There’s a lot of noise out there in the universe on how to eat healthy…eat this or eat that, this amount or that amount. The information available from ‘experts’ is so conflicting that people just give up and continue with the status quo.

The FDA is proposing guideline changes to food labeling – has been 20 years since. The most important aspect of this proposal is the new labeling would be more realistic regarding the total calorie content. People are going to drink all of that big 20 oz. soda anyway. Might as well be honest about how many calories are really in that 20 oz. container; the current labeling expects the consumer to do math calculations. The second biggest benefit is to reduce and/or eliminate any misleading ‘health’ claims about the product.

Here’s a link to the full proposal changes. Hope you check it out. http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm385663.htm

I have checked food labels religiously for at least 5 years, ever since it was discovered (through a blood test) I had a casein protein allergy. Casein comes from milk products; milk consists of 80% casein protein and 20% whey protein. Casein protein is in just about every freakin’ processed food. Why? Casein is added to foods for texture, emulsification (making something palatable) and protein supplementation. When eaten, casein protein turns into a gel-like substance in the stomach that slowly digests and releases amino acids in a slow manner as well.  It turns out a casein protein allergy is a common one and linked to cancer. This particular point will and should be a different blog post.

By the way, if it has a label on it…it’s a product…it’s ‘processed food’. Make sure you make a habit of checking the labels. It would be easier to just eat whole foods – you know what’s in it because you made it. But most people don’t have the time to prepare all their meals and the BIG food industry continues to prosper because of that fact.

The universe is big and I hope to make a little ding in it.