FDA Warns Some Food Manufacturers About Claims

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the FDA sent warnings to 17 different food manufacturers for the prominently displayed claims that appear on their products' packaging. The manufacturers in question include POM, Nestle, Gerber, Dreyer and Diamond Foods, Inc.

You may already know about the FDA warning issued to General Mills last year. The warning, like these, cites concern about product claims that blur the line between the effects of drugs and food. Cheerios was singled out as misleading consumers by indicating that a daily bowl of Cheerios would prevent or treat heart disease. Such a claim, said the FDA, is a drug claim.

Likewise, POM and Diamond Foods were warned about health claims. POM heavily markets the anti-oxidant properties of its juice. Diamond Foods, Inc. was warned about claims on its walnut packaging.

What can you learn from this? Be wary of claims on packaged foods. It is important to keep abreast of the latest nutritional facts, but it is also easy to lose yourself in them. Just because you need omega-3's in your diet doesn't mean that you will benefit from a highly processed food that claims to be infused with omega 3's.

Here's why:

1. You are paying a premium for any food that is infused with the latest nutritional great. It may not be worth the extra cost.
2. The food product may be high in the nutrient you desire, but in many cases it will have other, not so healthy ingredients. These ingredients, of course, are not highlighted. For example, many high fiber cereals are very high in sugar, because a high dose of sugar is needed to compensate for the taste of the fiber, which is not pleasing to many.

Find out which whole foods are nutritional power houses. In the case of omega 3's, try to get your nutrients from the source: whether it be salmon, sardines, herring, tuna, almonds, canola oil, olive oil, lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, flax. Of course, packaged foods are not all bad, and we all rely on them. Just tread lightly. Remember that food manufacturers are very good at selling their products, and don't be swayed by hype.

Beware of the Serving Size

You may be aware that the FDA is considering an overhaul of the nutrition labels that are commonly found on packaged food items. This consideration has brought new attention to packaging labels, highlighting how confusing and misleading they can be.

Nutrition labels were created in the 1990's. They were created to make it easy for consumers to understand the nutritional values of the foods on store shelves. They were created to make it easy to make healthy food choices. Where did things go awry?

Well, food companies are selling products, and they want us to buy the products. This means they create labels that often mislead consumers. A company may highlight that its soup is low in fat when it is teeming with sodium. It may show its cookies are low in fat, but neglect to highlight the enormous amount of sugar in them. And, it may market a "to go" bag of chips intended for one person as having 110 calories and 8 grams of fat when the bag actually contains 2 servings.

Don't wait for the notoriously slow FDA to make changes to the labeling system. Carefully read labels, and take special notice of the serving size. In many cases, you may need to double the serving size to get an accurate calorie, sodium, fat, and sugar count.

Five Ways to Make Your Sandwich Healthier

Americans love their sandwiches, and what's not to love? They are easy, quick meals that can be transported to work, dressed up for dinner, and consumed on the go. The good news is that these meals can be healthy. Is yours?

Here are 5 tips to make your favorite sandwich healthier:

1. Skip the fast food joints. Though it is true that some of the big restaurant chains have made efforts to bring healthy items to their menus, the reality is that fast food is rarely healthy food. Look for restaurants or delis that serve lots of fresh, healthy produce and vegetables. You are more likely to leave with a sandwich that is good for your health.
2. Make it yourself. I know that this may be difficult at times. Perhaps you buy your lunch at work every day. Try bringing your own sandwich once a week, and make sure you make your own lunch on the weekend. Why is this important? The answer is simple: you have control over what is put in that sandwich. When you buy a sandwich at a restaurant you don't know if the meat is full of nitrates. You don't know how many grams of fat are in the mayonnaise. You don't know if the wheat bread is truly whole wheat or if it is just a tasty carmalized bread made to look healthy.
3. Load your sandwich with fresh vegetables. Don't think of the meat as the sole ingredient. Load lean chicken, turkey, or ham with tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, lettuce, onions, mushrooms, and avocado. Add fresh herbs as well: mint and basil can transform an otherwise ho hum sandwich
4. Use Greek yogurt to make salads. If you love chicken, tuna, and salmon salad, substitute half of the mayo you would use with low-fat plain, greek yogurt. This will cut calories and fat while still providing you with a creamy salad.
5. Choose whole grain breads. There are lots of great breads that will provide you with a good dose of daily fiber. Fiber makes you feel full and satisfied longer. It also keeps bingeing at bay, because it regulates blood glucose levels.

