The Institute of Medicine offers a hilarious suggestion for food labels

To present nutrition information in such a way that, apparently, a 2-year-old can understand, the Institute of Medicine has proposed a system that would use stars or a similar simple graphic to rate the content of various nutrition factors, including saturated and trans fats.

Saturated fats and trans fats… That’s like comparing apples to land mines. As we’ve seen so often, dangers of saturated fats are wildly exaggerated, and many foods with saturated fats contain omega-3 fatty acids and other important nutrients.

Meanwhile, trans fats are pure, dangerous junk.

I’d love to ask someone at the IOM if this would mean the end of the trans fats lie that all food producers are allowed to tell. As I’ve mentioned before, any producer can claim that a product has “zero trans fats” if it contains less than half a gram of trans fats per serving. THAT’S NOT ZERO!

Seriously, if IOM officials try to convince the FDA and the food industry to let go of that bald faced lie, they’ll get laughed out of the building.

Sources:
“Panel Proposes Nutrition Labels that Reach for the Stars” Eliza Barclay, NPR, 10/20/11, npr.org