The study of labels on products helps to not gain excess weight
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
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An international team of scientists led by staff from the University of Santiago de Compostela found that reading labels on food products is beneficial, especially for women. This unpretentious procedure can be called a kind of prophylaxis of obesity.
The basis for the survey was the US statistics. Scientists have found that consumers who pay attention to product labels weigh four kilograms less than those who ignore this information.
In studies on the relationship between reading etiquettes and obesity, along with staff from the University of Santiago de Compostela, attended by specialists from the University of Tennessee and the Norwegian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Studies.
The results showed that the body mass index of those consumers who read the labels on product packages is 1.49 points lower than those who have never paid attention to such information. For example, for a woman who is 162 centimeters tall and weighs 74 kilograms, this means a loss of 3.91 kilograms of weight.
Some data were taken from the annual national health survey of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Also in the analysis of the data included questioning and questioning people about their consumer habits, health status and culinary preferences.
"First we analyzed the habits, lifestyle and preferences of those who read the labels, and then made a parallel with their body weight," says Maria Lureiro, one of the lead authors of the study.
Obesity is one of the most painful and acute problems of the United States. According to statistics, the number of people with overweight or obesity has increased significantly in recent years. From 2009 to 2010, their number increased by more than a third (37%). Among the children and adolescents, this figure reaches 17%.
Scientists have discovered significant differences between consumers who read labels and those that do not. It was also found that smoking people pay much less attention to this information. According to the researchers, "their lifestyle includes less healthy habits and, as a consequence, this can affect their attitude to the nutritional value of the products they buy."
Most of the "readers" of labels were among the urban population. In particular, people with higher education (40%) like to be interested in the composition of products.
Scientists hope that this information will be used by health organizations as a mechanism to prevent obesity.