Graphic Imagery Needed to Make Calories Count

With the arrival of 2011 along with heavy snowfall in much of the northern hemisphere, the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will finally come to it’s full legal impact including the addition of graphic imagery to cigarette packaging in the US that depicts potential negative health consequences of smoking (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2010). Images can be expected to include close-up photos of mouth related diseases caused by cancer or blackened lung tissue. While new to the US, this approach has been effectively in use in other countries such as Canada and Australia for years. Click here for sample images from this campaign.

Taking another page out of the international health handbook, the US Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that meat products purchased at both stores and restaurants will need to be labeled with calorie and fat information starting in 2012. This is common practice in such low-BMI countries as Japan where highway rest area restaurants routinely post calorie information for all set menu items. Food and nutrition expert Marion Nestle predicted in an interview with USA Today that labels will “be very helpful to people who are bewildered by what’s in meat” and that “people will be quite shocked at the calories and fat” (Weise, 2010).

Nestle’s prediction has strong intuitive appeal but unfortunately isn’t reflected in current research into nutrition related spending patterns. Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University and author of The Upside of Irrationality has found through numerous studies that having the information to make the best health decisions when ordering makes no difference (NPR, 2010).

In a study conducted at Duke’s Chinese Fast Food restaurant called the Panda Express, labels were used on menus and purchasing patterns recorded. When the labels were removed, customer ordering habits remained unchanged. In a novel variation, Ariely reported that people did change their purchasing habits when restaurant staff offered a more healthy alternative on side menu items such as half of the french fries on the order to reduce 290 calories. When the healthier options were no longer offered, however, customers did not ask for reduced side order amounts.

The parallels between ineffective food labels and the previous text-only warning labels on cigarettes suggest that more graphic imagery may be required to support caloric information at stores and restaurants if the intent is to actually change purchasing habits.
Imagine how french fry sales would plummet if the potential negative health consequences of eating deep fried foods was included on the package. Stomach stapling or liposuction surgery would be easy places to begin followed by cholesterol hardened arteries or corpses dead from heart attack. Smoking rates are down below 30% but over-weight and obese statistics top out over 60% so arguably the more severe issue deserves the same if not more severe strategy. – AC

NPR Staff, N. (2010). Oh, that Hamburger is 900 Calories. Yes, please. . Retrieved October 28, 2010 from NPR: http://www.npr.org/​2010/​12/​28/​132413126/​oh-that-hamburger-is-900-calories-yes-please?ft=1&f=1128.

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (2010, November 20). Graphic images influence intentions to quit smoking. ScienceDaily.

Weise, E. (2010). Nutrition labels on cuts of meat to debut in 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2010 from USA Today Your Life: http://www.usatoday.com/​yourlife/​food/​diet-nutrition/​2010-12-29-1ameatlabels29_st_n.htm.

Related Articles

Hensley, S. (2010). Nutrition Labels Are Coming to Meat. Retrieved December 30, 2010 from NPR: http://www.npr.org/​blogs/​health/​2010/​12/​29/​132442843/​nutrition-labels-are-coming-to-meat?ft=1&f=1128.

Click here for a comprehensive list of recent smoking related health articles.

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