Get thee to the grocery store, or better yet, the Farmer's Market. Be creative and have fun inventing. The meal most enjoyed is the one made from scratch.

Michael Pollan's New Book, Food Rules, Makes Eating Healthy Easy

Author of Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan, has a new book out. This simple manifesto, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual presents 64 quick, easy, and understandable food tips.

In his introduction, Pollan writes that nutritional science is a relatively young science, just 200 years old. As a result, there is a lot that we just don't understand about the human body, how it digests food, and how certain nutrients interact with our bodies. Nutrition, Pollan writes, is "today approximately where surgery was in the year 1650-- very promising, and very interesting to watch, but are you ready to let them operate on you?"

And so there is a turn to time honored wisdom and a sort of back to the basics theme to his book. Food rule #8, "Avoid food products that make health claims" and food rule #13, "Eat only foods that will eventually rot" honor this.

Nutrition and diet have become so complex and confusing, that Pollan's simplicity is welcoming. Somehow the diet crazes of the past couple decades have left most of us feeling lost: low fat, low carb, what should the diet be? We demonize one ingredient, then the next. All the while, we get fatter and fatter. Where did we stray?

Pollan pulls us back to common sense long forgot yet socially and scientifically grounded. Pollan's 57th rule, "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does" causes both a chuckle and a "light bulb" moment. This obvious statement somehow seems extraordinary, indicating just how far we have strayed from a diet of whole foods that come from the earth, or at least roamed the earth (or sea), during their lifetimes.

Pollan reminds us that the Western diet, which results in more chronic disease than any other diet in the world, is sorely lacking in whole foods. His manifesto provides us with no nonsense, easy ways to rectify this problem.

New Exercise Recommendations Encourage Movement Throughout the Day

New studies can be confusing and annoying. Just when you've accepted the latest fitness or nutritional advice and worked it into your routine, you find that advice wasn't quite right.

Right now, we are seeing a subtle shift in advice concerning "gym time." The focus used to be very carefully concentrated on pushing us all to get to the gym and log a certain amount of time there, working on both cardiovascular machines and muscle strengthening machines.

Now we are finally recognizing that lots of people don't like going to the gym, and they don't have to hop on the treadmill to get good exercise. Helping people understand that exercise can be accomplished in a variety of ways, some while engaging in activities that they actually like to do, obviously leads to much better compliance.

And, to complicate things, The Wall Street Journal recently ran a provocative story about the ill effects of our sedentary lifestyles. Citing an Australian study, the Journal reported that time watching television is linked to death.

Yes, death.

Even those who regularly exercised had an increased chance of death when they logged as little as 2 hours of daily tube time. The Australian scientists assert that we must address our sedentary lives not just by working out at the gym, but by increasing physical activity throughout the day. The human body, it seems, was designed to move not just for an hour a day, but consistently. Walking, stretching, reaching, squating, balancing, are all activities that should take place throughout each and every day.

So what should you do?

Continue to exercise. Go to the gym if you love it. If you don't, find alternative ways to exercise. But, begin to be mindful of your overall activity. Do you come home from a great workout and plunk yourself on the couch for the rest of the evening? Do you watch television all weekend long? In addition to your focused workout routine, begin to build more movement into your day. Get up from your desk at work. Walk on your lunch break. Avoid marathon television sessions. Try to keep in mind that your body was designed to move, not to sit. According to the latest findings, your body will reward you for moving it.

