Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
Sep
7
2009
FDA to research food labels
The FDA just announced in the Federal Register that it plans to take a good hard look at public understanding of what’s currently on food labels. It says it will do an Internet survey of 43,000 people to:
- Identify attitudes and beliefs to do with health, diet and label usage
- Determine relationships between these attitudes and beliefs, demographics, and actual label use
- Look at the relevance of these attitudes
- Identify barriers to label use
I hope they ask me!
What is this about? Let me take a wild guess: Health claims? Smart Choices labels? Anything that makes people think highly processed foods are good for them? Or distracts from the Nutrition Facts panel?
The FDA is required to allow 60 days for comment. Tell the FDA you think the more research it does on food labels, the better!
