New Nutrition Label

When I was in the Pittsburgh Health Corps, I was responsible for pulling together montly health education games for a variety of clinics.  One month Maria, the other trusty AmeriCorps at Health Care for the Homeless, and I decided to teach a nutrition class.  While nutrition information seems to change constantly, we decided to stick to the basics and cover the new food "pyramid" now known as My Plate and how to read a nutrition label.

Did you know that nutrition labels were not mandated until 1990?  

As a baby of the 80s this was pretty mind blowing!

Here is a comparison of the label we have now and what is being proposed:

Some of the big changes include:

• Serving sizes will be more reflective of American eating patters.  For example ice cream containers would list a cup of ice cream instead of a half cup
• Added sugars will be labeled.  This will help distinguish between natural sugars in foods and processed sugars which are added
• The number of calories will be listed in big bold text, as well as the number of servings per package