Practice What You Read: Adolescents and Nutrition Labels

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 16 Nov 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Nutrition labels are generally recognized as a good education tool because they enable consumers to make healthy food choices. But what if reading the nutrition labels doesn't help everyone? Terry T.-K. Huang, PhD, research assistant professor from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, and colleagues, found that adolescents who read nutrition labels did not necessarily translate that information into healthier diets and, sometimes, instead increased fat input.

"Nearly 80% of the adolescents reported sometimes or always reading nutrition labels although it didn't translate into healthier diets. In boys, however, we found that reading nutrition labels was associated with a higher fat intake, while in girls, fat intake did not differ by reading nutrition labels. This is an important finding because fat intake in U.S. adolescents is near the maximum of the recommended daily intake."

Dietary practices at a young age may play a significant role in health and disease later in life, noted Huang, but few studies have evaluated the impact of nutrition labels, especially in younger populations.

The study of more than 300 boys and girls ages 10 to 19, primarily Caucasian and African-American, found that more than 56% reported reading nutrition labels some of the time. Almost 22% reported always reading nutrition labels and nearly 22% reported never reading them. No differences in nutrition label use were found across ethnicities, but African-Americans had more calories from fat than Caucasians. Boys who always read nutrition labels consumed the greatest number of calories from fat.

The research suggests that girls and boys may read nutrition labels for different reasons. The authors note the possibility that boys might read simply to assess total calories or proteins from a desire to "bulk up". Girls, they speculate, might focus on total calories.

"Little has been done to evaluate the influence of the uniform nutrition labels since they were introduced in the United States in 1994. Early nutrition education that takes into account gender-specific issues is clearly needed to help the public better understand and use nutrition labels," said the authors.

Huang, Terry T.K., et al, Journal of Adolescent Health, 2004, 35:399 - 401. "Reading Nutrition Labels and Fat Consumption in Adolescents."

November nutrition news from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts

Contact: Siobhan Gallagher
siobhan.gallagher@tufts.edu
617-636-6586
Tufts University

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