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The first decade of the millennium brought both good and bad developments in the food and nutrition space. Mostly, this decade was a wake up call for many families and individuals that they cannot blindly trust government and market powers to provide the healthy food that they deserve.

2001 – Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by investigative reporter Eric Schlosser, is published. People begin to understand that there is a very high price society is paying for cheap food.

2003 – The FDA announces plans to permit food manufacturers to make “qualified health claims”. Industry can now rely on “Some scientific evidence” or “Very limited and preliminary scientific research” to make a health claim. Opponents criticize it as opening the door to ill-founded claims. Advocates believe it will make more information available to the public. We shoppers get more confusing marketing messages than ever.

2003 – the low carb diet craze is launched with the publication of the South Beach Diet. The trend peaked in 2004 and pretty much died off by the end of 2005.

2004 – Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, a documentary film following the health of its director eating only McDonald’s for an entire month, is released and meets with mixed reactions. Fast food chains duck for cover.

2004 – Passage of the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. Requires labeling of any food that contains one or more of: peanuts, soybeans, cow’s milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, and wheat. People suffering from allergies still confused over statements such as “produced in a factory which also processes peanuts”.

2005 – Blogging goes mainstream, and people find new and useful sources of information on any subject, including food, nutrition, and health.

2006 – Wal-Mart joins the Organic Food bandwagon, signaling the mass acceptance of a once hippy movement.

2006 – Trans-fat is proclaimed the new evil. It’s labeling is required on all packaged foods. As a result, many manufacturers reformulate their products.

2007 – Author, professor, and food lover Michael Pollan publishes The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and continues the theme of Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. The result is a mass yearning for organic, sustainable fare. A follow-up book in 2008, In Defense of Food, argues against the “nutritionism” and suggests a creation of a food culture where  we “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

2008 – COOL (country of origin) Labeling goes into effect. fresh beef, pork, and lamb. After repeated debilitation and stakeholder pressures, the law that was enacted in the 2002 Farm Bill finally went into effect on Oct 1, 2008, and even then with many loopholes.

2008-9 – Front of Pack Nutrition Labeling becomes a food industry pastime, with over 15 different systems competing who will become the dominant player. In late 2009, the FDA decides to start thinking of maybe possibly beginning a process of evaluation which could eventually lead to government regulation in this area. While Guiding Stars and NuVal still survive, Smart Choices is nixed.

2009 – In January, a salmonella outbreak caused by a dirty peanut butter processing plant in Georgia, leads to one of the largest recalls of products in the history of supermarkets. Hundreds of products are recalled after the unnecessary deaths of innocent peanut butter aficionados.

2009 – As the recession takes hold, many  turn to comfort foods. Although home cooked meals are generally healthier and cheaper than restaurant fare, McDonalds’s stock has never done better. Coupon usage increases for the first time since 1992.

Here’s a graph of McDonald’s (red)  vs. Whole Foods Market (blue) stock performance over the course of the decade. How’s your (nutrition) performance changed over the last 10 years?

Note #1 : Apologies for not mentioning any TV shows, of which surely some deserve mention, as we have not watched TV since the late 1990’s. Perhaps a fastidious reader would like to add these in the comments section.

Note #2:  many good ideas for this post appeared in Delish.

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The Journal of Pediatrics published a report on Monday showing an increase of 18% in food allergies in a 10 year period starting in 1997. This brings the total percentage of kids with allergies to 3.9% or 1 in 25 children under the age of 18. That’s about 2.88 million children across the country, or one in every classroom!

90% of food allergies are from 8 basic foods (soy, wheat, egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish), whose presence must be labeled on food products.

What is causing this increase?

“Nobody knows for certain” is the party line, if you ask government health organizations and others.

One explanation is that parents are now more aware of allergies than they were a decade ago. In their calculations, the study’s researchers took into account the heightening awareness to allergies, but even that does not explain the additional 450,000 kids with allergies over a decade.

Another option, named the “hygiene hypothesis”, purports that the relatively sterile environments of kids today don’t allow young bodies to develop strong immune systems, simply because there are no disease causing substances for them to fight. But then, for some reason, the underdeveloped immune systems overreacts to allergens.

