase decisions. However, many became confused with the information overflow. Cryptic ingredient names and Daily Value calculations presented new challenges to shoppers. If the FDA hoped through nutrition labels to encourage a healthier consumer, quite the opposite transpired in the past two decades, as obesity rates and diet related illnesses have shot up .

So recently, manufacturers stepped up individually to the challenge, and began offering their consumers healthy choices within their product families. Several manufacturers launched marketing campaigns promoting their “better for you” brands. In 2004, PespiCo introduced SmartSpot seals on some of its reduced fat/sugar/sodium products. In 2005 Kraft launched a similar Sensible Solutions, and several other manufacturers followed suit. And then there’s the American Heart Association Heart Check Seal.

However, all these programs have added to, not decreased, the public’s confusion over what to buy and eat. Consumer groups have called upon the FDA to step in and create a uniform benchmark for all food manufacturers that will become a standard for front of package nutrition information. To date, the FDA has not. This is where the not-for-profit Keystone Center stepped in and helped bring together industry leaders and academic nutrition experts to find a solution. Sensing that if the food industry doesn’t figure out a way to handle front of package label standardization, the FDA will, rival manufacturers finally banded together to self-regulate and create a single “Smart Choices” standard.

Smart Choices includes a BIG GREEN CHECKMARK for eligible foods, as well as calorie count and number of servings in the package. A product can display the seal only if it meets all the required nutrition criteria as defined by the “Smart Choices” roundtable. Several industry titans have stated they will be in the program, set to roll out mid-2009, including Unilever, Kraft, General Mills, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, and Wal-Mart.

Why Smart Choice is good:

1. Simplicity. Consumers get a quick answer to their question “is this food healthy?”

2. Uniformity. assuming all manufacturers join in, “Smart Choices” creates a uniform language in the supermarket and lets consumers quickly identify the less fattening products.

3. Calories. By presenting calories upfront, people immediately get the most important data point without having to search for it in small print on the nutrition label in the side or back panel.

How could Smart Choices be better:

1. Self regulation doesn’t work. Just look where it has gotten our financial system recently. It’s really simple to explain: Food manufacturers need to show growing profits. to do that, they need to sell us more food, not less. To sell more food, we need to buy more products. We’ll buy more products that we beleive are good for us. Therefore, manufacturers would like as many products as possible to be eligible for a Smart Choice seal. Thus, they will not adopt a benchmark that is too stringent. As Michael F. Jacobsen, executive director of nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest writes: “A disinterested funder and committee of experts free of conflicts of interest likely would have rated the healthfulness of foods differently from the ‘better for you’ Smart Choices Program adopted by the roundtable.”

2. Not really a standard. Not all food manufacturers and retailers will join. There are competing industry standards vying for the same success. Guiding Stars has been in use at Hannaford Brothers Supermarkets for the last 2 years. NuVal has just launched at Hy-vee.

3. “Worse for you”. Systems such as UK’s Traffic Lights point out the bad, not just the good in a product.  A product which is low in sugar but high in saturated fat will get a “green light” for sugar, but a “red light” for the fat. The consumer gets a better picture.  A benchmark system such as Smart Choices does not point out products that may be “worse for you”, full of sodium, sugar, and fat. No sane marketer would ever want something negative to be prominently displayed on her products. It only happens when the government thinks it’s important. Just look at the long fought battle of the cigarette industry with the FDA until cigarettes/cancer messages were placed on every pack. That will probably not happen with food, not even the lowliest junk food.

4. Black and white in a gray world. The Yes/No message dichotomy oversimplifies food to a point of being ineffective. If you’re standing in front of a supermarket shelf and have to choose between two similar spaghetti sauces, both with a Smart Choices seal, which is better? What about two frozen pizzas without a seal? The NuVal system (not perfect either) grades each product from 1-100, giving consumers a much better picture of each product’s relative and absolute “nutrition value”.

5. Lenient Criteria. Some of the criteria chosen by the food industry seem a bit too lenient. For example, 12 grams of sugar per serving is more than 2 teaspoons worth. Yet a sugary breakfast cereal toting this amount is a Smart Choice, as it is fortified with vitamins and minerals.

6. Different strokes for different folks. A middle aged diabetic has different dietary needs than a healthy teenager or a senior suffering from hypertension and trying to reduce sodium intake. How can the same exact products be “better for” all of them?

Conclusion:

“Smart Choices” will not solve our obesity epidemic. But it does attempt to give some guidance. Not all the problems we pointed to can be addressed immediately, but at least there are advances in the right  direction. Hopefully consumers will use the information provided to them and start making better decisions.
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The American Dietetic Association’s Annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo is a launchpad for companies’ new nutritional products and findings. Here are two additional announcements.

