updates on health check

Updates on Health Check

Well, there have been some changes with Health Check, but

unfortunately only with their website's FAQ section which seems to be

growing on an almost daily basis. It's now a whopping 27 questions

long whereas six months ago, it was only 9!

Here are some of the newer frequently asked questions:

What are the Health Check's criteria for sodium/salt?

What limits have you set for sugar?

Could products without the symbol be healthier than Health Check

products?

Some good questions there. Unfortunately the answers on their website

(at least as of today's version of their website) are not particularly

informative.

Let's look at them. Let's start with that last question,

"Could products without the symbol be healthier than Health Check

products?".

Here's their complete answer,

"Health Check is a voluntary program, and we can only evaluate the

products that are submitted to us. Companies that choose not to

participate in Health Check may meet our criteria, but

participation is their choice. We encourage consumers to read the

nutrition facts panel and compare products, and know that they can

always use Health Check as a quick reference to say "this product

fits within a balanced diet following Canada's Food Guide."

Did you notice that they didn't in fact answer the question? The

question was actually a yes or no question; it certainly didn't call

for a long winded circular non-answer.

(The answer of course is "Yes, products without the symbol could be

healthier than Health Check products".)

Regarding sugar and salt, here are a few choice quotes from their

answers,

"The Health Check criteria for sodium for packaged products already

in the program are mainly based on the values from Health Canada's

Heart Health Claim (480 mg for single foods such as crackers and

960 mg for entr�es such as a frozen dinner/entree) which is meant

to help reduce the risk of developing heart disease.) These claims

are widely accepted by the majority of health professionals and

dietitians in Canada."

and,

"Until recently, Health Check did not have sugar criteria, because

there are no accepted scientific national or international limits

we could use to establish criteria."

Oh really?

The Canadian Stroke Network on page 8 of their winter 2008 newsletter

recommended that foods containing more than 400mg of sodium be labeled

as high in sodium. Frankly so too do the Heart and Stroke Foundation,

Blood Pressure Canada, the Canadian Hypertension Education Program,

the Canadian Hypertension Society and the Societe Quebecoise

D'Hypertension Arterielle, all of who on page 2 of a 2007 joint public

recommendations document advised us not to consume foods that contain

greater than 10% of our total daily recommended sodium intake. If we

take the current 2300mg recommendation that would mean that they,

including the Heart and Stroke Foundation, would want us to avoid

foods containing more than 230mg of sodium per serving.

Regarding sugar, as noted before the World Health Organization's

expert consensus was to limit consumption to reflect less than 10% of

total daily Calorie consumption.

So what would a person consume if they ONLY chose Health Check'ed

items?

Well in the test diet I created using only Health Check'ed items, it

led to the consumption of an astronomical 4,065mg of sodium and a

mind-numbing 190.5g of sugar - that's 47 teaspoons of sugar - almost a

full cup in one day, with sugar accounting for 30% of the day's total

Calories.

Now before you conclude that I chose only those items highest in sugar

and sodium, I'll tell you that I did nothing of the sort. To view my

test diets, click here.

Oh, and by the way, doing the same type of test diet for children

yielded 2,285mg of sodium and 40 teaspoons of sugar (also reflective

of 30% of their total daily Caloric intake).

Another new development came from one of the world's most

indefatigable advocates of healthy eating and evidence-based

nutrition, Dr. Marion Nestle from NYU, (I link to her blog on my

sidebar) who weighed in on the debate on the Canadian Medical

Association Journal's website. Her response, along with a letter from

me and a couple from folks "defending" Health Check are available in

their entirety on the CMAJ's online response section however here's

her first paragraph,

"I view front-of-package labeling programs as a slippery slope.

They make it all too easy for food companies to reformulate

products to make them conform to criterion cut-points. The fewer

the criteria, the greater the potential for such manipulation. As I

understand it, the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check

program currently relies on few criteria, a method that permits the

Foundation to endorse foods containing amounts of sodium and sugar

than would be excluded by more comprehensive criteria, and lesser

amounts of health-promoting ingredients."

So keep on asking your questions to the Heart and Stroke folks and

perhaps eventually they may come to recognize that Health Check is

broken and that they can either roll it up or fix it.

Whether you've done so already or not, if you find all this the least

bit concerning, I would urge you to voice your concerns with the folks

responsible for Health Check and in positions of authority at the

Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Click here to send Health Check an email, and included on the email

will be Sally Brown (CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation), Stephen

Samis (Scientific Director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation), and

Terry Dean (General Manager of Health Check) as well as the members of

the Technical Advisory Committee responsible for overseeing Health

Check's inclusion criteria.