Today, the nutritionists who help determine our national guidelines recommend lowering the daily recommended allowances for sugar, salt, and fat. As everyone knows -- or should know -- by now, too much of those things are bad for your health, and Americans overindulge. But the last bit is hardly news. NPR:
And ready for this shocker? The panel urges more physical activity to address the nation's colossal energy imbalance (this means eating more than we burn off). As a general eating strategy, experts say we need to rethink snack habits and portion sizes.
The NPR story cites experts who say they'd be stunned if most of the new recommendations weren't followed. Really? Food guidelines affect the information consumers see on food labels, but in order for them to do any good, the consumer has to take heed. As it stands, we're consuming more than the guidelines say: Why would lowering the recommended intake of certain nutrients make consumers start listening? People will just ignore them even more.
Solving this problem is what the Obama administration, especially through Michelle Obama's anti-childhood obesity initiative, has been trying to do. It's urging companies to voluntarily lower things like salt, end misleading health claims and stop advertising junk food to kids, but it's not clear how those reforms will take hold without regulatory teeth.
If the amount of salt and sugar in our foods is hurting people, we have to discourage companies from making their foods so salty and sweet by either raising the prices of those things or limiting them through regulation. Recommendations are useful, but they already go unheeded. That's why the report isn't particularly revelatory. These are things we already know, we just aren't doing them.
-- Monica Potts
