Food Warning Labels

The latest buzz in the fight against obesity has the FDA strongly suggesting manufacturers post the calorie count and nutritional information on the front of food packaging. That way consumers will be slapped in the face with how much they are really consuming. I’m not sure why they think that will make a difference.  First off most people indulging in snack foods aren’t doing it for their health, secondly the nutritional info is in teeny tiny print, and thirdly the portion sizes listed are grossly out of touch with reality; when was the last time you limited yourself to eight chips, or two sandwich crèmes, or a quarter cup of ice cream. One FDA official tries to substantiate the moving of nutritional information to the front of packaging by stating it would stop confusion and misinterpretation of serving sizes. Here’s an experiment for those concerned with what we as consumers put in our mouths everyday, how about instead of moving the nutritional information on the packaging they just put a large banner across the front warning that “eating this can make you fat”.  Then again, that same strategy hasn’t seemed to work for the tobacco industry.