New Meat Nutrition Labels

On March 1, 2012 the USDA now has rules and regulations in place for the nutrition labeling of some meat products. This should help clear up the foggy assumptions of whether a meat product is really a good option or not.  Remember the leaner (lower fat %) the lower the calories and better the product is to help you lose or maintain your weight!

Here are the changes you will see:
1) All ground or chopped products (e.g. ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey) will have nutrition information on the package label
2) The rule also provides that if a ground or chopped product includes a lean percentage statement on the label, it must also display the fat percentage (ie. will be noted as 90% lean/10% fat ground beef product instead of the traditional way of labeling 90/10)

For more information, visit the Academy of Dietetics & Nutrition website.

Restaurants Lowering Calories

Back on June 24th we posted about the FDA Restaurant Labeling Regulations and now restaurants are overhauling menus to provide better choices. A coincidence?! Probably not, this article says that "Panera Bread Company has reduced the amount of sauce on its sandwiches, reformulated its soups to reduce fat and sodium and developed a 300-calorie salad" all in response to the FDA Regulations. IHOP and Starbucks have also tried making their menus more 'health friendly'. Interesting how this is all coming about and HNT is excited to see what impact it will have on consumer choices. 

Read the full article from the Los Angeles Times HERE.

          

FDA Restaurant Labeling Regulations

   June 6, 2011 was the last day for public comments on Section 4205 of H.R. 3590 which mandated that restaurants and food vendors with 20 or more locations must disclose calorie information and make other nutrient composition data available to consumers.  This will become a great tool for restaurant go-ers to be able to calculate calorie intake before ordering from the menus at restaurants in hopes of steering them away from a typical 1500 calorie meal and towards a meal that is less than 500 calories.  According to the current FDA Commissioner, nearly 1/3 of Americans daily calories are consumed away from home. This is why this tool will be so useful for Americans.

The end of 2011 will bring the final rules to this regulation.  Look for many restaurants to begin disclosing calorie information so they can be ahead of the game.  Do you think this information will be helpful to you on your journey with health and weight management?

Click here to view the entire proposed rule!