Portion size: review and framework for interventions

Steenhuis, I.H.M.; Vermeer, Willemijn M.

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-6-58

Cited by 195 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Thus, the portion sizes of pre-packaged foods seem to influence the amount of food consumed. Increasing portion sizes might have a negative impact on the overall energy consumed (28) as well as on the amount of consumers' food waste (29) . Furthermore, our results showed that consumers neglected the amounts of critical nutrients such as (saturated) fat, salt and sugar in their evaluations of the healthiness of their overall diet, particularly in terms of foods that are perceived as healthy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumers’ practical understanding of healthy food choices: a fake food experiment

et al. 2016

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Little is known about laypeople's practical understanding of a healthy diet, although this is important to successfully promote healthy eating. The present study is the first to experimentally examine how consumers define healthy and balanced food choices for an entire day compared with normal choices and compared with dietary guidelines. We used an extensive fake food buffet (FFB) with 179 foods commonly consumed in the Swiss diet. The FFB is a validated method to investigate food choice behaviour in a well-controlled laboratory setting. People from the general population in Switzerland (n 187; 51·9 % females), aged between 18 and 65 years, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the control group, the participants were instructed to serve themselves foods they would eat on a normal day, whereas in the 'healthy' group they were instructed to choose foods representing a healthy diet. Participants chose significantly more healthy foods, with 4·5 g more dietary fibre, 2 % more protein and 2 % less SFA in the 'healthy' group compared with the control group. However, in both experimental conditions, participants served themselves foods containing twice as much sugar and salt than recommended by dietary guidelines. The results suggest that laypeople lack knowledge about the recommended portion sizes and the amounts of critical nutrients in processed food, which has important implications for communicating dietary guidelines. Furthermore, the energy of the food served was substantially correlated with the energy needs of the participants, demonstrating the potential of the fake food buffet method. For effective promotion of healthy eating among the general population, more insights about people's understanding of healthy food choices and how they translate their knowledge into practice are needed. Although consumers are surrounded by dietary information from various sources such as television, the Internet, food labels and health professionals, which sometimes provide conflicting messages, laypeople's perception about healthy eating seems to be strongly influenced by national dietary guidelines (1) . For instance, fruits and vegetables are perceived as healthy, whereas consumers usually associate foods containing high amounts of fat, sugar and salt with unhealthy eating (1) . Although consumers have some ideas about the healthiness of specific foods, they also have conceptions about production and preparation methods, as well as knowledge about the concepts of balance, variety and moderation, as suggested by dietary guidelines (1)(2)(3) .However, in Switzerland, adherence to dietary recommendations is low for most food categories and has not significantly improved over the past decade (4,5) . A healthy diet is correlated with higher education and a healthier overall lifestyle (6) , and adherence to dietary guidelines has been associated with reduced all-cause mortality (7,8) . Thus, further efforts are required to foster healthy eating. However, to set the right priorities among the large number of...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumers’ practical understanding of healthy food choices: a fake food experiment

et al. 2016

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“…This relationship supports the hypothesis by Walker et al 13 that smaller serving sizes on labels may be used to highlight the foods' nutritional characteristics that are perceived as favorable by consumers (for example, lower energy value). It is likely that consumer perceive foods reporting lower caloric values on their labels to be healthier 32 . This fact becomes even more relevant when one considers that energy value is one of the nutrition label items most looked at by Brazilians as well as by consumers in Europe and India [33][34][35] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serving size on nutrition labeling for processed foods sold in Brazil: Relationship to energy value

et al. 2016

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Objective: This study aimed to analyze serving sizes declared on food labels with respect to their conformity to Brazilian law, variability among similar foods, and relationship to energy values. Methods: Food label information from 24 groups of processed foods was collected in one supermarket in southern Brazil. Declared serving sizes were classified into five groups according to their level of compliance with those recommended by law: <70% and >130% inadequate and 70-99%, 100% and 101-130% adequate. Descriptive analyses, Spearman correlations, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied. Results: A total of 1,953 food products were analyzed, of which 72% reported serving sizes exactly equal to those recommended, and 14% fell within the acceptable 60% range established by law. Even though most foods complied with the law, there was a variation in declared serving sizes among similar foods, with the largest ranges observed for hamburger and meatballs (364 g). In addition, declared serving sizes were significantly and positively correlated to energy value in most food groups, revealing that smaller serving sizes may be used to report lower energy value. Conclusion: The 60% acceptable serving size range established by law may lead to a lack of serving size standardization and significant variability in declared energy values on labels. This can potentially make labels confusing when comparing similar products and thus affect food choices. It is necessary to revise Brazilian law so that serving sizes are standardized among similar foods in order to facilitate healthy food choices.

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“…31 Previous research has shown that there is a tendency for increased consumption of foods perceived to be more healthful, [31][32][33] and that portion size can have a considerable effect on energy intake. [34][35][36][37][38] This calls for further research, in conjunction with other attributes of a nutrition label, for example, format, wording, design and possibly the interaction with other cues, for example, the perceived visual size of a portion on a plate or the number of units in a pack, the aim being to better understand what determines consumers' understanding of the information provided and how they translate this into food choice and consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reference amounts utilised in front of package nutrition labelling; impact on product healthfulness evaluations

et al. 2014

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BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:The research question addressed in this paper is how different reference amounts utilised in front of package nutrition labelling influence evaluation of product healthfulness. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 13 117 participants from six European countries (Germany, UK, Spain, France, Poland and Sweden) were recruited via online panels. A mixed between/within-subject factorial design was employed with food (biscuits, sandwiches, yogurts), healthfulness and presence of Guideline Daily Amounts as within-subjects factors and reference amount ('per 100 g', 'typical portion', 'half portion') and country as between-subjects factors. RESULTS: Overall, people correctly ranked foods according to their objective healthfulness as defined by risk nutrients alone, and could distinguish between more and less healthful variants of foods. General healthfulness associations with the three product categories do not appear to have had a strong influence on product ratings. This study shows that where the reference amount of 'per 100 g' is very different from the 'typical' portion size, as was the case for biscuits, products with a 'per 100 g' label are rated significantly less healthful than the 'typical' or 'half typical' portions. CONCLUSION:The results indicate that across the three food categories, consumers do factor the reference amount, that is, the quantity of food for which the nutritional information is being presented, into their judgements of healthfulness. Therefore, appropriate reference amounts are also of importance for the effective presentation of nutritional information.

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Portion size: review and framework for interventions

Cited by 195 publications

References 60 publications

Consumers’ practical understanding of healthy food choices: a fake food experiment

Consumers’ practical understanding of healthy food choices: a fake food experiment

Serving size on nutrition labeling for processed foods sold in Brazil: Relationship to energy value

Reference amounts utilised in front of package nutrition labelling; impact on product healthfulness evaluations

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