Servings Sizes and Portion Sizes: Making Smaller Sizes the New Normal Again

It may be hard to imagine in today’s information age, but nutrition labels were not always displayed on packaged foods and beverages. The first Nutrition Facts label appeared on packages in May 1994, a few years after the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act was signed into law. The first update to the Nutrition Facts label since its inception was finalized in 2016, and it is this revised version that we see on most food and beverage packages today. Although official serving sizes appeared on the original label, individual portion sizes can differ from serving sizes, and confusion remains about the difference between the two. Let’s clarify those differences and trace how serving and portion sizes have changed through the years, how each is determined, and why each is important for our health. Serving size vs. portion size: What’s the difference? It’s easy to confuse serving sizes with portion sizes. They are sometimes used interchangeably, but they can represent different things. As we wrote in an earlier article, serving sizes listed on food labels are not advice for how much to eat; they are the amount that is used to calculate information on the Nutrition Facts label. Serving sizes displayed on the Nutrition Facts label are required by law to be based on the amount of a food or beverage that people typically consume during one eating or drinking occasion. These amounts are also known as Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACC). Portion sizes are not regulated by the government but often come in the form of advice from nutrition professionals. Ultimately, portion size is the amount of a food or beverage that you choose to consume. These choices can be influenced by multiple factors, including: How serving and portion sizes have changed Both serving sizes and portion sizes have grown in […]

article

Supporting and Sustaining Our Food Supply: The Benefits of GMO Corn

Many of us have heard of GMOs—genetically modified organisms in our food supply—and have seen labeling on food packages that note products are “non-GMO” (or other verbiage on food and beverage packaging that there are GMO or bioengineered ingredients in a product). But many of us don’t know a ton about how GMO technology uses specific scientific innovations that genetically alter plants to promote desired characteristics. In fact, GMO technology is a farming tool that increases productivity, decreases waste, and simultaneously provides us with safe and nutritious grains, fruits and vegetables. One key GMO crop that helps our food supply in many ways? Corn. Read on to explore how GMOs can benefit our food supply and to learn about some intriguing research linked to GMO corn. GMO Fundamentals GMO crops available in the U.S. include corn, soybeans, cotton, potatoes, papaya, summer squash, canola, alfalfa, apples, sugar beets, and pink pineapples. GMO characteristics of these crops include attributes that help them grow better under environmental stresses, like drought, and ward off diseases and pests (as well as other handy benefits, like resisting browning once they are sliced). GMO foods provide a safe and nutritious way to access the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables that are put forth by the USDA Dietary Guidelines. GMO technology also helps to decrease food waste, gives many underserved areas of the global population a reliable source of nutritious food options, and helps farmers use less pesticides. Notably, GMO technology has been used for over 20 years and has been scientifically been proven to be an effective way to support agriculture. Also, according to PG Economics LTD, the economic benefits of genetically modified crops have reached $150 billion globally since the first GMO crops were planted in 1996. The Skinny on GMO Corn Corn is used […]

article

World Water Day 2019

Saving water from the “gate to the plate” and the “crop to the cup” is an important sustainability factor for farmers and food and beverage producers worldwide. We’ve also seen in our 2017 and 2018 Food and Health Surveys that consumers desire to make environmentally sustainable food and beverage purchases. Several practices are undertaken by producers all along the food supply chain to conserve all our natural resources, including water. And responsibility doesn’t stop there: Consumers also can employ a few practices as to save water at home and keep the water-saving habits flowing. Check out these three ways our food system is saving water: 1. It’s all in the crop Farmers can often plant drought-tolerant crops, such as corn, beans, broccoli and cucumbers that can grow when limited amounts of water are available. In addition to crop selection, crop rotation—in which another type of crop is planted in between harvests to protect soil health—also helps conserve resources. The off-season crops are called cover crops. Cover-crop seeds, often grains or grasses, are planted in between the growing season of cash crops. These crops can help with water infiltration, increasing organic matter in the soil and reducing erosion. 2. Farming that holds water Farmers also use laser levels to flatten their fields in order to make rainwater spread more equally. Laser leveling can prevent run-off and puddling. It’s a way of making sure water ends up where it’s most needed. Conservation tillage also helps soil hold water. This technique allows farmers to plant new crops without removing residue from the previous season’s crop. Because the soil isn’t tilled or plowed, it retains more water. 3. Off-the-farm water saving Many food and beverage plants reuse process wastewater onsite while still maintaining safety and quality. The majority of wastewater in food production facilities […]

