The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday proposed a long-awaited overhaul of the definition of “healthy” on food packaging — finally doing away with the baffling criteria dating back to the 1990s that made healthy foods like nuts, salmon, avocados, olive oil and even water is out of the question for the label.
The new definition isn’t immune to criticism, and Americans will likely still face uncertainty about healthy food choices as they stroll the grocery store aisles. But the proposed update – which coincides this week with the White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health and a national strategy to improve U.S. nutrition and reduce hunger – is a clear improvement.
Under current criteria, established in 1994, the FDA allows food manufacturers to label their products as “healthy” based on myopic maximum and minimum values for certain nutrients. This means that “healthy” foods must have universal maximum levels for saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol, and sodium, and also provide at least 10 percent of the daily value for one or more of the following nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, and fiber .
According to this rule, foods with a lot of added sugar — like low-fat yogurt or sugary children’s breakfast cereal — qualify for a “healthy” label because they meet the other criteria. The same applies to some nutritionally questionable white breads. However, whole foods like avocados or currently recommended meats like salmon are out of the question due to the fat content – which contradicts the current, evidence-based health of plant-based foods. And even plain water or plain sparkling water cannot be called “healthy”.
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New rule
The absurdity of this definition made headlines in 2015 when the FDA sent a warning letter to the maker of Kind bars, saying they couldn’t use the term “healthy” on their nut-based bars because they contained too much saturated fat . Nuts and seeds alone are generally not eligible for the “healthy” label under current regulations. The company pushed back, and in 2016 the FDA reversed course, saying it planned to update the definition — which brings us to this week’s proposed update.
Under the FDA’s proposed rule – which is subject to change – the agency is now taking a more holistic approach to evaluating food, saying food could be labeled as healthy if it:
- Contain a certain reasonable amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups recommended in the dietary guidelines (e.g. fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc.).
- Maintain certain limits on certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
Importantly, for this last point, the nutrient limit thresholds would vary depending on the type of food or food group a product contains – i.e. an olive oil-based product has a higher saturated fat content than plant-based products that do have a lower added sugar limit than grain-based foods. The FDA provides a useful table of suggested limits for various food groups here.
The FDA also offered an example of a cereal that would meet the new “healthy” definition: It would have to “contain 3/4 ounce of whole grain and contain no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium, and 2.5 grams of added sugars.” “
The FDA hopes the change will help consumers make better food choices at the grocery store and spur food manufacturers to adapt their products to the new definition.
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The revision is “an important step in meeting a number of nutrition-related priorities, including providing information to consumers to help them make healthier diet choices and establish healthy eating habits early on,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement Explanation. “It may also lead to a healthier food supply.”
Change needed
Such nutritional goals are more important than ever. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported data showing that the number of states with high rates of adult obesity — defined as 35 percent of adults or more — has more than doubled since 2018. Nineteen states and two territories now have high rate rates. Childhood obesity has also increased during the pandemic. According to a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the proportion of 5- to 11-year-olds who are “overweight” or “obese” rose from 36.2 percent in the year before the pandemic hit to 45.7 percent in January 2021 .
Obesity at any age can lead people to serious health problems such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, serious consequences of COVID-19 and poor mental health. The top three causes of death in 2020 were heart disease, cancer and COVID-19.
Of course, obesity is a complex, multifactorial health condition, and diet is just one part of it. But there’s a lot of data to suggest that people in the US don’t eat well – and the typical American diet feeds chronic health problems. The FDA notes that 75 percent of Americans eat few fruits, vegetables, and dairy products; 77 percent get too much saturated fat; 63 percent eat too much added sugar; and a whopping 90 percent exceed the limit for sodium.
The FDA’s new proposed definition of “healthy” will certainly not solve these problems in one fell swoop. Some health advocates and experts say it may have minimal impact and that packaging labeling that warns of unhealthy content – with things like red light symbols – can be more effective than labeling “healthy” foods. However, the update is a clear improvement over the current definition of “healthy,” which is inconsistent with evidence-based dietary recommendations.
In a comment to The Washington Post, Kind CEO Russell Stokes said the company is celebrating the proposed update. “A rule that reflects current nutritional science and dietary guidelines for Americans is a public health win — and it’s a win for all of us.”