Update on Smart Choices Food Labeling

Well, I suppose the only update is that the following companies have gotten on board: Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods.

Otherwise, it's really just added confusion. The NY Times reports:

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, was part of a panel that helped devise the Smart Choices nutritional criteria, until he quit last September. He said the panel was dominated by members of the food industry, which skewed its decisions.

“It was paid for by industry and when industry put down its foot and said this is what we’re doing, that was it, end of story,” he said. Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Clark, who were both on the panel, said industry members had not controlled the results.

Mr. Jacobson objected to some of the panel’s nutritional decisions. The criteria allow foods to carry the Smart Choices seal if they contain added nutrients, which he said could mask shortcomings in the food.

Despite federal guidelines favoring whole grains, the criteria allow breads made with no whole grains to get the seal if they have added nutrients.

“You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the criteria,” Mr. Jacobson said.

Nutritionists questioned other foods given the Smart Choices label. The program gives the seal to both regular and light mayonnaise, which could lead consumers to think they are both equally healthy. It also allows frozen meals and packaged sandwiches to have up to 600 milligrams of sodium, a quarter of the recommended daily maximum intake.

“The object of this is to make highly processed foods appear as healthful as unprocessed foods, which they are not,” said Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University.

As always, I agree with Marion Nestle and return to good ol' MP's advice that real, whole foods typically don't come with nutrition labels.

What the what?!

The NY Times reports on a new study pinpointing a counteractive effect antioxidants may have on the body’s natural defenses to oxidative damage, specifically among those who exercise for health.

The reason, they suggest, is that the reactive oxygen compounds, inevitable byproducts of exercise, are a natural trigger for both of these responses. The vitamins, by efficiently destroying the reactive oxygen, short-circuit the body’s natural response to exercise.

“If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants,” Dr. Ristow said. A second message of the study, he said, “is that antioxidants in general cause certain effects that inhibit otherwise positive effects of exercise, dieting and other interventions.” The findings appear in this week’s issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The effect of vitamins on exercise and glucose metabolism “is really quite significant,” said Dr. C. Ronald Kahn of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, a co-author of the report. “If people are trying to exercise, this is blocking the effects of insulin on the metabolic response.”

So I guess I should cut back on my daily green tea consumption. Ugh. Just as Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition says, this is only one study but I'm certain I've heard similar claims before and will be following up on this as I learn more about it.

research to watch

There has been some buzz in the scientific research world regarding the pro-oxidant possibility of antioxidants and I'm pleased to see Tara Parker-Pope touch upon it in her recent Well post. The mainstream media appears to have caught the wave of research reporting that many vitamin supplements, to use a colleague's terms, "are only really resulting in some expensive, vitamin rich urine," but few and far between are the stories about the potential of antioxidants keeping unwanted cancerous cells strong. From Parker-Pope's post:

In 2007, The Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed mortality rates in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements. In 47 trials of 181,000 participants, the rate was 5 percent higher among the antioxidant users. The main culprits were vitamin A, beta carotene and vitamin E; vitamin C and selenium seemed to have no meaningful effect.

“We call them essential nutrients because they are,” said Marian L. Neuhouser, an associate member in cancer prevention at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “But there has been a leap into thinking that vitamins and minerals can prevent anything from fatigue to cancer to Alzheimer’s. That’s where the science didn’t pan out.”

No proof of vitamin supplements benefits

The findings of a recent, long-term, large-scale study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that regular supplements of vitamins C, D and E do not reduce the occurrence of heart attacks, stroke, or breast cancer. Once again, Michael Pollan was right (think myths of nutritionism).

Read a summary of the findings in this LA Times article recently printed in The Sun.

It was only a matter of time

Another cancer fighting cocktail. Computer World reports that researchers at Rice University are genetically engineering a beer that, with the addition of resveratrol, will have "higher and more consistent concentrations of the cancer-fighting chemical" than red wine. Read all about it here.

So resveratrol is naturally a part of grapes, red wine and pomegranates yet they are putting the chemical into beer? When does it become a chemical? Mmm... yummy hoppy chemical? A researcher quoted in the article said, "In general, the addition of the resveratrol shouldn't affect the taste of the beer, since the chemical is odorless and tasteless." Hmm...