article

Taking Another Look at GMO Crops: Q&A with a Farmer

Food production practices have evolved over the years to support food availability and choices for our ever-growing population. One of the tools is biotechnology. This technique has been used for over 20 years in food production and has been scientifically proven to be a safe and effective way to support our food system. You may have previously read an article or two of ours talking about how biotechnology and GMO (genetically modified organism) crops help to decrease food waste, give multiple populations nutritious food options, and help farmers use less pesticides. But what about getting more info on GMO crops straight from the horse’s…uh, farmer’s mouth? To do so, we recently caught up with farmer Katie Pratt. Katie and her husband have a family farm in northern Illinois, where they grow 7,500 acres of corn, soybeans and seed corn (field-corn seed that can be used to grow future commercial corn crops). Q: What crops do you grow that are genetically modified? A: All our commercial corn and soybeans are genetically modified. We also grow GMO and non-GMO seed corn. Q: Why do you grow GMO crops? A: We have seen that our GMO crops require less pesticide applications. We spray our fields before planting GMO seeds for weed control, and then we won’t spray again until right before the crop canopies. After that, we don’t have to spray for weeds again. Our insecticide applications are lower on GMO crops as well. We plant some hybrid crops that are resistant to corn borer [an insect that can significantly damage corn and other grain crops]. Since the crop has the ability to fight its own battle against these pests, we don’t need to spray for these particular insects. We have been able to decrease our pesticide applications, which means we are not […]

insights

Eating More Fruits in All Forms

Coming in all colors, flavors, shapes, and textures, fruits are the most eye-catching and satisfyingly sweet food group. While fruits are available in many forms (e.g., canned, dried, fresh, frozen, and 100% juice), most people have a preferred form, which is likely influenced by many factors—including how healthy they perceive that form to be. Our annual IFIC Food and Health Survey has over the years explored Americans’ views on the healthiest food forms, and fresh consistently comes out on top (followed by frozen and canned). But is fresh fruit really always best—or your only option? Read on to find out. What counts as a fruit? While there may be barriers—like lack of convenience, cost, and busy schedules—to eating enough fruit each day, for many people, eating a fruit-filled diet might be easier than we think. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), the fruit food group consists of whole fruits and 100% fruit juice. But whole fruits don’t have to be found fresh in the produce section—they can also be canned, dried, or frozen varieties that we can eat cut, cubed, diced, sliced, or whole. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate also counts cooked, mashed, and pureed fruits as whole fruits. More specifically, the DGAs recommend that whole fruit should make up at least half of the amount of fruit that we eat each day, and that it’s best to eat fruits that feature a wide variety of colors. Some widely available fruits, like apples and bananas, can be found fresh year-round, while others, like peaches, are considered more seasonal. For seasonal fruits, buying frozen or canned varieties are great options when the fruit in question is out of season. What are the benefits of eating fruit? No matter its form, fruit is a critical part of any healthy […]

