Scientists at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity conducted an interesting study with cereals:

Through an online survey, researchers asked parents with children between the ages of 2 and 11 to view images of actual box fronts of children’s cereals. While the cereals were of below-average nutritional quality, the boxes featured various nutrition-related health claims including ‘whole grain’, ‘fiber’, ‘calcium and vitamin D’, ‘organic’ and ‘supports your child’s immunity’.  Participants were provided with possible meanings for these claims and indicated how the claims would affect their willingness to buy the product. source…

What do you think the parents said? Read more…

This week we are excited to try out a new way of presenting helpful nutrition information with a tool called Prezi!

Prezi takes boring slideshows to a whole new level and you will see the cool ways we used it to incorporate pictures, graphs and even YouTube videos so that this is NOT your typical, boring vitamin lesson.

Once the Prezi loads, just click the play button below the presentation to scroll through the slides. If you want to view it fullscreen, you can find that option by clicking “More” to the right of the play button. Please let us know how you like it!

For those reading through RSS, here’s the same information, list fashion

1. What are the best food sources of vitamin A?

• Animal Sources (retinol form): liver or liver products like pate, eggs, and dairy products like butter, whole milk, and cheese (found in the milk fat)
• Fruits & Vegetables (beta carotene form): carrots, tomatoes, spinach, bell pepper, sweet potato, butternut squash, cantaloupe, and mango (think orange or dark leafy greens)
• Fortified foods: vegetable margarine, breakfast cereals, and nonfat milk are fortified with varying levels of vitamin A, but are not natural sources

2. What is the difference between beta-carotene and retinol? Which is better?

• Beta-carotene = plant form that our body turns into vitamin A and is never toxic at any level.
• Retinol = pre-formed version found in animal products that can be toxic at VERY high levels

We recommend getting vitamin A from fruits and vegetables when possible to avoid extra saturated fat and cholesterol that are higher in the animal sources AND get the many extra nutrients found in fruits and vegetables.

3. So a fat-free salad would be a great source of vitamin A?

• Salads (especially spinach) are a great source of vitamin A, but studies show that vitamin A is significantly better absorbed when there is a little fat eaten with it because it is a fat-soluble vitamin.
• So, add a dash of healthy olive oil, some avocado, or nuts on your salad next time!

4. How much vitamin A do I need?

• 700-900 micrograms per day (about 3,000 IU) is the recommendation for adult females and males respectively
• But since that number doesn’t mean much to most of us…

i. ½ cup baby carrots = 585 micrograms
ii. 1 cup cantaloupe = 270 micrograms

5. What is the food with the most vitamin A?

• A single ounce of polar bear liver – the size of a golf ball – has over 5x the amount of vitamin A considered toxic for humans!

6. So can I get too much vitamin A?

• The upper limit for retinol (animal/fortified foods) is 3,000micrograms (about 10,000 IU)
• You shouldn’t be worried unless eating a lot of fortified foods/supplements or liver products.

If you do eat these:

• Be mindful of how much liver you are eating since 1 oz beef liver = 2,600 micrograms
• Pick a supplement that gets a majority of vitamin A from beta-carotene instead of retinyl acetate

7. What does vitamin A do in my body?

• Vision: Turns out kids are right when they say, “Carrots help you see”
• Antioxidant: Defend your cells against damage and fights wrinkles!
• Improved Immunity: No flu for you!
• Skin Rejuvination: Helps maintain healthy teeth and skin. No spa required.

8. Does  processing affect the amount of vitamin A in products?

• In some products. Canned pumpkin has over 3x the amount of vitamin A as regular cooked pumpkin because canning makes it more available for your body to use.

9. Any baking tips to include more vitamin A?

• You can substitute pureed canned pumpkin for equal amounts of fat or oil in your favorite baking recipes!

10. What is a recipe I should try to get more vitamin A?

• Try a new sweet potato dish like Alton Brown’s Chipotle Sweet Potatoes!

[This blog post was prepared by Erica Melling, Fooducate summer intern.]

