The FDA Is Redefining What The Term "Healthy" Means On Nutrition Labels
About 5% of food you see at the grocery store is given the official label of "healthy" by the FDA, but the organization is redefining what "healthy" means after reviewing updated science.
When you go to the grocery store, there are tons of labels on the food you see, whether it's "organic" or "cage-free" or "low-fat." The FDA is responsible for the label "healthy" and first defined the claim in 1994. However, due to updated science, the organization is changing what this term actually means.
FDA Is Redefining What the Term "Healthy" Means on Nutrition Labels
The foods that the FDA approves of being labeled "healthy" have limits on individual nutrients like saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. These foods must also contain a certain amount of vitamins like vitamin A, calcium, and iron. After the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health at the White House, the FDA proposed that the term "healthy" be redefined, though.
Rather than looking at individual nutrients, foods would only be labeled "healthy" if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the following groups: fruits, vegetables, or dairy and stick to a specific limit of nutrients such as saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium. The latter would be based on a percentage of the daily value for the nutrient; for example, the limit for sodium is 10% of the daily value.
Prior to this redefinition of "healthy," foods like salmon and snack bars made from nuts didn't make the cut because of the high content of saturated fat. But now, certain oils, nuts, and seeds are eligible for the new "healthy" label, according to the FDA.
“Nutrition is key to improving our nation’s health,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a news release. “Healthy food can lower our risk for chronic disease. But too many people may not know what constitutes healthy food. FDA’s move will help educate more Americans to improve health outcomes, tackle health disparities and save lives.”
In 2019, the CDC reported that nearly 42% of Americans were obese, and these numbers disproportionately affect minorities and people from lower socioeconomic statuses. You can almost guarantee that those numbers have increased today. It will take a lot more than the redefinition of a "healthy" label from the FDA to change these harrowing statistics.