"Smart Choices" Food Labels May Be Misleading

The Smart Choices food labeling campaign was meant to help shoppers identify which foods at the superb market are healthy for them. However, given that this campaign was funded by some of the largest food manufacturers in the country, some of the foods labeled as being Smart Choices may actually make dumb sense nutritionally. In fact, some of the foods that are labeled with the green check mark Smart Choices logo, are actually cereals that are high in sugar such as the ever popular Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops. These cereals are actually popular with children because they are high in sugar.

One of the healthiest diets known to medicine is the so called Mediterranean diet which is high in fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, legumes and nuts, and low in red meat, and low in processed bread products such as cereal. So why are sugary cereals been labeled as health foods?

Part of the reason food manufacturers have added these labels is that increasingly laws are being made to inform the average American consumer about what is in the meal they are eating. Fast Food Restaurants such as mcdonnell's in New York City have been required to post nutritional information about their hamburgers and French fries. This is to allow consumers to choose meals that are lower in calories, salt and cholesterol.

Some of the healthiest food in the grocery store are the fresh fruits and vegetables, while baked products and processed bread products often contain it only empty calories, meaning that they have little nutritional value. Food manufacturers may have decided to start a campaign to label sugary foods such as cereal to try to rebrand their food products as health foods.

Recently, the Smart Choices from program announced that they will discontinue adding the Smart Choices label to new Food Products. However, they will likely continue putting the label on Food Products which already bear it. This response was due to the FDA announcing that it will look into the mislabeling, or even untruthful labeling, of food.

Sources:

For your health, froot loops
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/05smart.html

'Smart Choices' food label program on hiatus
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-food-labels-1024-oct24,0,1713245.story