Nutritionists have adopted new standards for healthy food

Is popcorn good for you? And pizza, orange juice, sushi? And frozen yogurt? Basturma? Quinoa? A person who wants to eat more healthy food should know what to take from the shelves in the supermarket, and what to avoid. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is far from simple. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently agreed to revise its standards for healthy food. This step indicates that the science of proper nutrition is changing, and we still know very little about it.

Edition The New York Times in conjunction with the company Morning Consult interviewed hundreds of nutritionists, members of the American Nutrition Association (ASN), on whether certain foods are healthy (around 50 positions). The same questions were asked by a representative sample of Americans.

The results were very diverse, even among the experts. Some foods, such as curly kale, apples, and oatmeal, are considered by everyone to be healthy. Others — for example, soda, french fries, or chocolate chip cookies — are not. But it turned out that there were a lot of food products that definitely only liked one of the surveyed audiences, or those for whom it was difficult to determine (butter, this is about you).

“Twenty years ago, we knew about 10 percent of what there was to know about nutrition,” says Dariush Mozafarian, dean of the Tufts-Friedman College of Dietetics. “Now we know about 40 or 50%.”

This is what the study authors found out.

Products that the public considers healthier than experts

Of the most common 52 products that experts and the public asked for their opinions, the most disagreement was granola bars. More than 70% of Americans called them useful, and only a third of the experts agreed with this opinion. A similar situation exists with granola - less than half of the experts called it useful.

Some products are considered more useful by Americans than experts: shake frozen yogurt Slimfast и granola bars. They are united by one common feature: high content of added sugar. Last May, the FDA announced new nutritional labeling templates. In them, the natural sugar content and sugar added to enhance the taste should be spelled out separately. (You will be surprised to know how many products contain added sugar.) Perhaps nutritionists already know this, but the Americans are still not up to date.

On the other hand, some products were approved by nutritionists, but consumers have begun to doubt. The most surprising was the reaction to quinoa - “super-food” so useful that it even became the subject of satire. (At the moment, the New York Times culinary site contains 167 recipes from quinoa, about a third of which are marked “healthy food”).

In addition, products such as tofu, sushi, hummus, wine и shrimp also received a higher rating of "usefulness" from nutritionists than from ordinary Americans. Why?

One of the reasons is that some of them are new to the common American diet. Journalist Neil Irwin counted the number of references to "trendy" food in the Times over the past few years. He found that quinoa only recently "straddled the wave." Another reason is the ambiguous interpretation of the press regarding the usefulness of a particular product. Shrimps have long been considered unhealthy due to the high level of dietary cholesterol, but recently the norms have changed. Similarly, opinions on the usefulness of alcohol are ambiguous: in small quantities it is useful, but in large quantities it can be harmful to health.

It is not surprising that there were categories of foods for which Americans and nutritionists disagreed. It is clear that researchers have a lot of information and the latest data, and consumers are more susceptible to what marketers say about food, even if these statements are a little dubious. But some of the products included in this survey split both camps: the public and experts.

Four of the above products are - steak, cheddar cheese, whole milk и bone steak generally have a high fat content. And regarding fat among nutritionists, there are very strong disagreements. Many years ago, nutrition experts agreed that fat, especially with a high content of saturated fatty acids, found in dairy products and red meat, is bad for the heart. New research is not so categorical. In addition, nutritionists constantly fight among themselves on the question of what should be the level of protein and fat in a healthy diet.

The fact that neither nutritionists nor consumers can decide on these types of products indicates the lack of clarity about their nutritional value. (If you are a steak lover and this news makes you a little sad, read Aaron Caroll aboutthen red meat is quite acceptable to use in moderate doses.)

Products that experts consider healthier than the public

It is clear that many buyers want to consume healthy foods, but do not know what to choose. To understand what kind of queries they had, the authors of this study asked Google which products most often appear in the query “Is ________ useful?”. Based on the results obtained, they also formed some of the research questions. The product that led the list, nutritionists consider it quite healthy: sushi.

In some categories, nutritionists, however, have reached full agreement. Almost everyone thinks oranges, apples, oatmeal и chicken helpful as well chocolate chip cookies, bacon, white bread и soda - absolutely not.

What conclusion can a well-intentioned but undecided buyer make from all this? Probably, this: the science of dietology in places is covered with mystery, even for specialists.

Perhaps general dietary habits matter more than just following the rules and eating “healthy” or avoiding “unhealthy” foods. The study authors also asked nutritionists whether they considered their diet healthy—99% said yes, they eat healthy or fairly healthy. The most popular table among nutritionists is called “Mediterranean” - it was chosen by 25% of surveyed specialists. However, the most common answer among them was: “no special rules or restrictions.”

See also:

Vegan mom kept 11-month-old son on a diet of dried fruits and nuts

How much does it cost to raise a child in the USA

Gluten-free diet - the absolute leader in America.

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