Nutrition label changes aim to encourage healthier eating

Public health experts lauded the recent changes to food labels announced by the Food and Drug Association (FDA) on February 27, 2014 — which include making serving sizes more realistic, listing added sugars, and printing calories in larger type — as a good step toward helping consumers make healthier choices.

“It’s very easy to scan a label and not realize there are multiple servings,” Christina Roberto, assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, told Scientific American. “This really simplifies things … You don’t have to do that extra math.”

However, she added, additional changes are needed to help stem the obesity epidemic, such as better access to healthy foods and less marketing of unhealthy foods.

Read New Nutrition Labels are a Step in the Right Direction (Scientific American)

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