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Hey FDA! It’s about time!
Over the past 3 decades we have learned that our old way of thinking is obsolete: “Low fat” isn’t best. We’ve learned that fat is not something to be afraid of!
In fact, we’ve learned that good fats like omega-3’s are heart healthy, not to mention essential to long term weight control.
So why is it only now, in 2016, that the FDA is redefining the meaning of the word “healthy” on food labels?
For years we’ve seen sugary breakfast cereals with the label “healthy,” even though they were laden with sugars, just because they were low in fat.
Real, whole foods like nuts, olives and avocadoes all have high fat content – yet they fill us up and actually improve our cholesterol profile over time, raising our HDL and lowering our LDL.
It’s still easier for a bag of chips, full of added sugar and sodium, to gain the label “healthy” than it is for trail mix made with various nuts.
So why is it decades after the low-fat, high sugar boom has manipulated our way of thinking (and our supermarket layouts) that the agency that’s supposed to
The FDA needs some serious revamping if it is responding to decades of information instead of leading it! This may be a fundamental defect in the way the FDA runs.
It seems to me that the boom in chronic illness in our country these years is a direct result of decades of low fat , high sugar food encouragement. From heart disease to age related macular degeneration, healthy fats play an important role in disease prevention.
We would have more confidence in this government agency, supposedly independent of public opinion, if it didn’t lag behind what we already know by over a decade.
So I will say better late than never to the FDA! That comes with a caveat to everyone: don’t believe the labels of “healthy” versus no “healthy” label. It will take years for the standards for the labels given by the FDA to change!
In the meantime be educated and take responsibility for knowing what goes into your own bodies. The FDA is in over their heads!
