Is a lower fat diet equivalent to a reduced sugar intake?
In a recent study conducted by Jahn and colleagues at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), it was found that "low-fat" labels on food products can mislead consumers about the sugar content, potentially causing harm to both consumers and manufacturers 1. The study, titled "Truthful yet misleading: Consumer response to 'low fat' food with high sugar content," was published in the journal "Food Quality and Preference" in 2023.
The study involved 760 participants from the USA who were asked to rate the calorie, sugar, and fat content of yogurts on a seven-point scale and indicate whether they would buy the product. In the second and third experiments, participants who were shown the low-fat product again with the actual nutritional information on the front after the first round corrected their opinion on the sugar content but their willingness to buy decreased [1].
This finding is part of a broader concern about hidden sugars in food. The food industry has been criticized for promoting sugar as simply a calorie source equal to fat or protein, when, in fact, sugar has unique metabolic effects and health risks such as insulin resistance, obesity, and heart disease [3]. The misleading nature of "low-fat" labeling contributes to this concern, as it can confuse consumers about the true health profile of the product.
The U.S. FDA has proposed mandatory front-of-package labeling that highlights nutrients to limit, specifically including added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium, to improve transparency and help consumers make healthier choices [1][4]. This initiative, supported by expert groups like the University of California Research Consortium, aims to prevent such confusion by clearly disclosing high levels of added sugars and other nutrients of concern, which would help consumers avoid being misled by low-fat claims that mask high sugar content [1].
Manufacturers may face reputational risk or regulatory scrutiny if they mislead consumers by marketing products as low-fat while containing high sugar content. A case in point is a cake mix in Australia that was found to be misleading consumers in this way [2]. The study suggests that the practice of hiding high sugar content in low-fat products can harm both manufacturers and consumers in the long run.
The study findings indicate that consumers may assume that low-fat products also contain less sugar, which is often not the case. Many consumers who feel deceived by misleading food labeling may buy these products less often due to the misleading sugar content [1]. One possible solution proposed by the study is to display the nutritional values of the products directly on the front of the package.
The researcher suggests that manufacturers should reconsider their practice of hiding high sugar content in low-fat products if they want to retain their customers in the long run. The results show that participants correctly estimated the lower calorie content of low-fat yogurt but also believed that it contained less sugar than the yogurt without a low-fat claim [1]. This underlines the potential consumer harm when sugar content is obscured behind a "low-fat" label.
- The misleading "low-fat" labeling on food products, as highlighted in the study by Jahn and colleagues, can cause harm to both consumers and manufacturers due to the potential obscuring of high sugar content.
- The study involved participants who were shown the nutritional information on the front of the food packages after initially rating the calorie, sugar, and fat content, which led to a decrease in their willingness to buy the products.
- The food and drink industry is being criticized for promoting sugar as a calorie source equal to fat or protein, when in reality, sugar has unique metabolic effects and health risks such as insulin resistance, obesity, and heart disease.
- To improve transparency and help consumers make healthier choices, the U.S. FDA has proposed front-of-package labeling that highlights nutrients to limit, specifically including added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium, while expert groups like the University of California Research Consortium support this initiative to prevent consumer confusion.