Your Diet Strategy for 2010: Eat in Moderation

To Americans, the idea of eating in moderation is a hard pill to swallow. It is boring, painstaking, slow, and hard to figure out.

As a result, when we decide to lose weight, we prefer the aggressive diets that limit food intake to a single ingredient or a limited number of food choices. Think about all the crazy diets that have cropped up in the last couple of years: grapefruit diets, the Atkins diet, cookie diets, low carb, no carb, low fat, no fat. Heck, we even have fast food chain diets: the Subway diet and the new Taco Bell drive-thru diet. Throw in the detox diets, and there is no end to the diet plans one can follow.

And we follow them with gusto, despite the fact that they leave us starving and obsessed with food, give us bad breath, and promote terrible gas. My husband's whole office went on a detox diet last year that called for over a week of drinking a mixture of cayenne pepper and lemon juice. Yum!

How do such intelligent people lose their minds? Why even contemplate following one of these diets?

However crazy, there is certain appeal to these diets. For one, people who are looking to lose weight want help. They don't know what to eat, so following a diet that consists of one food item makes things pretty easy and thoughtless. And, of course, Americans want things quickly. While quick is not always bad, when it comes to weight loss, quick is never accomplished in healthy ways.

So what is a girl who wants to improve her diet to do?

If you want to improve your diet, the single most important thing you can do is eat in moderation. Fads come and go, even in nutrition. First we thought that the low fat was the nutritional answer to our obesity epidemic, then we thought high protein was. The people who take all the diet advice to heart and dive into the latest fad get burned and jaded in the long run. My advice? Follow the latest nutritional advice and research, but keep it in perspective and don't ever assume that the latest finding is the "single bullet" you've been looking for. Nutrition is a young and imperfect science that is still evolving.

Eat as many "real" foods as you can and keep your diet varied. Add in walnuts and salmon, for example, to get your Omega 3's. Skip all the crap that claims to be infused with Omega 3's. Keep it simple, informed, moderate, and delicious. That is a diet strategy that you can stick to.

Exercise Compliance Secret #3: Don't Be a Slave to Your Fitness Plan

You've decided that you are going to exercise, and you finally have a plan. You are going to perform strength training exercises on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You are going to hop on the elliptical to train your heart on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

You have great success with your plan during the first couple weeks. But one Monday you just really don't feel like strength training. Frankly, you'd rather go out for a run. You've also been eyeing a new rock climbing gym that opened up down the street. You'd rather try that out than do the same old strength training routine this week.

Don't be a slave to your fitness plan. Listen to and follow these desires.

Somewhere along the line, we seem to have lost our innate ability to listen to our bodies. Many of us eat well past the point of satiation. When we diet, we need controls in place because we've lost the ability to recognize whether we are hungry or not. Similarly, our bodies crave movement, but we've lost the ability to recognize and feel it.

But if our bodies desire movement, shouldn't it be enjoyable? Why is exercise, then, such a drudgery?

I truly believe if you hate exercise, you've chosen the wrong sport. Don't fall for the idea that exercise must be done and nobody enjoys it. When you've found the right activity, exercise feels good. It challenges both your mind and your body. It keeps you in awe of what your body is capable of doing. It even inspires you to live a healthy life so that you can keep at your favorite activity, whether it is yoga, Pilates, kayaking, biking, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, soccer, hockey, or horse back riding.

This is not to say that the exercise plan should be thrown out the window. Many of us still need this crutch to make sure that we fulfill our exercise obligations. And, just as dieters need to re-learn how to listen to cues of satiation, exercisers need to re-learn how to listen to movement cues. So keep the plan for now. Just make sure that it has some wiggle room that will allow you to experiment and mix things up. The novelty and excitement that comes with trying new things and following your passions will keep you motivated and compel you to comply with your exercise goals.

Being compelled to comply rather than feeling forced to? That is a beautiful thing. Make it one of your new year's resolutions. It will make you a happier, healthier person in 2010.