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Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had reached an agreement with Nestlé regarding the latter’s BOOST Kids Essentials Drink, whereby the company will stop making ludicrous health claims and the FTC will discontinue investigations or impose a fine. From the FTC:

“‪Nestlé’s claims that its probiotic product would prevent kids from getting sick or missing school just didn’t stand up to scrutiny,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  “Parents want to do right by their kids, and the FTC is helping them by monitoring ads and stopping those that are deceptive.” read more…

Thank goodness. The FTC has been getting more involved in the food health claim space as of late, and this announcement should serve as a warning to other companies with industrious marketing departments that interpret scientific research, how shall we say, creatively…

It’s just a shame that the company wasn’t required to cough up some serious cash for misleading consumers over the past year or so. Nestlé no doubt made millions off this product by misleading parents. Where’s the payback?

What you need to know:

We wrote about this faux miracle product shortly after it was introduced last year, and were very skeptical about its health claims and nutritional value. When a product boasting so much health has sugar listed in 3 out of the first four ingredients, you need to be suspicious:

Ingredients: WATER, SUGAR, MALTODEXTRIN, FRUCTOSE,…

In fact, in an email response to our question, Nestle Consumer Services stated that an 8 fl oz (1 cup) serving contains 24 grams of sugars. That’s the equivalent of FIVE TEASPOONS of sugar!

If you’re looking for product info online, the website for Kids Essentials seems to be returning an ERROR MESSAGE right now.

What to do at the supermarket:

If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t. Which means you need to be wary of health claims and miracle attributes of any product. Always check the ingredient list to see what’s really inside. And when it come to building up your children’s immunity – the more real food they eat, the better their chances.

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The Federal Trade Commission normally doesn’t get involved in misleading health claims for foods, it’s the FDA’s jurisdiction. But something in Kellogg’s behavior over the past 2 years must have really annoyed somebody at the FTC.

At first it was a health claim for Frosted Mini-Wheats, with benefits to“cognitive health”. The unsubstantiated claim was shot down by the FTC, but within a few months, Kellogg’s came out with its immunity cereal. So now the company is again in trouble:

Leading cereal maker Kellogg Company has agreed to new advertising restrictions to resolve a Federal Trade Commission investigation into questionable immunity-related claims for Rice Krispies cereal. This is the second time in the last year that the FTC has taken action against the company.

“We expect more from a great American company than making dubious claims – not once, but twice – that its cereals improve children’s health,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “Next time, Kellogg needs to stop and think twice about the claims it’s making before rolling out a new ad campaign, so parents can make the best choices for their children.” read more…

What you need to know:

Health claims are an unfortunate extension of product marketing efforts that overlap scientific information provided to consumers on the nutrition facts panel and ingredient list of packaged foods. Fuzzy at best, they create a false sense of hope and add value to products that in some cases may merit it, but in many cases don’t.

Cocoa Rice Krispies are over 40% sugar by weight and contain trans-fat. How does that contribute to immunity?

What to do at the supermarket:

May we suggest ignoring the large font writing on food products, and sticking to the facts in the nutrition label itself.

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Remember the absurd immunity claims on Kellogg’s cereals last year? The company added some vitamins and minerals to its sugary kids cereals and plastered a huge “Immunity” logo on the front of Cocoa Krispies and three other products. A public uproar ensued, especially given raging swine flu, and Kellogg’s announced in November it would pull the claim from its packaging.

Concurrently, Oregon’s Attorney General subpoenaed Kellogg’s and asked for the scientific evidence behind the claim. The company preferred not to answer that question but rather:

• stop shipping cereal boxes with immunity language by January 15
• destroy more than 2 million boxes (sans krispies)  with the immunity claim
• donate 108,000 boxes of cereal to the Oregon Food Bank
• donate 372,000 boxes to  Feeding America.

That’s quite an effort just to evade answering a question for which obviously Kellogg’s should have been prepared.

What you need to know:

Cocoa Krispies, as we wrote, is a terrible cereal to feed your kids. The krispies are over 40% sugar by weight. They contain trans fats. They carry artificial flavorings, and less than 1 gram of fiber. Immunity? Ha! This was sheer chutzpah on Kellogg’s part. Good for Oregon!

We hope that the donated cereal is the plain unsweetened variety of Rice Krispies.

