By Lisa Cantkier, Holistic Nutritionist
Food labels: why are they so hard to understand? Maybe it’s not about what they say, but rather, what they don’t say. Most of us are visual learners, so maybe it’s not as much about the written word as it is about the picture it can provide.
The Brits seem to be on to something in terms of utilizing food labels in order to actually make a difference with respect to health. If you had an illustration of what you’d need to do to burn the equivalent number of calories for a given food, wouldn’t you think twice before biting into an iced cinnamon roll (a 40-minute run or 77-minute walk)? The cinnamon roll’s not worth the run, in my mind. And its 420-calorie equivalent means a lot less to me than taking a run that’s hard on my knees and back, not to mention the lack of time I have to do it. Seeing these illustrations over and over can make a person actually give some thought to what the calories mean.
Researchers at the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) are trying to find new ways to correct Britain’s obesity epidemic. RSPH Chief Executive Shirley Cramer recently said in a column for the British Medical Journal that the UK’s childhood obesity problem is urgent, and the response is inadequate. She’s right and it applies to the western world.
“Little evidence has shown that the current information on food and drink packaging, including ‘traffic light’ labelling, actually changes behaviour,” she wrote. “Packaging should not only provide nutritional information but should also help people to change behaviour.”
She recommends moving to meaningful illustrations instead of meaningless numbers. I’d think that would be more effective for children and youth as well.
“People find symbols much easier to understand than numerical information, and activity-equivalent calorie labels are easy to understand, particularly for lower socioeconomic groups who often lack nutritional knowledge and health literacy. People can’t out-run a bad diet. The public is used to being told to avoid particular drinks and to cut down on specific foods. By contrast, activity labelling encourages people to start something, rather than calling for them to stop.”
My son’s grade one math homework requires that he explain his thinking in pictures, numbers and words, for good reasons. I don’t think that is too much to ask of Health Canada for our food labeling.
