‘Smart Choices’ Nutrition Labels are Misleading

By Kelly Turner on October 8th, 2009

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Fruit Loops. Cocoa Krispies.  Lucky Charms.

What do these all have in common?

Enough sugar to wake the dead?  An ingredient list closer to dessert than breakfast?

True, but something else, too.  They all are a part of the “Smart Choices Program” that puts little green decals on the front of food packaging to indicate a healthy food item.  These three cereals, along with snacks like Ritz Bits Peanut Butter Chocolatey Blast crackers and Kid Cuisine Magical Cheese Stuffed Crust Cheese Pizza have been given the Smart Choice label.

So can you put much stock in these labels?

The program was meant to help consumers make healthy choices at a glance, and to educate those not familiar with FDA regulated nutrition labels which can be confusing. The program, originally developed by The Keystone Center, a nonprofit organization, enlisted the help of scientists, consumer organizations and the food industry to set the requirements. However, Smart Choices was then given to the American Society for Nutrition to administer. The Dietary Guidelines of America and other sources, such as the Institute of Medicine, were then used to set the guidelines.

In order to meet the Smart Choices requirements, the food must meet the following requirements:

• Foods cannot exceed “nutrients to limit” including: total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, added sugars and sodium.

• Products must include one or more “nutrients to encourage,” such as vitamin C, or provide at least a one-half serving from at least one “food group to encourage,” such as vegetables.

For a full list of nutrient requirements, click here.

Sounds pretty healthy, no?  It would, if they actually stuck to these rules.

How did the sugary cereals above get a green check, especially when they definitely get more than 25 percent of their calories from added sugars?  That’s where the controversy comes in.  Kellogg’s Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes and Keebler Cookie Crunch, among others, were given an exception because they are better nutritionally than other common breakfast foods, like donuts and Pop Tarts.

If all it takes is something out there being worse for you than what you’ve got to get labeled healthy, what’s the point of even having the requirements?

You can only know how truly healthy a food item is by checking the nutrition label- the real one, with numbers and percentages and words you can’t pronounce.   Educate yourself on how to read a nutrition label at www.fda.org.