Calorie labels, often viewed as a helpful tool for making healthier food choices, may not be as beneficial as previously thought, according to new research. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Retailing reveals that calorie information can actually undermine consumers’ ability to accurately judge food healthiness.
The study, coauthored by experts in the field, found that when participants were provided with calorie information, they rated unhealthy foods as less unhealthy and healthy foods as less healthy. This shift in judgment was not due to a better understanding of food’s nutritional value, but rather because the calorie data led participants to second-guess their initial assessments.
Over the course of nine experiments involving over 2,000 participants, researchers tested how calorie information influences food evaluations. When participants were shown food items like salads (typically considered healthy) and cheeseburgers (generally viewed as unhealthy), they initially rated the salad as much healthier than the cheeseburger. However, when calorie counts were included, their ratings became more moderate, diminishing the gap between healthy and unhealthy foods.
In another experiment, participants were asked to estimate the calorie content of various foods. This task reduced their self-reported confidence in their ability to judge the healthiness of those foods, leading to more cautious and less definitive evaluations. Notably, the same effect was observed with calorie information, but not with other nutrition metrics like fat or carbohydrates, which tend to be less familiar to the public.
These results suggest that while people often feel familiar with calorie data, its ubiquity might foster a false sense of understanding, leading to what the researchers call “the illusion of calorie fluency.” Essentially, the more often we see calorie labels, the more confident we believe we are in interpreting them. However, this false confidence can ultimately cause confusion, making it harder for consumers to make informed decisions about food choices.
Why This Matters
This research has significant implications for both public health initiatives and businesses promoting calorie transparency. Many public health policies assume that providing calorie information will guide consumers toward healthier decisions. However, the study challenges this assumption, suggesting that calorie information alone may not lead to better food choices and may, in fact, contribute to less healthy decisions.
While the researchers don’t advocate for the removal of calorie labels, they emphasize the need for additional context to make this information truly useful. For example, pairing calorie counts with visual aids like a traffic light system or an overall nutrition score—already in use in several European countries—could help make calorie information more actionable. Alternatively, providing context, such as how many of a person’s daily recommended calories are contained in a serving, could offer clearer guidance, though this may be complicated by individual variations in daily calorie needs.
Moving Forward
The study underscores a broader issue in health communication: simply making information available does not guarantee it will be useful. While calorie labels are widely available, their true impact on consumer behavior remains uncertain. The researchers suggest that further exploration is needed to understand how calorie data interacts with emerging technologies like health and wellness apps or AI-driven food recommendations, which may either help users make more informed choices or increase the illusion of understanding without improving their decision-making process.
In the meantime, the study highlights the need for better clarity and context in the way calorie information is presented to ensure it can actually help consumers make healthier choices with confidence.
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