The FDA now says that it’s guidelines on what ‘Healthy’ means in food has to be revised. It turns out that the
old guidelines, made in the 90’s during intense lobbying by the sugar industries allow – wait for it – too much sugar in foods for good health!
The FDA also says that the old guidelines also come down too hard on fats. How come? The old guidelines were made during a time of intense anti-fat lobbying! So what made the FDA decide to revise its guidelines on what healthy is in food? More lobbying! More likely than not, lobbyists will have more sway over the FDA’s new guidelines for ‘healthy’ foods than medical experts will. To prevent lobbyists from hijacking the definition of healthy, substantial public pressure on the FDA is needed.
The FDA is looking for input
Public comments are being accepted by the FDA until 26 January 2017. You can post a comment on the FDA’s website by clicking this link. Life Ionizers urges you to make your views on what makes a food healthy known to the FDA. You can be sure lobbyists are!
The regular readers of this blog are some of the most health-savvy people out there. Just the fact that you’re studying the health benefits of alkaline foods and water makes you more informed than the general public. Imagine if enough people commented to the FDA that the acidity of foods along with their nutritional content should be considered when deciding what constitutes a healthy food.
What the FDA is currently considering
The FDA is currently looking at how much sugar is allowed in food that can be labeled healthy. For example, the current guidelines allow Pop Tarts to be considered a healthy food because they are low in fat! Meanwhile, Kind bars can’t be labeled healthy because they have too high a fat content in them even though the fats in Kind bars are good for you! In fact, it was a petition started by Kind bars that caused the FDA to decide to reconsider their definition of healthy. That petition was signed by health-conscious consumers, just like you, and the FDA acted.
Fats are also under consideration. In a blog post for the FDA, Douglas Balentine, the director of the FDA’s Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling says: “The most recent public health recommendations now focus on the type of fat, rather than the amount of fat.” This is good news for Kind bars, which should be labeled as healthy food. But the FDA is currently not considering the acid-forming content in foods. That needs to change.
Talking Points you can use to Comment on the FDA’s definition of healthy
The FDA is controlled by mainstream medical experts who are very unlikely to be swayed by alternative health arguments. A better strategy for being taken seriously is to use only mainstream health information sources to make your point. Here are two studies you can cite in your comment that come from The Lancet one of world’s most prestigious medical journals:
Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study
According to the study: Changing your diet to a more alkaline diet such as the Mediterranean diet lowers levels of free radicals in the body and improves antioxidant status. Eating an alkaline diet is associated with a significant reduction in your chances of developing diseases like diabetes and cancer that are related to acidic diet. Read the study here. This study was preliminary, but it was followed up by the second study, five years later that confirmed its findings.
Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study
According to the study: Comprehensive lifestyle changes including eating a more alkaline diet, are associated with a significantly lower risk of developing degenerative diseases like: Dementia, alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease as well as cancer. Read the study here.
- Acid-forming diets carry a higher risk of cancer and degenerative diseases
- Alkaline diets reduce the risk of cancer and other degenerative diseases
- The FDA should advise consumers to limit the amount of acid forming foods in their diet
- Alkaline forming foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, are known to be good for your health
- Sugar is a highly acid forming food. Recommending a low-acidity diet is directly in line with the new guidelines the FDA is already considering.
- Poor bone health is an epidemic that is killing millions of Americans
- People from nations such as Japan that have lower-acidity diets are generally in better health than Americans.
- The FDA should put the PRAL score (potential renal acid load) of foods on the nutrition label so people can make informed choices about the acid-forming content of the foods they eat.
There will be opposition from companies that sell highly acid-forming foods. That is why your comment to the FDA is needed. Big Agra hijacked process the last time the FDA considered what is healthy. Please take a moment to comment to the FDA, we can’t let that happen again!
Alkaline water can help neutralize acidity
If you are working to regain the health that an acidic diet may have robbed you of, alkaline water can help. Especially if you’re over the age of 50, because that’s when our bodies’ own natural alkaline buffer has become depleted from years of eating an acidic diet. There are over 40 studies that show many different health benefits that come from drinking alkaline water.