{"id":107,"date":"2017-04-30T11:21:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T11:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trircoffee.com\/blog\/?p=107"},"modified":"2017-11-19T21:24:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T21:24:45","slug":"san-diego-healthy-diets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trircoffee.com\/blog\/san-diego-healthy-diets\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego, How Do You Feel About Your Diet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Healthy<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it healthy, not so healthy, or somewhere in between? If it\u2019s not so healthy, you are part of a large number of Americans who feel that their diet is unhealthy. Recent research by Mintel, a market intelligence agency, found that “less than half (42 percent) of Americans consider their diet to be healthy.” Yikes! <\/span><\/p>\n

While negative dietary influences vary greatly from person to person, there is one thing that impacts the majority of San Diego consumers\u2014being able to determine the validity of health-related claims on snack<\/a> packaging. As a consumer, how can you combat the uncertainty that often comes with reading food packaging? <\/span><\/p>\n

Before looking at the packaging issue, it is important to understand what a food or health-related claim is. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) describes a health claim as “a relationship between a food substance (a food, food component, or dietary supplement ingredient), and reduced risk of a disease or health-related condition.” An example of an FDA-approved health claim that explains the benefit of calcium on the risk of osteoporosis is, “Adequate calcium throughout life, as part of a well-balanced diet, may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.” For a manufacturer to be able to include this claim on the packaging of one of their products, the product must meet a list of specific requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Healthy<\/p>\n

Given that it is often difficult to know those requirements while reading different packaging, the nutrition label and ingredient list are a great resource. Ingredient lists and nutrition label<\/span>s often contain a large amount of information. To better understand that information, here are a few strategies for reading them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Nutrition Labels<\/b><\/h4>\n