Yet a third possibility, not investigated enough, is genetically modified foods. The modified proteins in GM soy or corn, whose byproducts are found in well over 50% of supermarket items, could possibly be causing new allergic reactions.

For most parents, luckily, allergies are a non-issue. But almost everyone has a friend or extended family member with a story about a child who has been diagnosed as allergic. That’s a curve ball that catches many folks totally unprepared. It means totally rethinking about how a family buys, stores, prepares, and serves food. Every meal, every day, home and out.

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Last week, the FDA  hinted it would be seriously looking at regulating Front of Pack (FOP) nutrition labeling systems. As a result, Smart Choices called it quits, and other programs are “on alert”. The FDA’s involvement can be of great assistance to the public, by creating a single unified system in ALL supermarkets and on ALL packages.

But first, wouldn’t it be nice if the FDA cleaned up the mess originally created when the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) brought us the nutrition facts label as we know it today?

Here’s a list of 10 things the FDA can do to improve the existing information on labels. Read more…

Energy bars are a popular and growing category of snack foods that are a natural evolution of breakfast cereals. Sixty years ago we had time to sit down for a hearty breakfast with the family. By the early seventies, families couldn’t bother with the hassle and settled for a bowl of cereal with milk. Nowadays, many people don’t have time for even this, so they grab a cereal bar / energy bar / snack bar and a spill proof cup of coffee and hop into the car for the morning commute.

With so many bars to choose from, you may find yourself confused. All these bars tout health benefits from here to the 2012 London Olympics. However, there are some companies that try to maintain a higher standard than others, and today we’ll take a look at products from 2 such bars:

Kashi Go Lean Caramel Peanut:

Larabar Peanut Butter Cookie:

Read more…

In one sentence: Err on the side of caution – don’t buy a product with peanuts for the time being. If it hasn’t been recalled yet, it may be tomorrow.

As parents and slightly paranoid consumers, when someone tells us everything is fine, we worry. If that someone is an investment manager or the FDA, we worry A LOT.

While just 2 weeks ago consumers were assured that the PBS outbreak was limited, and that they need to watch out for only a few items, it now appears that almost any product containing peanuts in various forms  is being recalled. This is partly due to new findings about the subpar sanitary conditions at the supplier manufacturing plant, which included mold, slime, pests, and rodents. Yikes!

Peanut Corporation of America  expanded its recall to ALL products it manufactured at its plant in the past 2 years! The expanded recall includes dry roasted peanuts,  oil roasted peanuts, granulated peanuts, peanut meal, peanut butter and peanut paste. The firm has supplied hundreds of manufacturers across the country, so the results of this recall have had and will continue to have a ripple effect.

Some previous recalls are being expanded by manufacturers to additional products, and more states. The recal list is growing, almost by the hour. The FDA has contacted over 350 manufacturers concerning possible contamination.

But knowing how underfunded and understaffed the FDA is, does not add confidence that the parents are receiving timely advice. Nor does the fact that recalls are voluntary, which means manufacturers have the last say, instead of the FDA mandating a recall on day one of the outbreak.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you spot someone walking into a supermarket with a list of the 500+ products being recalled in order to find one that isn’t, please let us know. Right now,  parents are reading food labels carefully. May are avoiding anything with the word peanut in the ingredient list. Proceed with caution.

Here’s the Current Recall List: Read more…

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Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave since New Year’s, you’ve surely heard of the recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. In this post:

1. A quick recap of the facts.
2. Seven healthy alternatives, including tahini, almond butter and more. Read more…

You’ve probably heard about the most recent Salmonella outbreak. The culprit this time seems to be a batch of infected peanut butter, of all things. In his blog, Bill Marler deduces that the most probable cause is rodent or bird poop finding it’s way into a mix at the manufacturing facility.

While this is an unfortunate incident, don’t let it deter you from enjoying the many health benefits of peanuts and peanut butter.

Now for some interesting peanut facts, nutrition and buying tips. Read more…

Although food labels let consumers to learn about what they are eating, most spend only a few seconds if it all, browsing the available information. There is a large group of people though, for whom the labels are more than “nice to have”. People with with food allergies and intolerances, rely on labels to keep them alive. Just ask any mother of a peanut-allergic child.

