Breaking Health and Nutrition News: Key Updates You Need to Know
Red #3 out, Eggs in. New definition of obesity and more..
Well we are just two weeks into 2025 and how are y’all feeling? Crazy right!!??
In amongst all the other news out there, there have been some health and nutrition news that may or may not have reached your radar. Lucky for you, I have compiled a few newsworthy headlines along with my thoughts on them.
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Now to the news…
The FDA has been active lately…
On January 14th, the FDA announced a proposal to require Front of Package (FOP) nutrition label on all packaged foods in an effort to combat the chronic health crisis.
What would be visible on the front is saturated fat, sodium and added sugar content. It would be simplified to show if the food has high, medium or low levels.
Will this make people stop and think about the food they are buying? In my opinion, no. I mean, if they are really interested in what is in their food, they will turn the package over to find the information they are looking for. It will also put the awareness on all the wrong things. Specifically the fat content, and fearing it and ingredients, which may be the more important because of the harmful effects of the additives and chemicals added to certain foods. Of course this is just a proposal so we will see if it gets passed.
I posted this information on my Notes feed, (similar to an X feed, Notes is a feature on the Substack app where writers and account holders can publish short-form posts and share ideas with each other and their readers. Through Notes, writers can share posts, links, images, quotes, and comments with their subscribers and the greater Substack network) on Substack and here are a few comments:
This will lead to avoiding fat all over again, the fat debacle that has caused so much trouble since Ancel Keyes screwed us all.”
“I respectfully disagree as a 50 year veteran executive of the packaged foods industry. You and I are label readers. Most people aren’t. Most don’t pick up a package, turn it around, etc. Stand in a conventional grocery store and watch people shop. They drop things in the cart. CPG marketers have fought for years to make the PDP (primary display panel i.e. front of package) a billboard for marketing messages because they know this. Back of package isn’t working. If it was, healthier products would rule. They don’t.”Read more about it here : https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-proposes-requiring-glance-nutrition-information-front-packaged-foods
Another FDA headline that has created a stir is the banning of the artificial colour dye Red #3. Red #3 otherwise known as erythrosine is used is foods, dietary supplements and oral medicines and found to be carcinogenic and a potential cancer risk. The crazy thing is that this dye was found to harmful over 30 years ago and was removed from cosmetics. But since then it has still been okay to ingest, we just can’t put it on our skin. Oh okay…
Now this ban is not an immediate recall or stop to manufactures on adding this additive to its products. Food manufacturers have 3 years, until 2027 to remove it and drug companies that use it in oral medicines have until 2028 to remove it. If the FDA is banning this dye, how about yellow #5 (tartrazine), yellow #6, blue #1, blue #2 or green #3? They are all bad.
To me this is just a bait tactic. The FDA wants to show they are doing something for health but will not go all the way.
Oh and on a side note, Health Canada says that the research is inconclusive and will not be banning the substance in Canada. Hmmm, I guess the science is interpreted differently in Canada..
FDA to Revoke Authorization for the Use of Red No. 3 in Food and Ingested Drugs | FDA
Health Canada says synthetic red food dye banned by FDA poses no human risk in Canada
New Definition for Obesity
Thank god doctors are proposing to remove the BMI as an indicator of health. I never liked this measurement stat as I felt it was very misleading and not really indicative of a person’s true health. But it was what doctors used to compare you to others and not take into account that we are all unique individuals.
BMI or Body Mass Index was a way of estimating a person’s body fat based on height and weight. (height in kg or lbs divided by the square of weight in meters or inches). Based on the answer given, you would fall into the category of underweight, normal, overweight, obese or extreme obese. Of course the higher BMI would increase your chance of health issues such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.
My main issue with the BMI was that it could not differentiate between muscle mass and fat mass. And we all know that muscle does weight more than fat which would result in people who are fit to be misclassified as unhealthy or overweight/obese. The proposed changes would use different criteria such as waist circumference (waist circumference of over 35 for women and over 40 for men would be considered a red flag when it comes to determining future health issues) and look at health symptoms such as organ dysfunction, and sleep issues along with other indicators based on a per patient basis.
End of the Line for BMI? Experts Propose New Obesity Definition - Newsweek
And lastly for the good news…
Eggs are Healthy - Again
The FDA has been busy. They have updated their definition of healthy foods and have announced that eggs have met the requirements and are indeed healthy and nutrient dense.
But we already knew that, didn’t we..
Eggs were put on the naughty list years ago because researcher’s previous concerns that eggs would raise cholesterol levels and increase chance of heart disease. But we also all know that approximately 85% of cholesterol is actually made by your body and does not come from the food we eat.
I previously talked about the truth about cholesterol
Eggs should be an important part of your food intake. They are high in so many nutrients like choline, lutein, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E and other trace vitamin and minerals. They are a great source of protein with 6 grams per egg. Studies have also shown that eating eggs can help men increase their testosterone levels.
Eggs now qualify as ‘healthy’ food, FDA says: Here’s why
As you can see the nutrition and health world has been busy the last couple weeks. I can’t wait to see what other changes evolve, can you?
What do you think of these new changes?
Danni