Nutrition Facts

The new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the government's tips on healthful diets, will be issued in the new year, says the Health and Human Services Department.

Besides overhauling the Nutrition Fact label on food packages, the FDA should mandate a summary of nutritional information on the front of the box, said former FDA commissioner David Kessler. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Kessler says such a label would list "the top three ingredients, the calorie count, and the number of additional ingredients...in bold, easy-to-read type."

Children's cereals contain so much sugar that "someone eating an average serving...would consume more than 10 pounds of sugar a year from that source alone," says the Environmental Working Group in a new report. Two-thirds of the cereals aimed at children contain enough the equivalent of one-third of the recommended daily amount of sugar.

The Obama administration proposed the first overhaul of the Nutrition Facts label since it came into use in the 1990s.

First Lady Michelle Obama and AgSec Vilsack announced new school food rules that would phase out advertising of junk foods and sodas in schools, a follow-on to provisions that require schools to serve healthier meals.

The administration may announce later this week the first update to the Nutrition Facts labels that appear on food packages, said Politico's Morning Ag newsletter.