Sault Ste. Marie On ----- January 8, 2010 ------ Have you seen commercials for the latest campaign from Health Canada, in partnership with the Food and Consumer Products of Canada? Numbers, percentages and measurements leap off a nutrition label and swirl around a consumer's head as she looks confused, comparing two food products, one in each hand. A voice off-screen suggests to simply look at the Percent Daily Value to determine which is best. The ad ends with a call to action to visit the campaign's website.
But, has this new program actually made reading food labels easier for consumers? First, let's look at what the Percent Daily Value is and what information it provides.
% Daily Value (% DV) is the percentage of the daily recommended amount for a particular nutrient that is found in a serving of the product. It is based on a 2000 calorie per day diet. It's a relative measure that gives an indication of how much of a nutrient is found in a serving of food. According to Health Canada, less than 5% means that there is “a little” of that nutrient, over 15% means that there is “a lot” of that nutrient.
Nutrients you tend to want “a lot” of in your diet include calcium, iron, fibre, and vitamins. Nutrients you tend to want “a little” of in your diet include trans fat and sodium.
Here is an example listed on Health Canada's website:
Cereal A Cereal B
So, if you are looking for a cereal that contains more fibre you would choose Cereal A based on the % Daily Value.
The concept of % Daily Value definitely simplifies things. It's easy to remember the “5 and 15 Rule” when grocery shopping. However, perhaps it simplifies things too much. My concern is that by placing so much focus on the % Daily Value, less emphasis is placed on other pieces of information the nutrition label provides that are just important, if not more-so.
Here are some issues with Health Canada's campaign that concern me:
1. The weight and serving size must be similar for the % daily value to have meaning. Let's continue with the example given above and compare two boxes of cereal. If the serving size for one is 20 grams, but the other is 50 grams, the % daily values cannot be compared without first adjusting for serving sizes. How many consumers will actually consider this?
2. How much value does this measurement truly have if we are comparing food products that are unhealthy to begin with? Does the % daily value of fibre really matter if you are comparing two bags of chips? I wouldn't even consider comparing Cereal B above once I saw the amount of sugar it contained. Would you feed your child a cereal that contains 10 grams of sugar per serving, regardless of the amount of fibre it contains?
3. That leads into the fact that the % daily value does not address the extremely important issue of hidden sugar in our diets. As you can see from the labels above no % daily value is given for sugar and I would argue that sugar is the number one culprit when it comes to our society's obesity epidemic.
4. The % daily value for saturated fat and trans fat are combined. This fails to recognize the fact that some sources of saturated fat are healthy for you (think coconut oil, goat cheese). All trans-fat should be avoided, but we need a certain amount of saturated fat to support our immune and neurological systems.
5. The % daily value is based on a 2000 calorie per day diet. This is approximately the number of calories an average size adult male may consume in a day. How is this extrapolated to those consuming more or less calories, especially children?
6. The number of calories, an important marker to consider to maintain a healthy weight, may be disregarded.
7. Finally, the % daily values are based on the daily recommended amounts of the Canada Food Guide, which I would argue is flawed to begin with, but that's a whole other article.
I recommend learning about the % daily value and how to use it, but to also remember that it doesn't tell the whole story. The healthiest foods often don't have a label.
What do you look for when you read a nutrition label?
In my next article I'll look at the steps you can take to decode a nutrition label to determine if a food is truly a healthy choice.
