Union of Concerned Scientists

This week is National Farmers Market Week! I love this time of year. Living in the Northeast, we don’t have access most of the year to flavorful, local, fruits and vegetables. But right now, markets are popping up in all parts of the city with healthy, local, delicious food. At a time when our federal government is paying farmers to grow virtually the opposite of what it recommends we actually eat—spending billions of dollars to subsidize ingredients that go into sugary processed food—it’s critical that we take time to celebrate forward-thinking food initiatives that can set a model for new, national policies. With your support, we’re working to create smart food and farm policies—including investments to increase every American’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables—that will prioritize healthy people, a healthy environment, and nutritious food over junk food profits. —Karla

Science in Action
	Ensure food nutritional labels identify amounts of added sugar.Powerful sugar interests are working hard to keep us in the dark about how much added sugar they put in our foods and drinks—even in the face of scientific evidence that links high sugar consumption with heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. You deserve the ability to make informed decisions about what you eat! Encourage the FDA to follow through on their proposed update to the Nutritional Facts label to include information about added sugar.


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Cartoon of the Month
Click to view larger image.			We want to hear from you! What more can be done to build support for sustainable agriculture and food that is healthy, affordable, and accessible? Newsweek:Sugar lobby buries science on health effects. Not just healthy fruits and vegetables—farmers markets have economic benefits too!

Ask a Scientist

Deborah Bailin, Ph.D.
Democracy Analyst,
Center for Science and Democracy

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Deborah’s blog >>

This month, Deborah Bailin, an analyst with the UCS Center for Science and Democracy, gives us tips for how to interpret the food nutrition labels on the back of the foods we buy—and flags some things we should all look out for!The nutrition facts label is the familiar black and white panel, that, for the last 20 years, you’ve been able to find on all packaged foods and beverages in the United States. But these labels can be tricky to read. For instance, sugar is labeled in grams—but how many of us know how much sugar that really is? You might be surprised to find out, for instance, that one serving of new “Cheerios Protein Oats and Honey” cereal has four teaspoons of sugar in it! READ MORE

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This Just In

Two new UCS reports expose sugar industry deception.
Sugar. We think of it as a sweet treat, but it hides in everything from barbeque sauce to yogurt, added to foods that are often sweet to begin with. Scientific evidence has shown that overconsumption of sugar has serious health consequences. But powerful sugar interests work hard to keep us in the dark about sugar’s dangerous health effects and divert our attention away from all the added sugar in their products—many of which are marketed to us as “healthy.” Two new UCS reports expose the industry’s deceptive marketing tactics, how it’s obscured the science, and how it undermined public health policy. READ MORE