Letter: How front-of-pack nutrition labeling could help Clark County and America

Clark County resident Lilian Tsi Stielstra shares her personal health experiences and how they relate to the need to implement clear, simple nutrition labels on the front of food products

By Lilian Tsi Stielstra

Last fall, I participated in a national forum urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement clear, simple nutrition labels on the front of food products to let people know what’s healthy and what’s not.

It was a far cry from 2010, when I was in a hospital bed following a stroke — I was overweight, didn’t exercise and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol — and had a neurologist tell me: “You know, you’re 46 years old. I really shouldn’t even be seeing someone like you.”

But the fact that a neurologist was seeing me meant two things. First, I knew very little about good nutrition. And second, our nation didn’t then — and doesn’t now — do nearly enough to help people make healthy eating choices.

Front-of-pack labeling can help on both counts in a big way. The FDA is poised to release proposed rules this month that would finally require it. I urge the agency to follow through.

Life expectancy in Clark County is higher than the national average. But as my own experience makes clear, even our community is not immune from the high rates of chronic illness and disease that plague our country and often stem at least in part from unhealthy eating.

Obesity afflicts nearly 1/3 of Clark County adults. Nearly 1 in 10 county residents are food insecure. Four percent of residents are both low-income and lack access to healthy foods.

Front-of-pack nutrition labeling won’t solve all of these problems. But it would be a really helpful and effective place to start.

The current Nutrition Facts label on food packages provides consumers with information on things like calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar. Studies show it helps the people who use it make healthier choices. But the problem is that most people don’t use it.

The Nutrition Facts are on the back of packages, not the front, so it’s not readily visible. But even if you do look at it, all those numbers and percentages are really complicated; it can take time and an advanced math degree to understand it all.

As I shared last fall with the FDA: “Imagine the mother working with two toddlers in the shopping cart standing at the supermarket. You are not going to check the four different types of juice packets to see which one has less sugar.”

My view: let’s literally take the math out of the equation. Instead of a spreadsheet on the back, front-of-pack labels — think letter grades, stoplight colors or designating high, medium or low levels of specific nutrients — provide instant health information right up front.

Many countries have already implemented those kinds of approaches, and the impact is clear: consumers make healthier purchases and food manufacturers even make healthier products.

FDA has been studying front-of-pack labeling for years, and it’s exciting that a proposed rule is close at hand. One recent national survey found that 75% of U.S. consumers — including 80% of those with children in their households — support front-of-pack labeling. There’s simply no reason why the United States shouldn’t adopt a solution so effective and with such high support.

My stroke was the wakeup call I needed to get my life in order. But it shouldn’t take a near death experience for anyone to learn the importance of good nutrition. Front-of-pack labeling would empower people in Clark County and every community to make nutrition a priority. That would be a stroke of good fortune for us all.

Lilian Tsi Stielstra, a Clark County resident, is an American Heart Association volunteer, National Go Red for Women spokesperson and stroke survivor.