Can “Low-Fat” Nutrition Labels Lead to Obesity?
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: In this era of increasing obesity and increasing threats of legislation and regulation of food marketing practices, regulatory agencies have pointedly asked how “low-fat” nutrition claims may influence food consumption. The authors develop and test a framework that contends that low-fat nutrition labels increase food intake by (1) increasing perceptions of the appropriate serving size and (2) decreasing consumption guilt. Three studies show that low-fat labels lead all consumers—particularly those who are overweight—to overeat snack foods. Furthermore, salient objective serving-size information (e.g., “Contains 2 Servings”) reduces overeating among guilt-prone, normal-weight consumers but not among overweight consumers. With consumer welfare and corporate profitability in mind, the authors suggest win-win packaging and labeling insights for public policy officials and food marketers.
Source: Journal of Marketing Research
Authors: Brian Wansink, Pierre Chandon
Institutions: Cornell University, INSEAD, INSEAD, INSEAD
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2159310655