Making Healthful Food Choices

John C. Kozup, Elizabeth H. Creyer, & Scot Burton

Making Healthful Food Choices: The Influence of Health Claims and Nutrition Information on Consumers ' Evaluations of Packaged Food Products and Restaurant Menu Items
The authors report the results of three experiments that address the effects of health claims and nutrition information placed on restaurant menus and packaged food labels. The results indicate that when favorable nutrition information or health claims are presented, consumers have more favorable attitudes toward the product, nutrition attitudes, and purchase intentions, and they perceive risks of heart disease and stroke to be lower. The nutritional context in which a restaurant menu item is presented moderates the effects of both nutrition information and a health claim on consumer evaluations, which suggests that alternative (i.e., nontarget) menu items serve as a frame of reference against which the target menu item is evaluated.

mericans have been gaining weight in recent years, and there is significant long-term disease risk associated with this trend. The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) was expected to help curtail this trend by providing information to assist consumers in making more healthful food choices. Yet today, more than 50% of U.S. adults are overweight, and 12% of school-aged children are obese, twice the number reported 20 years ago (Liebman and Schardt 2001; Spake 2002). It is estimated that in the United States, more than 300,000 deaths per year (14% of all deaths) are directly related to conditions and diseases associated with being overweight and obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2002). The NLEA increased the availability and usefulness of nutrition information on food packages. This was expected to have long-term positive effects on Americans ' diets and reduce their risk for heart disease and some types of cancer. The Nutrition Facts panel, mandated on most food packages since 1994,

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