To update the approach to nutrition and lessen the burden of diet-related disorders, the Food and Drug Administration unveiled a new proposal on Wednesday that would alter the standards for which packaged foods the agency considers healthy.

The FDA estimates that only 5% of packaged foods currently bear the healthy label. The 1994 definition permits food producers to label their goods as healthy as long as they contain low levels of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium as well as at least 10% of the recommended daily intake of at least one of the following nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, or dietary fibre. The Food and Drug Administration changed its regulations in 2016 to allow some foods to include greater total fat and to include ones that deliver at least 10% of the recommended daily intake of potassium or vitamin D. The F.D.A. considers that the absence of a limit on added sugars under the current definition is in conflict with the state of nutrition science today.

The former approach, according to Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and nutrition professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston was completely out of date — you could construct any kind of Frankenstein meal that matched the nutrient criteria and call it as healthy.

A new restriction on added sugars is introduced by the agency’s proposed regulation, which was made public in conjunction with the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Wednesday. Generally, not more than 2.5 grams of added sugar should be consumed per serving, though this might vary depending on the item. Additionally, it sets limits for saturated fat, which can also vary depending on the meal, and limits the amount of sodium to no more than 230 milligrams per serving, the F.D.A. stated.

For instance, the new rule would disqualify a six-ounce serving of yogurt as healthy if it contained more than 2.5 grams, or 5% of the daily value, of added sugars; likewise, a frozen dinner of salmon, green beans, and brown rice would be disqualified as healthy if it contained more than 4 grams of saturated fat.

By emphasizing a variety of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy products, proteins, and some oils, especially vegetable oils, the new definition seeks to promote healthy eating. A portion of healthy food would need to be under the suggested limits for saturated fats, salt, and added sugars as well as have a minimal amount of at least one of those food categories in it. Fruits and vegetables that are raw and entire would automatically qualify. According to Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, those requirements will disqualify large portions of the supermarket from being eligible for the healthy logo.

Many sugary bowls of cereal, granola bars, yogurts that have been heavily sweetened, and white bread would no longer be considered healthy under the new regulation. Water, avocados, almonds, seeds, fatty fish like salmon, and several oils that do not already meet the definition of healthy could do so under the revised standards.

Instead, of only focusing on a food’s specific elements, the new definition of healthy highlights whether an item fits into a healthy dietary pattern generally. Salmon, for instance, would qualify as healthy under the new standard since it is high in protein, beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, and is low in saturated fat and cholesterol but not healthy according to the present definition because it is high in fat.

Dr. Selvi Rajagopal, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine and a diplomat of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, said, “The F.D.A. has been extremely behind the times when it comes to setting stronger rules for these things.”

According to Dr. Peter Lurie, executive director and president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the F.D.A. typically solicits feedback from the public and independent health experts after proposing a rule. He stated that the procedure could take a year or longer.

Dr. Lurie underlined that there is a fundamental issue with the label, which like the current label, would remain voluntary. Despite his praise for some components of the proposed update, including the ban on added sugars, he emphasized that the label has a serious flaw. Customers may mistakenly believe that any meal without a healthy label is necessarily unhealthy. In that regard, he declared, It’s not very useful. Instead of giving the consumer what they would obviously want, it enables the industry to pick what to transmit to them. Dr. Lurie and other nutrition experts are advocating for new, standardized, and required nutrition labels to be placed on the front of food packaging, a proposal that the F.D.A. is presently looking into.

To reduce the prevalence of “diet-related chronic diseases” like cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, the FDA is hoping that an updated definition would help consumers make better dietary decisions. According to the F.D.A., more than 80% of Americans don’t consume enough fruits, vegetables, and dairy products in their diets. Dr. Rajagopal said that there have been so many contradictory messages on what’s healthy and what’s not. The typical consumer simply lacks a baseline.

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