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Studying food labels can help keep you from gaining excess weight
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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An international team of scientists led by the University of Santiago de Compostela has discovered that reading food labels is beneficial, especially for women. This simple procedure can be called a kind of obesity prevention.
The basis for the research was US statistics. Scientists found that consumers who pay attention to product labels weigh four kilograms less than those who ignore this information.
In addition to the University of Santiago de Compostela, researchers from the University of Tennessee and the Norwegian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Research participated in the study to examine the relationship between reading labels and obesity.
The results showed that the body mass index of those consumers who read the labels on food packaging was 1.49 points lower than that of those who never paid attention to such information. For example, for a woman who is 162 centimeters tall and weighs 74 kilograms, this means a weight loss of 3.91 kilograms.
Some of the data was taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual National Health Survey. The data analysis also included surveys and questionnaires about people's consumption habits, health, and food preferences.
"We first analyzed the habits, lifestyle and preferences of those who read labels, and then compared them with their body weight," says Maria Loureiro, one of the study's lead authors.
Obesity is one of the most painful and acute problems in the United States. According to statistics, the number of people who are overweight or obese has increased significantly in recent years. From 2009 to 2010, their number increased by more than a third (37%). Among children and adolescents, this figure reaches 17%.
The researchers found significant differences between consumers who read labels and those who do not. They also found that smokers paid much less attention to this information. According to the researchers, “their lifestyle includes less healthy habits and, as a result, this may be reflected in their attitudes towards the nutritional value of the products they buy.”
The largest number of "readers" of labels turned out to be among the urban population. People with higher education are especially fond of taking an interest in the composition of products (40%).
Scientists hope this information will be used by health organizations as a mechanism to prevent obesity.