Here’s the thing: Nutritional biologist Marit Kolby wants all ultra-processed food to be labeled in red. She believes that the key hole arrangement is not good enough to help consumers find the best option within a product group. Kolby proposes traffic light marking, where ultra-processed food is marked red, raw materials are marked green, and processed products with nutritional value are marked yellow. The Norwegian Directorate of Health believes that it is not appropriate to label products based on how refined or processed they are. The Minister of Health says it is not relevant to have negative labeling on ultra-processed food, if the Directorate of Health does not recommend it. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. After the new dietary advice became known in August, many have argued that they lack a call for ultra-processed food. Several well-known nutrition experts point out that ultra-processed food is harmful to our health, while the Directorate of Health believes that this is not sufficiently well documented. Now nutritional biologist Marit Kolby will actively warn consumers about this type of food. She wants ultra-processed food to have clear labeling on the packaging. The Minister of Health, for his part, believes that this is not relevant. Ynsker traffic lights Marit Kolby has for years worked on many fronts to inform people about so-called clean food. She believes that it is too difficult to find this food in the shop. – If I could be allowed to decide, then we would have a kind of “traffic light marking”, says Kolby. – Ultra-processed food is such extensively processed industrial food that it is not actually suitable for keeping us healthy. This is nutritional biologist and university lecturer Marit Kolby’s short definition of ultra-processed food. Photo: Frode Meskau / news She wants to introduce a system where the ultra-processed food is marked in red. All raw materials are automatically labeled green. The processed products that have nutritional value are marked with yellow. In this way, she believes the consumer can more easily navigate the grocery store and choose healthy alternatives. Around 60 percent of all the food we find in the grocery store is ultra-processed. Photo: Frode Meskau / news What is ultra-processed food actually? Here you will find some typical examples: Ultra-processed food Industrial bread and pastries: Industrial bread Hamburger bread Cakes Biscuits Donuts Other pastries that contain flavourings, hydrogenated oils and colourings. Breakfast cereals: Cheerios Weetabix Cornflakes Similar products made from corn. Also includes muesli and granola mixes with added flavor enhancers, preservatives or other industrial ingredients. Meat and milk substitutes: Beyond burger and similar Soya milk Oat milk Almond milk Rice milk Sugary snacks: Chocolate Soda (also sugar-free) Ice cream Snacks Ice cream Desserts Meat, fish and dairy products Salami Bacon (in some cases) Fish sticks Crabsticks Caviar Tube/cream cheese (in some cases ) Protein powder Margarine Sources: NOVA/ Idunn Marit Kolby believes the key hole labeling has good intentions. She still believes that they do not help people to find the best option within a product group. She brought out an example of the puffy sweet breakfast mixes that have the keyhole brand on them. It also has oatmeal. – It is completely obvious that oatmeal is a better food for us humans to eat, says Kolby. – We need a labeling system that makes it easier for us to choose food of better quality, and then we also need to label the food that is not good for us, says Kolby. The key hole is the labeling scheme for the authorities, which should make it easier to make healthier choices. But the goods can still be ultra-processed. Photo: Frode Meskau / news Directorate of Health: – Not expedient The Directorate of Health does not think it is expedient to label products based on how refined or processed they are. – The basic reason is that there is no connection between how refined a food is and how healthy it is. The most important thing when looking at whether a product is healthy or not is to assess the nutritional content of the product, including how much saturated fat, sugar and salt it contains, says divisional director Linda Granlund. She points out that products such as seigmenn and wholemeal bread fall into the same category, as both are treated. – That is why it is completely wrong that both of these are automatically marked red, says Granlund. Lived without ultra-processed food for a month Magazine manager at Nettavisen, Lars Wærstad, discovered that it was difficult to find the clean products in the store, and supports Kolby’s proposal. He was involved in a project about not eating ultra-processed food. Together with eight other colleagues at Nettavisen, they tested out a month without ultra-processed food. For a month, Lars Wærstad lived without ultra-processed food, and felt for himself that his body had never before functioned as well as it did then. Photo: Frode Meskau / news – During that month I lost many kilos. I lived much healthier, felt better, slept better, my pulse was better. Digestion was better, so my body loves it, says Wærstad. The study was not clinical, but the participants took, among other things, blood samples before and after the project. Micro-CRP was tested there, which measures inflammation in the body. – It went down, and that was one of the things I noticed the most. I also went down in metabolic age. There is no doubt that my body liked what I was doing, says Wærstad. Wærstad thinks the most interesting thing about the project, by only eating clean food, was that it got quite a following. – You live healthier. I train as usual, but during the period I pretended to skip training on Monday just because I was a little tired. You go into it a little, and by making healthy choices, you make even more healthy and smart choices, says Wærstad. When it comes to today’s labeling in the store, Wærstad is skeptical after what he has learned through the project. – I don’t trust the keyhole marking. For example, most store-bought bread is ultra-processed. Hams that look clean and nice are also ultra-processed, while a cured ham that can be a little rough with streaks of fat and the like is a clean product. Trusting the Directorate of Health The Minister of Health and Care, Jan Christian Vestre, says it is not appropriate to have negative labeling on ultra-processed food, if the Directorate of Health does not recommend it. The Minister of Health and Care, Jan Christian Vestre, says it is good that many professionals are involved in the dietary advice, but that he fully trusts the Directorate of Health’s assessments. Photo: Vibecke Wold Haagensen / news – We have a branding scheme today that works very well, namely the keyhole scheme. But we can always discuss how it can be further developed and made even better. But it must be based on the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s official dietary advice, says Vestre. The Directorate of Health has not included a call not to eat ultra-processed food in the new dietary advice. They believe that the documentation that this type of food is harmful to health is not good enough. What do you think of the proposal for Kolby? I eat what I want regardless of labeling 🍴 I think it sounds good ✅ I trust the keyhole labeling that already exists 🔑 Show result Published 11.11.2024, at 13.47
ttn-69
