What is a 'healthy' food?

Nowadays, about 5 percent of all packaged foods are classified as "healthy," according to the Food and Drug Administration agency. This definition allows for food manufacturers to add the word "healthy" to the products that have limited amounts of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and provide at least 10 percent of the daily value of one or more of the following nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, iron, protein, dietary fiber, or potassium.

The most important aspect is that, nowadays, there is no limit on added sugars in the present definition - an omission that the F.D.A. believes is inconsistent with today's nutrition science. Consequently, the F.D.A presented a new proposal on Wednesday which aims at changing the criteria about packaged foods that it considers "healthy." This would modernize its approach to nutrition and help people who suffer from diet-related diseases.

"The old rule was really outdated - you could create any kind of Frankenstein food that met the nutrient criteria and classify it as healthy," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of nutrition at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. "This is a major advance."

Thé., proposed rule introduces a new limit on added sugars - in•:general, no more than 2.5 grams per serving. lt also restricts the amount of sodium to no more than 230 milligrams per serving and provides limits for saturated fat.

The new definition aims to encourage healthy eating by prioritizing a mix of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, proteins and certain oils, including vegetable oils. A "healthy" food would need to contain a minimum amount of at least one of those food groups and be within the new limits for saturated fats, sodium and added sugars.

Many sugary cereais, granola bars, highly sweetened yogurts and white breads, which might currently qualify as "healthy" under the existing definition, would be eliminated under the new rule. On the other hand, water, avocados, nuts and seeds, fatty fish like salmon, and certain oils - which do not currently qualify as "healthy" - could get the distinction under the new guidelines.

The new definition of "healthy" emphasizes if a food fits into a healthy dietary pattern, as opposed to just focusing on a food's individual nutrients. Salmon, for example, which isn't considered "healthy" under the current definition because it is high in fat, would get the new "healthy" distinction because it is rich in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and protein and low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

The agency hopes that an updated definition will help consumers make better dietary decisions, to help lower the incidence of "diet-related chronic diseases" like cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. More than 80 percent of people living in the United States aren't getting enough vegetables, fruit and dairy in their diets, according to the F.D.A.

(Adapted Irem https:/lwww.nytimes.com/2022)

Screen Time Is Stolen Time

A French neuroscientist shows lha! screens and kids shouldn't mix.

ln lhe good old days, lhe triad of family, school, and street maintained lhe raising of children and adolescents. The Internet first replaced lhe street. Then, it conquered schools. Now, it's swallowing families. The triad of raising youngsters has become screen, screen, screen.

ln 2019, French neuroscientist Michel Desmurget published lhe book La Fabrique du Crétin Digital (The Digital Cretin Factory), which has now been translated into English with lhe more moderate title of Screen Damage. ln lhe book Desmurget presents some vitally important points.

Our children are immersed in screens much more than we think. ln their first two years, Desmurget shows, kids spend, on average, nearly 50 minutes daily on screens. Screen time reaches two hours and 45 minutes between lhe ages of two and eight, four hours and 45 minutes between lhe ages of eight and 12, and an astonishing seven hours and 15 minutes between lhe ages of 13 and 18. That represents 20 percent, 32 percent, and 45 percent of kids' waking time, respectively.

According to Desmurget, technologies rapidly grow to satisfy lhe needs of lhe myth of "digital natives," and "digital natives" grow even more digital as they are more immersed ·in screens. Simultaneously, as Desmurget shows, lhe. more that countries invest in "information and communication technologies for education," lhe more pupil performance falis. The consequences are no! jus! academic failure but arrested cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development.

Studies show lha! "children who learn to write on a computer, with a keyboard, have a much harder time remembering and recognizing letters than those who learn with their hand, a penei! and a sheet of paper." The positive effect of screens, even when employed for educational purposes, is either negligible or nondetectable; lhe damage is huge. Even more devastating is lhe harm of recreational digital use.

The time spent with screens in early age is simply "stolen time" from kids' development. Adults usually tolerate lhe waste of their time on gadgets, as they think they can compensate for this loss through !ater efforts. li does no! work this way for children. Early cognitive development heavily relies on lhe plasticity of lhe young brain. "The great periods of brain plasticity ... do no! las! forever," writes Desmurget. "Once closed, they can no longer be resuscitated. What has been spoiled is forever los!."

For example, basic language skills form in lhe first years of life. Live interaction with adults makes children's language incomparably richer than any screen substitutes, even educational ones. The reason is simple: adults use a great variety of words and syntactic structures, while educational TV programs tend to employ "ageappropriate," meaning artificially reduced vocabulary and syntax. Adults also routinely correct kids, and this provides much wider speech diversity than any well-designed program could ever do.

A lack of real human communication in lhe first four years of life irreparably affects development. lf screens occupy 20 percent to 30 percent of kids' waking time ai this age, they subtract a respective share of cognitive development, giving back nothing in exchange except for health issues, aggressiveness, and anxiety.

(Adapted from: https://www.city-journal.org)