The FDA’s New Year’s Gift: Posters!
January 9, 2008
The FDA has produced electronic posters giving the nutrient content of raw fruits, raw vegetables, and cooked seafood (purchased raw). Why? I’m guessing because real foods don’t come with Nutrition Facts labels and you have to go to the USDA’s nutrient composition data base to find out what the details are. You can download the posters in small, medium, large, and extra-large, or just in text format. If you care about which fruit or vegetable has the most of any one nutrient, here’s an easy way to find out. Have fun with them!
These posters are a great start! I think they are pretty clear and relatively easy to find basic information. I learned a few things about individual foods. If I had an opportunity to revise them, I might add a column for folic acid content for the women intending to get pregnant. Or a column on Vitamin B12 content. But, overall, I think they are much better than I anticipated.
It is very interesting to see how low is the content of calories, sodium, and fats in fresh, natural foods. Amazing how we screw things up when we process these same foods for popular consumption. If we could get people to go back to eating only fresh, non-processed foods, we might cut our country’s rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes considerably. And for those who say they don’t have time to cook, I would say most of the fruits and vegetables on those lists can be eaten raw. The items on all 3 lists that need to be cooked can be steamed or nuked in a microwave. Amazing how simple life could be again.
Comment by Sheila — January 11, 2008 @ 5:59 pm