Then the sugar lobby waded in
Suddenly her tune changed from "eat less candy!/drink less soda!" to "exercise more, kids!"
As an immigrant to the US it's downright bewildering that the only fields on nutritional labels without daily intake percentages seem to be Sugar and Trans Fats [1]
[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/US_Nutri...
https://www.fda.gov/media/135197/download?attachment
The reason it's only for added sugar is because "sugar" can be ambiguous, and sugars can be both metabolized differently (eg: fruit sugar/fructose) and is the primary source of energy for the brain (with few exceptions).
Since the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010" schools really do serve a lot more variety and the nutritional standards are much better. Any issues that made it to the media have had to do with the "last mile"(as they say in telco) as school districts have to have functional operations to implement them, and that includes class A drivers and dietitian(s) on staff.
- The recommended amount of trans fat is 0, a percentage would make no sense
- There is a total carbs percentage, so I'm going to guess again that the recommended "sugars" subcategory is likely unknown or trending towards 0
- There is no percentage for proteins and yet nobody would argue that it's a trick from big food so clearly there must be a reason why some rows have no percentage?
Yeah it begs the question for sure. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans [1, pg128], the research shows that Americans have no problem consuming lots of meats that contain protein, and so it's probably not listed for that reason. I've even been taught simply that we eat too much protein as a country. Generally, the only major group that struggles with protein would be those aged 71 and over, because their requirements are higher than a middle-aged average adult.
IIRC the FDA picks and chooses to list daily %ages for things that most(?) Americans will struggle with, but there's also some voluntary options for manufacturers that might want to flaunt added vitamins - a good example is Vitamin C because no one struggles with this but when it's added to a children's gummy nutrition facts voluntarily it then gives them a slight marketing advantage.
Sugary cereal has always been advertised as "part of a balanced breakfast", but if we had time to prepare the other parts of that balanced breakfast, no one would eat cereal.
Orange juice was advertised as a healthy drink, when it's got as much sugar as a can of soda.
The original food pyramid was introduced in 1992 by the US Government, heavy on breads and rice and pasta. Obesity increased even more dramatically afterwards.