Major Distillers Commit to Serving Facts on Labels by June 2024
Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. director members, who collectively account for a majority of all distilled spirits sold in the U.S., have committed to providing "serving facts" on their labels (or by QR code) by June 2024, DISCUS said.
This is a significant move by the DISCUS members. First, the Serving Facts label will provide alcohol by volume information, and, second, it will also provide calorie content. Both are important factors for someone trying to live a healthy lifestyle.
Critics will carp, of course, that the calorie content is sort of meaningless when it comes to cocktails, because the other ingredients can significantly raise the number of calories in the final Martini or whatever. But it's unreasonable to expect any spirits producer to decide exactly which cola someone is going to use in their rum-and-cola, or what or how much of what ingredients they will use in some other mixed drink. The spirits producers are doing what they can.
Unlike beer and wine producers, distillers have always been required to list their alcohol content on their labels. However, in an historic first, the labels will now include serving size and other information including carbohydrate content, calories, protein and fat per serving size.
The announcement comes in advance of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The objective, the White House says, is to "catalyze action for the millions of Americans struggling with food insecurity and diet-related diseases like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.
The Serving Facts label is the latest example of DISCUS partnering with the Federal government on responsibility initiatives. As a USDA MyPlate Strategic National Partner committed to disseminating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and promoting responsibility and moderation for adults who choose to consume alcohol.
“Throughout the decades, the spirits industry has been a leader in developing and supporting programs and initiatives that effectively address and combat the harmful use of alcohol,” said Dr. Amanda Berger, Ph.D., DISCUS vp-science and health. “This includes empowering consumers to make informed decisions when it comes to drinking, and we are pleased to join with the White House in this important endeavor.”
50 Years Since Last Conference
It's been 50 years since the last White House conference on nutrition and health, and a cynic might say, "about time." It's been known for at least 30 years that food and health are closely related. A whole-food, plant-based diet has been conclusively shown to reduce and even reverse the effects of heart disease. But most people don't know that, and most medical students still aren't taught that.
The pioneering work in this area was done by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. (his book is here, his TEDTalk is here). Dr. Dean Ornish showed that it isn't necesssary to follow a strict vegan diet to reverse heart disease. His research led to his program becoming in 1993 the first non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical therapy for heart disease to qualify for insurance reimbursement. His most recently book, UnDo It!, details his program in detail. Dr. Saray Stancic overcame multiple sclerosis with diet changes.
Training Doctors
Part of the White House announcement is that the American College of Lifestyle Medicine will donate 5.5 hours of Continuing Medical Education course credits on nutrition and “food is medicine” topics to 100,000 health care providers located in regions with high rates of diet-related disease. ACLM will also coordinate with the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine to cover half the cost of lifestyle medicine training and certification for 1,400 primary care providers – one from each Federally Qualified Health Center across the nation.
The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will conduct a medical education summit on nutrition in practice in March 2023 for 150 medical education leaders. Also, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation will launch a two-year, $3.5 million effort to increase access to healthy food and grow the food is medicine movement. Perhaps most significantly, the University of South Carolina Medical School will help implement its open-source Lifestyle Medicine curriculum in all interested medical schools and provide guidance to the National Board of Medical Examiners on adding questions and content related to lifestyle medicine.
The White House says the conference will lay out "a transformational vision for ending hunger and reducing diet-related disease by 2030 – all while closing disparities among the communities that are impacted most."
Expanding Existing Government Programs
Much of the conference will focus on expanding use of existing government programs. For instance, according to the White House website, AARP and the AARP Foundation "will expand research on older adults’ access to SNAP and use this research to improve SNAP enrollment rates for older adults, which still lag behind other populations."
Likewise, the nonprofit Benefits Data Trust will "leverage technology to improve access to public benefits," including helping identify and enroll eligible college students in public benefit programs like SNAP, Medicaid and the FCC's program to help low-income households access the internet.
Some of the private sector programs highlighted by the White House are unique. For instance, Bowery, a vertical farming company, is committing to forging new partnerships with hunger-relief organizations, by donating food to food banks or similar organizations.
Where the White House misses the boat is by focusing on large organizations rather than by providing individual households with vertical gardening kits. See Details here. For a unique urban gardening program started by an individual in Los Angeles (and initially resisted by government, of course), see Garden Gangsta TEDTalk. (It's actually tremendously entertaining as well as delivering an excellent message).