This Sunday: Cherry Bombe Jubilee

I know I'm not alone in my interest in knowing the minutia of the nutritional content in my food, but sometimes it feels that way. But this Sunday I'll get to hear another woman talk about this topic, someone who has paved the way for me to know more. Her name is Marion Nestle. For the last few months I have been carefully reading her book, Why Calories Count, about the science and politics of those invisible nutritional building blocks. The book is incredibly informative and I can't wait to hear her talk, and perhaps meet her in person. The conversation is part of the Cherry Bombe Jubilee, a day to celebrate women and the wonderful world of food. It's sold out now--I'm glad I was early to get my ticket! Of course it's New York, and we're women, so in addition to the great line-up, well, there will be great food.

.

Calories have been in the press a great deal of late, most notably with the overhaul of the calorie guides on the back of food boxes. The FDA is proposing several changes to this familiar rectangular box in order to make people more aware of what they are eating. A few of the changes are:

• The font for calories per serving will jump up in size, which means people will no longer make that mistake of eating a whole bag of something only to learn it was three servings instead of one. 
• Added Sugars will become its own line, which for me is very important, because I'd like to avoid foods with any additives. And whether you realize this or not, sugars are carbs, and if you're a diabetic then you need to count them all. Marion Nestle's book is helping me understand that not all carbs are equal.
• Calories from Fat will drop off in importance, which I think is fine, it's not the key piece of information in food, unless of course you're eating something fried, which doesn't generally have a calorie guide.
• My biggest worry is that the FDA plans to re-evaluate actual serving sizes to match the amounts that people are eating in the real world. I worry about this. Just because we are eating more doesn't mean we should increase a serving size to match our appetite. Shouldn't we all be eating less? I fear this change will make it okay to turn a 4-serving half-pint of ice cream into a 2-serving pint. In this example your serving of ice cream would equal easily 4-500 calories. Doesn't sound like a good idea to me. What do you think?

The new proposed calorie guide by FDA.

I still haven't finished Why Calories Count, so I better hop to it. Other talks at the conference that I am looking forward to? “What’s Cooking In The Classroom? A Culinary School Report” and “Getting Your Clog in the Door” with April Bloomfield and others. The conference is already sold out, but if you're going please leave me a comment, I would love to meet up.