What to do at the supermarket:

Hard as it may be, ignore all the marketing messages on product packaging. Go straight to the nutrition panel and the ingredient list.

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The FDA has been more assertive this year with regards to health claims on food products. Here’s an example – the heavyweight bout with cereal giant General Mills:

Round 1: In May, the FDA asked General Mills to explain why its Cheerios packages carried a claim “Lower your cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks” which is more appropriate for a drug, not a food product.

Round 2: In June, the FDA received copies of 4 studies from General Mills substantiating the percentage reduction claims.

Round 3: It took several months to review, but in October the FDA sent its response to those studies. The bottom line – One study was OK, but that’s not enough for a health claim to be approved. Three studies  were not conclusive enough. This is the FDA’s summary:

In conclusion, in determining whether … to authorize the soluble fiber/coronary heart disease claim to include a statement about a specific percentage reduction in LDL cholesterol, FDA would need to consider the totality of the publicly available scientific evidence to support such a statement and also how to convey information in a way that is not misleading.

Round 4: On November 3rd, General Mills responded [PDF] with further clarifications.We won’t go into the details, although we’re sure the company firmly stands behind the research.

Round 5: Yesterday, the FDA published the letter it has sent in October. General Mills decided to respond immediately – a good PR tactic – by publishing its response and a press release:

“discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the cholesterol-lowering benefits of the soluble oat fiber in Cheerios continue.”

Ironically, as these discussions are going on, Cheerios is running a new promotion, with an even bolder claim of 10% reduction in cholesterol in just one month.

What you need to know:

The argument between the FDA and General Mills over what wording is to be allowed may seem like nit-picking to some, but you need to understand that a lot of money is at stake.

Manufacturers use health claims as a marketing tool to increase sales, and have been doing so since for ages. Up until 1991, it was pretty much a wild west when it came to health claims. Manufacturers would claim almost anything they liked. When the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act was passed in the early 1990′s, it seemed as though the claims would go away. The law provided the framework for the FDA to require standardized nutrition facts labels and ingredient list for virtually all packaged foods.

But pressure by food industry lobbies on Congress allowed the manufacturers to add health claims to packages as well. Thankfully though, the claims had to be thoroughly substantiated by scientific research and consensus. The language of the claims was also addressed in the law. There are certain things that can be said, while other can’t. And there’s a way to say it. In the Cheerios example, the FDA warned that the cholesterol reduction wording is more like that of a statin drug than of a food, and therefore out-of-bounds.

Nobody is arguing that Cheerios (the plain unsweetened version) is one of the better cereals out there, with a relatively low sugar count, and high fiber content. But the studies, funded by General Mills, showed that the control groups who ate other cereal products also reduced their cholesterol intake when both groups ate the cereals instead of some other non-fibrous meal. Hey, eating even Sugar Smacks daily, as “part of a healthy, balanced diet including regular exercise” will lead to better heart health.

Incidentally, just a few weeks ago Kellogg’s retracted it’s “Immunity” claims from packages of Cocoa Krispies.

What to do at the supermarket:

While the scientists on both sides of regulation battle it out, here’s the deal when it comes to breakfast cereals - best to ignore health claims. The information you need is on the nutrition facts panel and ingredient list. Look for:

- fiber at more than 3 grams per serving

- sugar at less than 6 grams per serving

- no artificial colors (Yellow 5, Red 40, etc…)

- no partially hydrogenated oils

All the other fortifications (B vitamins, etc..) are nice to have but very similar across the board.

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Health claims on processed food packages are usually nothing more than marketing messages. So when Kellogg’s plasters the word “IMMUNITY” in quadruple font on the front of its Rice Krispies breakfast cereal, we just have to take a peek (thanks to Fooducate reader TD for the heads up).

We took a look at the product nutrition information and at the Rice Krispies website. We’re not sure if this is a new formulation or just a new marketing campaign, but this is what Kellogg’s boasts:

“Now each and every box is fortified with vitamins and nutrients that work together to help support your child’s immunity.”

“The cereal you love, invisibly better”.

Great pitch folks. Now let’s analyze the facts…

Read more…