Information on packaged food creates false sense of health

A new research has revealed that facts printed on the packaged food create false sense of health that might be contributing to the obesity outbreak in the United States.

Temple Northup, an assistant professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at UH said that food marketers are exploiting consumer desires to be healthy by marketing products as nutritious when, in fact, they're not.

The study found that consumers tend to view food products labeled with health-related euphemisms as healthier than those without them and it also showed that the nutrition facts panels printed on food packaging as required by the US Food and Drug Administration do little to counteract that buzzword marketing.

The results of the study 'Truth, Lies, and Packaging: How Food Marketing Creates a False Sense of Health' will contribute to an increased dialogue on how food is marketed, guide development of specific media literacy and help people understand the effects of how food is marketed to consumers.