food labelling are we preaching to the

Audrey Spencer

University Centre at Blackburn College

Chef, interest in food, teaching people how to cook.

Why did I choose this topic?

Publicity and media coverage

BBC radio 4 coverage in June 2013:

20% under 15’s are obese

In 2000 = 872 people hospitalised due to obesity

In 2009 = 4000 people hospitalised due to obesity

In the last 10 years 21,ooo children treated for obesity related conditions

Publicity and media coverage

Government announcements in June 2013:

Growing rate of obesity are of grave concern, with the North of England having one of the highest rates

Last week food labelling laws changed for voluntary colour coded and an option to display on the front of the pack

Who reads food labels?

Who knows what GDA stands for?

Who knows how many calories they should eat a day?

Who knows how much saturated fat they should eat in a day?

Who knows the maximum amount of salt they can consume in a day?

Show of hands!

Lets take a look…….

Breakfast

Morning drink and snack

Lunch

Mid-afternoon snack

Dinner

Confusion…

Guideline Daily Amount ValueWomen Men Children

Calories 2,000 2,500 1,800

Protein 45 g 55 g 24 g

Carbohydrates 230 g 300 g 220 g

Sugars 90 g 120 g 85 g

Fat 70 g 95 g 70 g

Saturates (inc. in fat above)

20 g 30 g 20 g

Fibre 24 g 24 g 15 g

Salt 6 g 6 g 4 g

Reduce calorie intake and costs to NHS

Government campaign to include clearer food labelling

Benefits

Wahlich et al. (2012) found a lack of label understanding or misunderstanding lead to poor health choices.

Katz et al. (2011) & Safron et al. (2011) both report an increase in healthier food choices by school children and their parents after receiving label education.

Stoebe et al. (2008) linked food consumption directly to increasing pleasure to camouflage stress, not a need for energy.

Previous research

Aim of my research

To evaluate the effects of nutritional knowledge and the food purchasing habits on weight restriction and well-being, between actively slimming people and a control group.

My 3 main hypothesesi) Slimming group will use labels more frequently than the control group and have a clearer understanding.

ii) Successful dieters will have higher well-being than those who have a history of dieting failure.

iii) Those who use food labels more frequently will make healthier food choices and have increased nutritional awareness in their food decisions.

MethodSelf report questionnaire

140 participants in the control group

115 participants in the slimming group

ResultsHypothesis 1 = Slimming group used labels significantly more frequently than the control group.

Hypothesis 2 = Successful dieters had significantly higher well-being than those with repeated dieting failure.

Hypothesis 3 = Increased label usage encouraged healthier choices.

A clear trend can be seen between well-being and weight satisfaction

What can we draw from this research?

Supports previous research by both Katz and Safron (2011), highlighting that the education of labels is of benefit, rather than type of label itself

Publicity campaign alongside education programme

Further research

Include a wider ethnicity and target the groups they attend for dietary advice

Look at the impact of well-being on the effectiveness of food labelling, to direct Government campaigns in the use of positive and negative motivation for healthy eating

.

Strengths

Devised and tested my own questionnaire and ran a pilot study, which enabled analysis for strength of data

For the main study I ran an analysis on all the answers given to ensure consistency, resulting in a positive Cronbachs Alpha (.792) showing reliability and validity with the responses given in my questionnaire

Conclusion Those who are already trying to loose weight are using labels

more frequently, so we are only “preaching to the converted”

Awareness needs to be raised with positive messages by……

Introducing mandatory label uniformity

Educating people on those labels to ensure understanding, alongside major publicity campaigns

Highlighting the positive well-being aspects of calorie reduction as well as the negative health risks

Guideline Daily Amount Value

Women

Calories 2000

Fat 70 g

Saturates (inc. in fat above)

20 g

Actual 3302

188

83

Any Questions?

References Food Labelling Regulations. (1996). Guidance Notes. www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/Fguidnot1.pdf, Date Accessed

06.02.13

HM Government. (2009). Health Survey for England 2009: Health and Lifestyles. http://data.gov.uk/dataset/health_survey_for_england_2009_health_and_lifestyles, Date Accessed 04/02/13.

Katz, D.L., Katz, C.S.,, Treu, J.A., Reynolds, J., Njike, V., Walker, J., Smith, E., & Michael, J. (2011). Teaching Healthful Food Choices to Elementary School Students and Their Parents: The Nutrition Detectives Program. Journal of School Health 81 (1), 21-28.

Lansley, A. (2011).Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to Action on Obesity in England. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_130401, Date Accessed 03/07/12.

NHS Choices. (2012). Your Health, Your Choices. Obesity-Complications. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Complications.aspx, Date Accessed 12/10/12.

NHS National Statistics. (2012). The Information Centre for Health and Social Care. National Child Measurement Programme: England, 2011/12 School Year. Department of Health. https://catalogue.ic.nhs.uk/publications/public-health/obesity/nati-chil-meas-prog-eng-2011-2012/nati-chil-meas-prog-eng-2011-2012-rep.pdf, Date Accessed 04/02/13.

Safron, M., Cislak, A., Gaspar, T., & Luszczynska, A. (2011). Effects of School-based Interventions Targeting Obesity-Related Behaviours and Body Weight Change : A Systematic Umbrella Review. Behavioural Medicine, 37,15-25. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2010.543194.

Stroebe, W., Papies, E.K., & Aarts, H. (2008). From Homeostatic to Hedonic Theories of Eating Self-Regulatory Failure in Food-Rich Environments. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 57, 172-193. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0594.2008.00360.x.

Wahlich, C., Gardner, B., & McGowan, L. (2012). How, When and Why do Young Women Use Nutrition Information on Food Labels? A Qualitative Analysis. Psychology and Health, 28 (2), 202-216.

Triggle, N. (2013). Food Labelling: Consistent System to be Rolled out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22959239. Date Accessed 20/06/13.

Enjoy your lunch!