WEBVTT - Why Doesn't Alcohol Have Nutrition Labels?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. If you feel like

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<v Speaker 1>you can't even consider consuming a candy bar without being

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<v Speaker 1>confronted with its chloric content, you're right. The same thing

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<v Speaker 1>goes for just about every piece of packaged food you

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<v Speaker 1>see in stores, plus every bottled, canned, or carton beverage.

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<v Speaker 1>A nutrition facts label depicts detailed info on the amounts

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<v Speaker 1>of fat, sugar, sodium, and more found inside. But while

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<v Speaker 1>your favorite breakfast cereals, sodas, and sandwich fixings are subject

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<v Speaker 1>this type of in your face transparency, you may have

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<v Speaker 1>noticed that booze is typically off the hook, residing behind

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<v Speaker 1>factless labels. So what gives? The answer lies in the

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<v Speaker 1>powers that be. While the Food and Drug Administration or

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<v Speaker 1>FDA regulates the safety of you guessed it food, including

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<v Speaker 1>non alcoholic beverages, it doesn't govern the alcohol industry. That

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<v Speaker 1>honor belongs to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade

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<v Speaker 1>Bureau or t t B, an agency that doesn't require labeling.

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<v Speaker 1>While beer, wine and spirits companies aren't legally mandated to

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<v Speaker 1>print the nutritional info on their products, consumer advocates have

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<v Speaker 1>been calling for the t t B to change that,

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<v Speaker 1>and it has sort of in The agency made nutrition

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<v Speaker 1>labels optional for alcohol, but some health experts don't feel

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<v Speaker 1>the move was bold enough. Johns Hopkins public health researcher

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<v Speaker 1>Sarah Blake told vox in many adults take in a

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<v Speaker 1>tremendous amount of calories from alcohol, and I have no

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<v Speaker 1>idea she should know. Her work revealed that the average

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<v Speaker 1>American regularly consumes four hundred calories a day from alcohol alone.

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<v Speaker 1>A kind of I p A contains about two hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and fifty calories, a glass of red wine has about

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred and twenty five, and a shot of liquor

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<v Speaker 1>has about a hundred. The reasons behind the disparity in

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<v Speaker 1>label requirements between the f d A and t t

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<v Speaker 1>B goes back to Prohibition. When the ban on the

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<v Speaker 1>production and distribution of alcohol in America came to an end,

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<v Speaker 1>Congress passed the Alcohol Administration Act of five, which eventually

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<v Speaker 1>to the establishment of the t t B, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>rules around labeling have historically been a bit messy. Substances

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<v Speaker 1>that people might be sensitive to, like sulf fights, have

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<v Speaker 1>to be labeled, but other ingredients do not. Wines that

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<v Speaker 1>contain fourteen percent alcohol or more have to display alcohol content,

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<v Speaker 1>while wines from seven to four percent don't have to

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<v Speaker 1>list alcohol content if they're considered light or table. Oh

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<v Speaker 1>and wines with less than seven percent alcohol. Those aren't

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<v Speaker 1>regulated by the t t B at all. Those are

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<v Speaker 1>under the jurisdiction of the f d A, and so

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<v Speaker 1>they're required to display nutrition facts labels. Confusing, isn't it?

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<v Speaker 1>A Few brands Corona Light, Guinness, Heineken, and Coarse Light

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<v Speaker 1>do put calories and some nutrition information, though not the

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<v Speaker 1>ingredients on their bottles or packaging, but it's typically very

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<v Speaker 1>small print or hard to find. You might even have

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<v Speaker 1>to look on the bottom of the six pack to

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<v Speaker 1>find it. Who looks there. Bud Light, on the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>began voluntarily including obvious labels listing its beers calories, fat, carbohydrates,

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<v Speaker 1>and protein per serving, as well as other ingredients in

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<v Speaker 1>February of twenty nineteen. Since then, Annheuser Busch has added

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<v Speaker 1>similar labeling to some of its other bud Light line beers,

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<v Speaker 1>including bud Light Lime, bud Light Orange, and bud Light

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<v Speaker 1>lemon TEA change is brewing, though, at least in the

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<v Speaker 1>beer industry, industry leaders including Anaheiuser Busch, Miller Coors, Heineken

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<v Speaker 1>US A Constellation brand beer division, North American Breweries, and

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<v Speaker 1>craft Brew Alliance, which together produce more than of the

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<v Speaker 1>volume of beer sold in the United States, have agreed

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<v Speaker 1>to voluntarily display nutrition facts by Today's episode were written

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<v Speaker 1>by Michelle Konstantinovski and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For

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<v Speaker 1>ruin this and lots of other well labeled topics, visit

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<v Speaker 1>our home planet, how stuff works dot com, and for

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