Aisles are packed with foods claiming to be healthier choices, from "low fat" and "high protein" to "reduced sodium." But a new analysis has found those claims can be misleading. Researchers from Cornell University analyzed nearly 150,000 food and beverage products launched in the United States over the past decade and found that products marketed with health claims were actually less nutritious overall. Study lead Pei Zhou, a postdoctoral researcher told Newsweek: "Some of the clearest discrepancies were for Low/No/Reduced Trans Fat claims in foods and Low/No/Reduced Sodium claims in beverages." She added that beverages marketed as low, no or reduced sodium often had poorer overall nutrient profiles because they contained higher levels of sugar.
To assess products' overall nutritional quality, the Cornell researchers applied the Nutrient Profiling Model, a scoring system developed by the U.K. Rather than focusing on a single nutrient, the model evaluates a product's overall nutritional makeup, penalizing high levels of sugar, sodium, saturated fat and calories while rewarding fiber, protein and fruit and vegetable content. Using that approach, the researchers found that roughly two-thirds of the newly launched products they analyzed were classified as less healthy overall, despite around half carrying health-related claims on their packaging.
The researchers found that products often achieved a health claim by reducing one ingredient while increasing another. A soda marketed as having reduced sodium, for example, was more likely to contain additional sugar. Similarly, a packaged meal labeled as containing no trans fat often relied more heavily on saturated fat and sodium.
The claim itself may be accurate, but the study suggests the overall nutritional profile does not necessarily improve and can sometimes worsen in other ways. Beverages showed some of the widest gaps between packaging claims and overall nutritional quality. Labels such as "low sodium," "sugar free" and "low saturated fat" were among those most likely to diverge from a product's overall nutrient profile.
One of the study's most notable findings involved claims that are not regulated as nutrition claims at all. Terms such as "natural," "organic," "non-GMO" and "whole grain" do not directly indicate a product's levels of sugar, salt or fat. However, previous consumer research cited by the authors found that shoppers frequently interpret such descriptions as evidence that a product is healthier.
Researchers refer to this tendency as the "halo effect," where one positive attribute influences perceptions of a product's overall quality. The findings arrive as the Food and Drug Administration continues efforts to make nutritional information easier for consumers to understand. In recent years, the agency finalized an updated definition of the term "healthy" and proposed a front-of-package labeling system designed to provide a clearer snapshot of a product's nutritional profile.
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