Are Nutritionists Telling Us to Eat More Kraft Singles?

Nutritionists, bloggers, parents, and citizen advocacy groups are up in arms that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) Foundation has allowed Kraft Singles to slap its “Kids Eat Right” label on Kraft’s processed cheese.

The uproar is happening because so many healthy food advocates scoff at the notion that Kraft Singles are good for kids. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Singles are not actually cheese because they’re not made with at least 51 percent real cheese. Kraft itself describes the product as a “pasteurized prepared cheese product.”

Said Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “It’s a shame that the national professional association of dietitians would rent its good name to Kraft to promote sales of a mediocre product.

“One little slice of the ‘cheese product’ has as much as three grams of saturated fat and a chunk of sodium, which is why last month the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended consuming less cheese.”

AND said in a press release that it is trying to “raise awareness that the diets of America’s kids are lacking in three important components – dairy, calcium and vitamin D.” AND also says that allowing Kraft to use the label does not constitute any endorsement or nutritional seal of approval by the Academy or its new campaign.

Whether or not it was meant as an endorsement, the label sends a confusing message to kids and parents who are wishing to shop for healthy foods.

Several nutrition advocates have conjectured that Kraft is paying AND to use the seal. If that is the case, said Allison Duffek Bradfield, a registered dietitian at the Duke Raleigh Hospital, on the Dietitians for Professional Integrity Facebook page, “They have put the health of our children in jeopardy for money. I am embarrassed to be a part of this organization which clearly has lost its priorities.”

Real cheese is made from milk, plus enzymes to help it coagulate, and herbs, spices and perhaps vinegar or lemon juice. The ingredients in Kraft Singles include gelatin, protein concentrate, water, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate and salt, as well as various added vitamins and calcium, in addition to milk.

“I am really shocked that this would be the first thing that the academy would choose to endorse,” Casey Hinds told the New York Times. Hinds has two kids and is a strong advocate for improving the nutritional quality of foods that children eat through her blog, USHealthyKids.org.