What does “healthy” mean, exactly, when applied to food? It’s a tougher question than you might think. The FDA has been trying to answer it for years now, and they announced that they finally have a rough definition.
The origin story here is wild: The FDA sent a letter years ago to KIND (the makers of those energy bars that are basically just nuts glued together with syrup) saying that nuts are too high in fat to be considered “healthy,” and thus that the company may not use the word. KIND shot back that of course nuts are healthy, and it’s the FDA who is wrong. The FDA said: Oh. Perhaps you’re right. We’ll think on that.
That was in 2016, and the agency has been mulling over that question (with public and corporate input) ever since. The old definition of “healthy” required foods to be low in sodium, fat, and cholesterol, but the Dietary Guidelines (published by another agency, the USDA) have changed since that original definition was codified. The 2015 guidelines got rid of limitations on cholesterol, and the 2020 guidelines introduced a limit on added sugar. The new rule brings the definition of “healthy” in line with the current guidelines.
Here’s how the agency describes the new proposed rule on when a company can call their food products healthy:
Under the proposed definition, in order to be labeled with the “healthy” claim on food packaging, the products would need to:
- Contain a certain meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (e.g., fruit, vegetable, dairy, etc.) recommended by the Dietary Guidelines.
- Adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. The threshold for the limits is based on a percent of the Daily Value (DV) for the nutrient and varies depending on the food and food group. The limit for sodium is 10% of the DV per serving (230 milligrams per serving).
For example, a cereal would need to contain ¾ ounces of whole grains and contain no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars.
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So a container of yogurt could be “healthy” since it provides dairy, but only if it doesn’t have too much sugar. A package of trail mix can be “healthy” since it provides fruit and nuts, so long as it doesn’t contain too much sugar, salt, or added saturated fats. The FDA has more specific examples here.
The new rules are a bit more compatible with the idea that eating patterns are what can be healthy or unhealthy, and is supposed to somewhat take the focus off of glorifying or demonizing individual foods and nutrients. The new labels are meant to essentially say “you can easily fit this in to a healthy diet.”
Still, I would argue that the agency allowing individual foods to be termed “healthy” is undermining its own argument there. (They are also considering a symbol that designates healthy foods.) So, is the new definition going to be useful to consumers? I’m skeptical of that. But at least it’s changing with the times.
