New nutrition labels positive, but don't expect major behavioral changes

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it has finalized new nutrition facts labels for packaged foods. The new labels are intended to reflect new scientific labels, such as the connection between a person's diet and chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes or heart disease. The labels will include highlighting the calorie count and serving size and added sugar and will better explain what "percent daily value" means. Manufacturers will need to use the new labels by July 26, 2018.

One major change is about serving size; manufacturers will be required to base serving size on what people are actually eating, meaning the impossible-to-hit half cup serving of ice cream is no more. The serving size for soda will change from 8 ounces to 12 ounces, or a standard can.

Martin Binks, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at Texas Tech University, is available to talk about the changes. Binks leads the Behavioral Medicine & Translational Research Lab and is director of the Nutrition & Metabolic Health Initiative at Texas Tech. His expertise spans a breadth of clinical and translational research topics and issues in public health related to obesity including: behavioral, pharmacologic and surgical obesity treatment; barriers to treatment adherence (nutrition and physical activity); obesity and comorbidities; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); pain and sleep in obesity; sickle cell disease; health disparities; and neuroscience related to obesity.

Allison Childress is a registered dietitian nutritionist and nutritional sciences instructor at Texas Tech. She is certified in sports dietetics and by The Cooper Institute as a personal trainer. Childress has worked as a clinical and outpatient dietitian specializing in cardiac, pediatric, geriatric and sports nutrition in addition to weight management counseling. She is studying food addiction.

Provided by Texas Tech University