Anywho, back in June, scientists at the University of Wisconsin called resveratrol "a key reason for the so-called French Paradox- the observation that French people have lower rates of heart disease despite a cuisine known for its cream sauces and decadent cheeses, all loaded with heart-clogging saturated fats." Something tells me that American eating and drinking habits may vary from the French a tad bit more than that one little compound. And... well... suggesting that popping open a cold one will deliver more resveratrol, more consistently than it's natural source just doesn't seem like great advice.

(thnx Troy)

Excited about this new food science book...

Jennifer Huget's article from the Washington Post reviewing "The Science of Good Food," a new book by cookbook author David Joachim and co-author Andrew Schloss, has convinced me that I need to read and own it. Usually I am not too interested in the whole "nutritionism" push but I do love science writing and was recently captivated by a television special on Parisian food that highlighted a chef who works closely with a scientist to create unique taste and texture sensations in food so... it is definitely on my Christmas list.

About the book - from the Post article:

"Joachim's goal in this new tome (subtitled 'The ultimate reference on how cooking works') is to translate food science into lay terms, making it easily accessible to both the home cook and the professional chef. The result is an A-Z encyclopedia, obsessively cross-referenced and indexed, and so rich in dietary detail and fun facts that -- at 624 pages and more than three pounds -- it's addictive."

"Each major topic, from acid to wine, is broken down into three sections: "What It Is," "What It Does," and "How It Works.""

"There are charts ("Common Nuts," featuring uses and nutrition data for more than a dozen varieties), graphs ("Flavor Profile for Strawberry Shortcake") and informative illustrations ("Anatomy of Citrus"). All are peppered with "fast facts" ("The florets of broccoli have about 35 percent more beta carotene than the stalks, and frozen broccoli has about 75 percent of the calcium of fresh broccoli."). Then there are the "science wise" tidbits and scraps of "kitchen wisdom": "When fully cooked, the meat of young poultry may appear red at the bone. The discoloration occurs because hemoglobin seeps from bone marrow through their young, porous bones." I never knew that. And Joachim tops it off with more than 100 recipes drawing on knowledge imparted in the book."

"A section explaining how grilling meat can create potentially carcinogenic compounds called PAHs -- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- is neatly paired with ideas for keeping PAHS from forming: Marinate your meat before cooking, keep it away from high flames, and cut away excess fat before grilling."

Again: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. -MP

You all know how I feel about "nutritionism," right? And isolated-vitamin pushers? In case you don't, I consider most vitamin-of-the-month club news to be clever marketing and cringe when I share a meal with someone who a) notices that I haven't ordered a dish with meat and comments/questions me about it, then b) tells me about the importance of protein and iron with no study to source and c) then offers their expert advice on which vitamin/supplement I should be taking.

Anywho... Baltimore Sun reporter Kelly Brewington wrote an article last week about the $9.7 billion dollar vitamin/supplement industry in the U.S. ($ total from 2007) and what advice, if any, may be worthwhile. To give you a few highlights:

- There isn't enough evidence against the practice to tell people to stop taking vitamins but there also isn't really enough to tell people to start taking them.
- Many experts agree about the benefits of Iron for women at childbearing age and calcium and vitamin D for post-menopausal women.
- A lot of the "evidence" can be biased because the vitamin-takers are already leading a healthier lifestyle.
- The bottom line however, is that eating whole, healthy, local and seasonal foods and exercising will serve your body better than any vitamin/mineral supplement.

Check out the article at: www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.vitamins08sep08,0,4530283.story

*Note: This post of course reminds me of a devastating fact about one in seven children in Africa either going or being born blind from a Vitamin A deficiency (that I will have to look up to report and source properly). I mention this because I'd like to point out that I understand the devastating consequences of a limited diet in certain parts of the world and in no way intend to diminish the importance of a balanced diet. What I am blogging about, and what Kelly Brewington is reporting about, is the supplement industry targeting the health-conscious market in America: a supposedly undernourished yet clearly over-fed population.

Beets: Nutritional Powerhouses

I'm not usually one to jump on the nutritionism train, but I trust NY Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope and if she is posting about the benefits of beets (high in folate, manganese and potassium) I might just have to roast some up.

For some more information, check out Martha Rose Shulman's suggestions here for preparation and other helpful hints about "the new spinach."

(thnx Alissa)