by Travis King

Created on: March 17, 2010

For years the FDA has required food manufacturers to list ingredients and nutrition information on food labels. Wouldn't it be even better if they had to list the harmful effects of their products as well? Would these more informational labels help people to make wise eating choices? Not necessarily.

The reason for this is that our knowledge of nutrition is growing constantly. New studies are being published every day in the nutrition field, some of which completely overturn previous ideas about food. For example, the idea that fat is bad was a long-held belief by mainstream science which eventually was disproved by the realization that fats are necessary and that some fats are more beneficial than others. If we are learning more about food every day, it is very possible that a lot of food packaging would be constantly changing; this would probably cause food prices to go up as well because of creating more work for food manufacturers.

Many people's eating habits would probably not change very much with a label change any more than they did with the addition of nutrition facts labels. If anything, people would be even more confused about what they should eat. Many people still do not pay attention to nutritional labels, even after years of having had them on all packaged food. Warning labels on cigarette packages don't usually make people to stop smoking. Likewise, if someone has eaten a certain food for years, a warning label suddenly appearing is unlikely to make him stop eating it.

The basic nutrition facts do not change; it is good to know that a certain food contains 5 grams of protein or 50 mg of calcium. However, the changing world of nutrition will not wait for food labels to catch up. People should learn for themselves how much fat they should eat and how eating certain foods will affect their health, but forcing food manufacturers to do the educating will not work. Most customers will not change their eating habits because a warning label has been put on their food.

A better alternative to listing harmful effects on food labels would be for the public to be better educated about health and nutrition. Nutritional scientists and dietitians need to keep educating the public. Schools need to have more nutrition-intensive health programs. These are things that will help people to make wise eating choices. Adding new labels will not.

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