article

Emulsifiers: Mending the Differences in Our Foods

Eggs Benedict is a brunch staple, and what makes or breaks the plate is—you guessed it—the Hollandaise sauce. This personal favorite is a combination of egg yolk, butter, water, and lemon juice or vinegar, making for the ultimate emulsion. What’s an emulsion, you may ask? It’s a common component of many of the foods we eat, and while not everyone is a food scientist, there are a few interesting things you might be curious to know about emulsifiers in our food. What are emulsifiers? Emulsifiers are found in many food products we buy at the grocery store. Beverages, milk, ice cream, and dressings often feature emulsifiers as additives to keep the mixture of ingredients stable. What exactly do we mean by that? Well, have you ever tried mixing together oil and vinegar for a simple salad dressing? For a short time, the two may appear homogenously mixed, but after a few minutes they are completely separated. Emulsifiers keep two components that normally do not mix well together from separating. Because oil and vinegar are so chemically different, they can often be challenging to mix. As food scientists, if we want to overcome this challenge, we can add an emulsifier. Said in a different way? If water and oil were a fighting couple, an emulsifier would be the therapist that mends their relationship. Specifically, food scientists and producers use continuous stirring and sometimes heat to add emulsifiers to two previously unmixable components—helping to keep them together over the course of the final product’s lifetime. What foods contain emulsifiers? Emulsifiers can either be naturally present or added as additional ingredients. In the case of the highly stable emulsion of mayonnaise, an egg yolk protein called lecithin aids in stabilizing the oil, egg, and lemon juice mixture that is the foundation of mayonnaise. Lecithin […]

insights

The Case for CRISPR

When some people hear the term “selective breeding,” they assume it’s a fairly recent technology. Well, they would be off just a little bit — by about 12,000 years, to be precise. Practices such as breeding crops for desirable traits are almost as old as agriculture itself. Fast-forward to barely 150 years ago when we first began to understand genetics. Our working knowledge of DNA dates back only to the mid-20th century, and only then did genetic engineering get more sophisticated. Just a few decades removed, the intersection between science and food is at perhaps the most exciting place yet. With the rise of “big data,” we are beginning to see the connection between genetics and the food we eat, also called nutrigenomics. And now we stand on the cusp of a potentially revolutionary technology called “CRISPR.” It might sound like a drawer in your refrigerator, but it’s actually a tool that could bring enormous benefits to the food system. What is CRISPR? Before we dive into CRISPR, trust us, you may want to be sure to brush up on some basic genetics and biology so that the terms we use aren’t too foreign. CRISPR is one of many methods to alter the genetic information in the cells of living things — plants, fruits, vegetables, etc. That genetic information is called DNA, which are chains of molecular building blocks called nucleotides. DNA can produce proteins that define what an organism’s cells do or don’t do — kind of like how software controls the operation of a computer. Snippets or “sequences” of DNA called genes, pass down inherited traits over generations, tend to be stable, changing only slightly over time as organisms evolve and adapt to new conditions. Sometimes these changes are visible, such as the color of a flower, and […]

article

What is “Clean Eating”? Navigating a Controversial Nutrition Trend

Our 2017 Food and Health Survey revealed a disconcerting finding: Most consumers—nearly eight in 10 or 78%—say they encounter a lot of conflicting information about what to eat or avoid; more than half of those (56%) say the conflicting information makes them doubt the food choices they make. Initially, this statement may seem par for the course in the information age, yet we can’t ignore it. How can we make informed decisions about food if we cannot sift fact from fiction, or if we have not agreed upon what is true? These are important questions that both nutrition communicators and everyday consumers need to consider. One of the more controversial topics in nutrition is the concept of “clean eating.” What is it? Where did it begin? And if we aren’t eating clean…. are we eating dirty? What is Clean Eating? We are a little over a decade into the era of clean eating, which was first introduced in 2007 by a Canadian fitness coach who stressed the importance of avoiding processed foods. Then in 2009, a former cardiologist promoted “natural detoxification” of the body through a vigorous elimination diet and lots of liquids. Currently, there is still no clear or regulated definition of clean eating. IFIC attempted to better understand what consumers mean when it comes to “clean” through the June 2021 Survey: From “Chemical-sounding” to “Clean”: Consumer Perspectives on Food Ingredients. In the survey, we found that nearly half of consumers consider themselves to be “clean” eaters. When asked what that meant, one in five – 21%, ranked “eating foods that aren’t highly processed” as their top definition of the term; nearly half – 49%, rank this in their top three. Another 14% of self-described clean eaters defined it as eating foods found in the fresh produce section; 13% […]

article