"nutritional information" news and stories

In the next few months, consumers will start to see a new nutrition label on the front of packaged foods -- a Nutrition Key clearly displaying the amount of calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars per serving, reports USA Today. There's also room for two nutrients, including fiber, protein, potassium, calcium, iron or vitamins.

The new label comes as a voluntary move by the Grocery Manufacturers Association after the Food and Drug Administration announced its plan to develop its own front-of-package labeling system last March, which would include color-coding to alert customers of smart choices.

Critics, such as Kelly Brownell of Yale University and Marion Nestle of New York University, say the companies' "pre-emptive" move is confusing and is simply their way of preventing the FDA's plan from going into effect. The White House has commended their effort in taking initiative, but states that the FDA "plans to monitor this initiative closely and will work with experts ... to evaluate whether the label is meeting the needs of American consumers and pursue improvements as needed."

Nutrition Keys will appear on more packaged foods as the year progresses. The government's final study results are expected to be released in the fall.

Burger and fries. Photo: onlinehero, Flickr.

• Now that California law requires fast food joints to list nutritional information, consumers are learning that the seemingly healthy salads and dips are often fattier than the pizzas and fries.
• A list of cookbooks for frugal cooks starts off with former Slashfoodie Alanna Kaufman.
• A chat with chef Eric Ripert about his new PBS show, "Avec Eric."
• An Internet search might give you the idea that reheating spinach is dangerous, but a food toxicologist says the concern is baseless.
• Produce Picks goes nuts for Bartletts and suggests pear quesadillas.
• Recipes: Molten Chocolate Cake, Microwave Risotto, Baked Apples with Dates and Pecans.
  
• San Diego's food calendar.

Get ready to laugh: among Health magazine's top healthiest restaurants are - drum roll, please - Denny's, Bob Evans, and Romano's Macaroni Grill.

Hmm - the kings of maple syrup-drenched sausage and carb-heavy pasta dishes, respectively, are also the healthiest?

Granted, I don't go out to eat very often. But - are these places actually healthy? I find it hard to believe.

The magazine's other choices are equally as confusing: Olive Garden? Uno Chicago Grill? Last time I checked, phrases like "extra cheese" and "more breadsticks" were the norm at these haunts.

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Most of the fast food chains out there are forthcoming about how bad their food is for you. Most places will give you a brochure that contains the nutritional information of their sandwiches, salads and fries. If they don't have a paper copy, they'll point you in the direction of their website. However, Quiznos has been holding out on their customers for some time, refusing to make public their fat and calorie statistics.

Last Friday, Quiznos finally released their data and it's not pretty in a couple ways. First off, they didn't design an easily navigated site, so you have to hunt and peck for the data. Second, their food is not particularly health conscious (not that that should be a surprising fact). According to the blog Fast Food News, the "Quiznos Tuna Melt has the highest calorie and fat totals of any of their sandwiches! The large Tuna Melt has over 2,000 calories and 175 grams of fat!! (The regular size has 1,420 calories and 118 grams of fat, the small 770 calories and 60 grams of fat!)" Now that's a hunky sandwich.

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Starbucks is the latest chain to try to jump on the no-trans fats bandwagon, trying to demonstrate to customers how much they care about health and nutrition. Starting this week, approximately half of the stores in the US, including those in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon, will have zero trans fats on their menus.

The company says that they have been planning the switch for two years now and that their nationally distributed pastries, primarily seasonal items like the Gingerbread loaf cake, are already trans-fat free. The rest of their pastries are baked by regional bakeries, which Starbucks contracts to provide pastries for their stores. These pastries vary from region to region, as do the recipes for them, so not every supplier has yet made a switch, but Starbucks seems to anticipate that it will not be long before they do.

So, if you're not located in one of the aforementioned areas of the country, does that mean you need to worry about trans fats at Starbucks? Not where drinks are concerned. According to the nutritional information on their website, very few of their drink products contain trans fats and those that do have only a very minimal amount. The pastries, on the other hand, vary widely by region, but judging from a random sampling of regional nutritional data (offered by zip code on the Starbucks website) your best bet will be a muffin or loaf cake if you want to minimize your trans-fat intake without cutting out pastries all together, at least until your area is declared trans-fat free, too.

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