The Food and Drug Administration released the guidelines for the new Nutrition Facts Panel today, or as it’s affectionately called by health professionals, the NFP. The Nutrition Facts Panel may be a few decades old but it hasn’t changed much since it was introduced in 1993. It has become an essential tool for people to figure out how nutritional value of the food they eat. There are some pretty awesome changes you’ll start to see on food labels over the next few years. The new NFP will:
Many of our blog's readers know that ShopWell utilizes technology to improve personal nutrition, but not all of them know exactly how the process works. That's why we commissioned designer Valerie Willis to provide a fun graphic representation of what happens when a new user joins ShopWell. If you're not familiar with what we do, or want to easily explain to others how ShopWell works, this graphic can help!
Looking to get started with ShopWell? Sign up and complete your user profile, then take a look at this list of our users' favorite foods (from Pop-Tarts to pasta sauce) to see your personalized food scores for each item.
If you're like most Americans, chances are you turn to a product's nutrition label for guidance on whether or not it's good for you. A 2010 American Dietetic Association study (with over 10,000 participants) found that 61.6 percent of respondents regularly examined the Nutrition Facts Panel. And with 2011 marking the 20th anniversary of required nutrition labels on products, most of us have gotten pretty good at scanning the label to find out the calories, fat, sugar, and vitamin content in our favorite foods.
We here at ShopWell have exciting news. Our iPhone app just got even cooler. We've added a bunch more features that are sure to please.
See Your Lists:
Headed to the store and didn't get a chance to print your list? Want to know the name of the bread you traded up to last week? Now you can see all of your lists right in the mobile app for a quick and easy reminder of all of the healthy foods you picked out at home.
Trying to remember which health goals and nutrition preferences you set? Check out the new profile section where you can review and update all of your ShopWell preferences.
We've just launched a tool that makes ShopWell even more personalized for you-- a Personalized Nutrition Label. Our co-founder Brian does a great job explaining why we've built this tool. Here, we'll show you how it works.
Here's an example of how it works for Cindy, a 35 year old woman....
Cindy loves pizza and searches on ShopWell to find which ones are healthiest for her. When she finds one she likes, she looks at the label. Before personalized labels she would see the same labels as everyone else.
Here's the "before" label - looks familiar right?
Now, when she sees one of her favorite foods, she can quickly add a few details about herself right where the label is, and then ShopWell tells her the total recommended daily calories for a woman her age and size.
Once she saves her info, ShopWell displays the nutrition label customized for Cindy's target daily calories which are based on her age, weight, height and activity level.
