Press Release
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 12, 2004 |
FDA Press Office
301-827-6242 |
HHS UNVEILS FDA STRATEGY TO HELP REDUCE OBESITY
New "Calories Count" Approach Builds on HHS' Education, Research Efforts
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today released a new Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) report outlining another element in HHS' comprehensive strategy for combating
the epidemic of obesity that threatens the health of millions of Americans
with a focus on the message, "calories count."
The report by FDA's Obesity Working Group includes recommendations to strengthen
food labeling, to educate consumers about maintaining a healthy diet and weight
and to encourage restaurants to provide calorie and nutrition information.
It also recommends increasing enforcement to ensure food labels accurately
portray serving size, revising and reissuing guidance on developing obesity
drugs and strengthening coordinated scientific research to reduce obesity and
to develop foods that are healthier and low in calories.
"Counting calories is critical for people trying to achieve and maintain a
healthy weight," Secretary Thompson said. "This new report highlights FDA's
overall strategy for getting consumers accurate, helpful information that allows
them to make wise food choices at home, at supermarkets and in restaurants.
Taking small steps to eat a more balanced diet and to stay physically active
can go a long way to reversing the epidemic of obesity that harms far too many
Americans."
The FDA report comes on the heels of a new study from HHS' Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) that shows poor diet and inactivity are poised
to become the leading preventable cause of death among Americans -- causing
an estimated 400,000 deaths in 2000. CDC estimates that 64 percent of all Americans
are overweight, including more than 30 percent who are considered obese. About
15 percent of children and adolescents, aged 6 to 19, are overweight -- almost
double the rate of two decades ago.
Secretary Thompson on Tuesday unveiled a new national education campaign to
encourage Americans to take small steps to fight obesity and a new obesity
research strategy at the National Institutes of Health. Today's report builds
on those initiatives by highlighting actions that FDA, which regulates many
foods and their labels, can take to enable consumers to make smart choices
about their diet and maintain a healthy weight.
"Our report concludes that there is no substitute for the simple formula that
'calories in must equal calories out' in order to control weight," said FDA
Deputy Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D. "We're going back to
basics, designing a comprehensive effort to attack obesity through an aggressive,
science-based, consumer-friendly program with the simple message that 'Calories
Count.'"
The report's recommendations include:
- Evaluating how the "Nutrition Facts" panel on food labels can be revised
to highlight the critical role calories play in consumers' diets -- such
as increasing type size and adding a column to list quantitative amounts
of calories as a Percent Daily Value for the entire package. The report recommends
FDA issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to gain public input on
approaches to effectively revise food labels.
- Considering the authorization of health claims on certain foods that
meet FDA's definition of "reduced" or "low" calorie. An example of such
a health claim might be: "Diets low in calories may reduce the risk of
obesity, which is associated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain
cancers." The report recommends an advance notice of proposed rulemaking
to obtain public input on the approach.
- Encouraging manufacturers to use dietary guidance statements, such as, "To
manage your weight, balance the calories you eat with your physical activity;
have a carrot, not the carrot cake; or have cherry yogurt, not cherry pie."
- Defining such terms as "low," "reduced," or "free" carbohydrates, as
well as providing guidance for the use of the term "net" in relation to
carbohydrate content of food, in light of increasing consumer interest
in low carbohydrate diets and in response to petitions asking FDA to define
these terms.
- Focusing FDA's consumer education strategy on influencing behavior and
promoting healthy eating choices with the basic message that "Calories
Count." FDA will work with private and public sector partners, including
youth-oriented organizations, to give consumers a better understanding
of the food label and how to use it to make healthier food choices.
- Encouraging the restaurant industry to launch a national, voluntary effort
to include nutritional information for consumers at the point of sale.
Such information would help consumers make healthier and lower-calorie
choices outside the home, where Americans now spend nearly half their total
food budget. The report recommends that FDA seek restaurants to participate
in a pilot program to study effective options for simple, voluntary, standardized
nutritional information at the point of sale in restaurants.
- Increasing FDA's focus on enforcing accurate serving size declarations
on food labels and advising manufacturers when the agency identifies apparent
errors in declared serving sizes. FDA is issuing a letter to encourage
the food industry to review its nutrition information and ensure that the
serving size declared is appropriate for the food product in question.
- Revising and reissuing FDA's 1996 draft Guidance for the Clinical Evaluation
of Weight-Control Drugs. This action item reflects the fact that some obese
and extremely obese individuals are likely to need medical intervention
to reduce weight and mitigate associated diseases and other adverse health
effects. FDA would issue this revised guidance for public comment.
- Strengthening the coordination of research into obesity and the development
of foods that are healthier and lower in calories with other HHS agencies,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other public and private sector
partners. Specific target areas include research related to information
to facilitate consumers' weight management decisions; the relationship
between overweight and obesity and food consumption patterns; incentives
for product reformulation; the potential for FDA-regulated products to
contribute unintentionally to weight gain; and the extension of basic research
findings to the regulatory environment.
The full report from the FDA's obesity working group is available
at http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/obesity/.
More information about HHS' new anti-obesity campaign and NIH's obesity research
agenda is available at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040309.html .
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