Beech-Nut, the baby-food underdo, has pledged it’s commitment to babies’ nutrition and health by rebranding it’s labels and messaging. Strict standards include 3 pillars:

— All natural: all natural ingredients, no added sugar, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives, no trans fats, no modified starches, and no harsh spices.

— Essential nutrition: A balanced ratio of protein, carbohydrates and fats for optimum nutrition, along with the enrichment of vitamins and minerals as needed for healthy development.

— Proactive nutrition: Enhanced benefits to support learning, growth, brain and eye development, and digestive health, including nutrients such as DHA omega-3 and prebiotics.

Con-Agra wants to make sure we are aware that canned tomatoes may help us ward off heart disease. They  funded a 5 year study with 14,000 adults to prove it (previous studies have shown that tomatoes in almost any form are high in nutrients that can help fight various diseases). And of course Con-Agra’s Hunt’s Canned Tomatoes should be a part of everyone’s diet.

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From WebMD:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today launched the “My Pyramid for Preschoolers” Web site today in Chicago at the American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo.

My Pyramid for Preschoolers is geared to the parent or other caregiver who makes most of the food choices for children aged 2-5.

Read More…

What you need to know:

Children as young as 2 years old can, and should be encouraged to, eat the same foods as their parents (with a few exceptions such as nuts). Starting early and exposing them to “adult food” will lessen the risk of “addictions” to specially formulated (ie sweetened) foods for kids. This of course assumes that the parents are eating healthfully.

What to do at the supermarket:

Here is a handy chart from the MyPyramid website with suggestions for more nutritious choices at the grocery store.

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A quick roundup of this morning’s news from the American Dietetic Association’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Chicago this week.

Eating Whole Grains Lowers Heart Failure (HF) Risk, According To New Study:
In a new study researchers observed over 14,000 participants for more than 13 years and found that whole grain consumption lowered HF risk, while egg and high-fat dairy consumption raised risk. Other food groups did not directly affect HF risk.

New dual action Iron pill launches today.  Bifera to be Available in Select Stores in Early 2009. From the press release:
New, dual action iron supplement pill with virtually no gastrointestinal side effects for people who need the energy and nutritional benefits from iron to be available without prescription

The Latest Pistachio Study (Sponsored by…the Western Pistachio Association) reveals that consuming pistachios may reduce the risk of heart disease.

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According to the US Dietary Guidelines, we’re supposed to get 5 servings of vegetables a day, but most of us fall short. A new study presented this weekend at the annual ADA convention has found a solution. Drink your veggies:

University of California-Davis researchers say drinking vegetable juice is an effective way to help people increase their vegetable intake.

Study author Carl Keen says seven out of 10 adults fall short of the daily vegetable intake recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The researchers studied whether drinking vegetable juice could be a simple behavior change to help boost the intake of vegetables to “strive for five,” or eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Read more…

What you need to know:

There’s great variation in the nutritional content of vegetables. Most contain small amounts of fat and protein, and large amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. The variation is important, as each color represents different nutrients found in the plant. Here’s a brief color code  breakdown:

Red – tomatoes (especially cooked) – lycopene. Protection from prostate cancer as well as heart and lung disease.

Purple – beets, eggplant, red cabbage, red peppers – anthocyanins – good for the heart.

Orange – carrots, winter squash and sweet potatoes – alpha carotene, beta carotene.

Yellow/green – spinach, collards, corn, green peas, avocado – lutein and zeaxanthin – good for the eyes.

Green – broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and bok choy – sulforaphane, isocyanate – inhibit the action of carcinogens.

White/green – garlic, onions, leeks, celery, asparagus – allicin and other antioxidants – antitumor properties.

source: The Color Code book

What to do at the supermarket:

When buying vegetable juice, look at the label to see what you’re getting. An 8oz serving of V8 is loaded with salt (480mg / 20% of recommended daily intake). The low sodium version has less than a third of that amount.

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The American Dietetic Association’s annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, begins today in Chicago. The conference is a worldwide gathering of dietitians, politicians, and food industry leaders. We will be covering the conference closely from now til its closing Tuesday, bringing you the latest news and updates.

Make sure to follow us here and on twitter to get updated.

What you need to know:

The American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals with about 70,000 members. According to it’s website – ADA is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy.

The ADA is facing a difficult challenge. It is hard for Americans to hear the voice of dietitians and the ADA, when they are under the constant drone of commercials and advertising coming from the Food Industry. What have you heard or seen this week – an ad for junk food, or an ad about eating healthily?

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