First lady emphasizes large-font nutrition labels
February 27, 2014 | 06:24 PM
At today’s White House announcement of the proposed new nutrition labels on food, First Lady Michelle Obama emphasized that even though there could be changes to the labels after the comment period, the type size on the labels will be bigger, which will help consumers make wise choices.
Michelle Obama
“It's important to note that no matter what the final version looks like, the new label will allow you to immediately spot the calorie count because it will be in large font, and not buried in the fine print,” the first lady said, according to a transcript released by the White House.
“You’ll also learn more about where the sugar in the food comes from — like whether the sugar in your yogurt was added during processing or whether it comes from ingredients like fruits. This is what you will get from the label of the future. This will be the new norm in providing consumers with information about the food we buy and eat.”
The first lady said the label changes fit in with her “Let’s Move” initiative against childhood obesity, since the small type and unrealistic portion sizes have made it hard for people who wanted to eat healthier to figure out how to do it.
“You marched into the supermarket, you picked up a can or a box of something, you squinted at that little tiny label, and you were totally and utterly lost.”
“So there you stood, alone in some aisle in a store, the clock ticking away at the precious little time remaining to complete your weekly grocery shopping, and all you could do was scratch your head, confused and bewildered, and wonder, is there too much sugar in this product?,” she said. “Is 50 percent of the daily allowance of riboflavin a good thing or a bad thing? And how on Earth could this teeny little package contain five whole servings?”
“This stream of questions and worries running through your head when all you really wanted to know was, should I be eating this or not? Is this good for my kids or not? And if it is healthy, how much of it should I be eating?”
“But unless you had a thesaurus, a calculator, a microscope, or a degree in nutrition, you were out of luck,” Obama said. “So you felt defeated, and you just gave up and went back to buying the same stuff you always buy.”
For complete coverage of the four year anniversary of the Let’s Move initiative, see Obama Foodorama.
Michelle Obama
“It's important to note that no matter what the final version looks like, the new label will allow you to immediately spot the calorie count because it will be in large font, and not buried in the fine print,” the first lady said, according to a transcript released by the White House.
“You’ll also learn more about where the sugar in the food comes from — like whether the sugar in your yogurt was added during processing or whether it comes from ingredients like fruits. This is what you will get from the label of the future. This will be the new norm in providing consumers with information about the food we buy and eat.”
The first lady said the label changes fit in with her “Let’s Move” initiative against childhood obesity, since the small type and unrealistic portion sizes have made it hard for people who wanted to eat healthier to figure out how to do it.
“You marched into the supermarket, you picked up a can or a box of something, you squinted at that little tiny label, and you were totally and utterly lost.”
“So there you stood, alone in some aisle in a store, the clock ticking away at the precious little time remaining to complete your weekly grocery shopping, and all you could do was scratch your head, confused and bewildered, and wonder, is there too much sugar in this product?,” she said. “Is 50 percent of the daily allowance of riboflavin a good thing or a bad thing? And how on Earth could this teeny little package contain five whole servings?”
“This stream of questions and worries running through your head when all you really wanted to know was, should I be eating this or not? Is this good for my kids or not? And if it is healthy, how much of it should I be eating?”
“But unless you had a thesaurus, a calculator, a microscope, or a degree in nutrition, you were out of luck,” Obama said. “So you felt defeated, and you just gave up and went back to buying the same stuff you always buy.”
For complete coverage of the four year anniversary of the Let’s Move initiative, see Obama Foodorama.