The Chicago Tribune conducted a thorough investigation as to allergy labeling. The results were not impressive:

In one of the nation’s largest examinations of undisclosed ingredients in food, the Tribune reviewed thousands of items at 60 locations in or near Chicago, finding dozens of products obviously mislabeled. The newspaper also conducted 50 laboratory tests — more than the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration combined over the last several years — to determine precise ingredients.

Read the article…

What you need to know:

1. Label errors abound. For people with allergies, a mistake can be a deadly. Federal law requires ingredient labels to disclose 8 foods accounting for most allergies – milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.

2. Confusing synonyms. Consumers are not experts in food terms. A product including “durum semolina” must declare it as  “wheat” as well.

3. Cross contamination. As an example – oats are often tainted with wheat.

4. Poorly labeled imports. This is a result of lax regulations in other countries. To reduce this problem, the FDA recently opened offices in China.

5. Unlabeled food. The deli counter and bakery at the supermarket are not required to label foods. People with allergies should avoid them.

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Every year, 30,000 people are rushed to the emergency room because of an allergic reaction to food. Some 150 die, a high percentage are kids. In many cases, despite special care taken not to consume any product suspected to contain an allergen, horrified parents discover their child gasping for air and breaking out in hives, all because gluten, milk, or egg content were not properly disclosed on the food package label.

The Chicago Tribune provides a glimpse into the travails of one mother in her quest to protect her son. Through her story, we discover how helpless the 4 million Americans with allergies are each time they put a bite into their mouth. Highlights:

American children with food allergies are suffering life-threatening–and completely avoidable–reactions because manufacturers mislabel their products and regulators fail to police store shelves, a Tribune investigation has found.

In effect, children are used as guinea pigs, with the government and industry often taking steps to properly label a product only after a child has been harmed.

The Tribune investigation revealed that the government rarely inspects food to find problems and doesn’t punish companies that repeatedly violate labeling laws.

Read the entire article…

What you need to know:

In 2004, Congress enacted a law intended to help improve allergen labeling:  the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA). The FALCPA imposed additional labeling declaration requirements on packaged food products that contain “major food allergens”:  peanuts, tree nuts, soy, milk, eggs, wheat, seafood, and shellfish.

The law did not, however, impose labeling requirements when food products may inadvertently contain major allergens. Why would a product contain an allergen accidentally? Turns out that even tiny amounts of an allergen present in a food are enough to cause a severe reaction and even death. Sometimes allergen free products are packaged in a plant that also manufactures products with allergens. In several cases products get cross-contaminated. That’s why you MAY see a labels stating “Manufactured in a facility that also uses peanuts.”Or may not.

This is because there’s is no clear definition of how to label products with a very rare chance to cause a very severe reaction. In September, the FDA held preliminary hearings aimed at improving allergy labeling. But don’t hold your breath; it will take a long while to make changes.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you are allergic, or a parent to an allergic child, always read the food labels and check for allergen warnings. This is not a bulletproof solution.You can do some prep work at home as well.

The Tribune put together a database with several thousand products that have been recalled over the past 10 years. You can use it to see the history of a specific product and help you make better decisions in advance of purchase.

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From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem. Experts said that might be because parents are more aware and quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor. About 1 in 26 children had food allergies last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. That’s up from 1 in 30 kids in 1997. The 18 percent increase is significant enough to be considered more than a statistical blip, said Amy Branum of the CDC, the study’s lead author.
Read Article…

What you need to know:

Although not necessarily the only reason, parent awareness may be attributed to the rise in number of allergies. 30 years ago, a sickly child may not have been diagnosed as allergic to a specific food item. Luckily, many children outgrow their allergies. Until they do, parents and kids need to be on the vigil, including at the supermarket. The FDA requires warnings on food labels that contain one of eight categories of allergens (Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Tree nuts [almonds, cashews, walnuts], Fish, Shellfish, Soy, Wheat).

Don’t confuse a food allergy, which is a reaction triggered by the immune system, with an intolerance to a certain food.  For example, milk intolerance means the body has a hard time breaking down the milk in the intestines, causing bloating, gas, and pain.

Lastly, there are many online resources for parents and children with allergies. Two good sites are: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/ and http://www.allergysupport.org/

What to do at the supermarket:

Always fully read a product’s ingredient list. Check online for food recalls as some products get mislabeled.

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