Caloric estimation of healthy and unhealthy foods in normal-weight, overweight and obese participants

Larkin, Derek; Martin, Colin R.

Abstract

Individuals make dietary choices each time they consume food or drink, and assign labels to each item, such as un/healthy, high/low in calories, high/low in nutrients. These labels are thought to be snap judgments based on prior, and often limited nutritional knowledge. The aim of this study was to examine the perception of the caloric content of ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ foods. Participants (N = 141) rated 53 food images on perceived healthiness/un-healthiness alongside the caloric content. Participants were subdivided into three groups: BMI (normal-weight, overweight, obese). Findings suggest that weight status impacts on participant's caloric estimation of foods perceived as healthy, but only marginally for unhealthy foods. However, not all foods were consistently labeled as healthy or unhealthy, on these occasions weight salience appears not to have influenced estimations of caloric content. Foods that confound the dichotomous labeling of healthy or unhealthy appear to gain a ‘branding’ that confers either greater or fewer calories than they actually contain, on these occasions weight salience does not appear to influence the labeling; implications are discussed.

Citation

Larkin, D., & Martin, C. R. (2016). Caloric estimation of healthy and unhealthy foods in normal-weight, overweight and obese participants. Eating behaviors : an international journal, 23, 91-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2016.08.004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 23, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 25, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 6, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2022
• Journal: Eating Behaviors
• Print ISSN: 1471-0153
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Pages: 91-96
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2016.08.004
• Keywords: Food; Obesity; Calories estimation; Food perception; Food labels
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/866309
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471015316302240?via%3Dihub
• Related Public URLs: https://repository.edgehill.ac.uk/7937/
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Caloric estimation of healthy and unhealthy foods in normal-weight, overweight and obese participants; Journal Title: Eating Behaviors; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2016.08.004; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.