Red Light, Green Light, Time To Dine

Choosing healthy foods is important. So it is a real shame that the process can be so complex.

Most food labels are confusing and hard to read, and it can be very difficult to understand the information they provide and how that fits into your overall diet plan. A new system is changing all that.

The new system uses color codes, much like traffic lights. The more green lights a food gets, the less it contains high levels of things most of us should avoid, like salt, sugar, fat and especially saturated fat.

If you were looking at two different brands of peanut butter, for example, and one had 4 green lights and the other three green lights and one red, the former would be a healthier choice.

The advantages of the color coding system are that it provides information at a glance, and can be easily understood even by children.

While the information was easier to understand, it could not be said whether or not consumers would be more likely to buy the healthier products.