WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Food & Drug Administration released its long-awaited proposal today requiring food manufacturers to put some nutritional facts on the front of products instead of listing them solely on the back.

Dr. Cecil Bennett, a primary care physician in Georgia tells us, that throughout his two-decade career practicing medicine, he’s seen an increasing rate of patients develop high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes.

A lot of the reasons why we’re at increased risks of these disease processes has to do with the foods that we consume,” Dr. Bennett said.

To nudge Americans towards healthier choices, the FDA is proposing adding nutrition labels to the front of packages. Focusing on three main areas.

“Looking at food sodium content. Looking at sugar content and making a decision as to whether or not they’re healthy,” said Dr. Bennett.

The label would list the percentage of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars in the product and also rank it as high, medium, or low.

“It’s just another way of giving consumers information about what we’re consuming every day,” said Dr. Bennett.

Diego Rose, the nutrition program director at Tulane University tells us, that those high, medium, and low concentrations are determined by daily value.

“Those foods that are above that have more than 20% of let’s say the daily value for sodium, that would be considered high and if it’s 6-19%, it’s medium, and if it’s 5% or less it’s low,” said Rose.

Rose says the labels won’t replace the ones on the back. But rather give Americans a clearer understanding of the nutritional facts of each product in a simplistic way.

“They can look at this product and that product and see which one is going to be better for them in terms of their health,” said Rose.

Ultimately, it will be up to the Trump administration to decide if and how to finalize the rule. After that, large food companies earning more than $10 million/year will have three years to comply. Smaller companies will have an additional year.