Nutrition Facts labels could include more information on added sugars if a newly proposed rule from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moves forward.
The FDA Friday proposed including the percent daily value of added sugars to the labels, indicating how the amount of sugar in a specific food fits in the context of people’s daily diets. The percent daily value would be based on the recommendation that the daily intake of calories from added sugars not exceed 10 percent of total calories.
“Without information like this about a nutrient, it’s hard to know if you’re eating too much or too little in a given day,” Susan Mayne, FDA director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a blog post. “For example, a consumer who drinks a 20-ounce sugared beverage may be surprised to know it contains about 66 grams of added sugar, which would be listed on the label as 132 percent of the daily value.”
The proposed label change comes after the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s recent summary of scientific data on added sugars, which showed that it is difficult for people to meet nutrient needs while staying within calorie requirements if they exceed 10 percent of total calories from added sugar.
The committee’s summary also showed that healthy dietary patterns, including lower amounts of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, are strongly associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.
The AMA is working to improve health outcomes for chronic diseases. By tackling high blood pressure and prediabetes, the precursor to type 2 diabetes, and collaborating with other stakeholders, the AMA is developing new approaches to prevent progression of chronic disease.
