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Focus on food instead of nutrients improves consumers’ understanding of meals’ nutrition quality

dc.contributor.authorViegas, Cláudia
dc.contributor.authorLamy, E.
dc.contributor.authorPrada, M.
dc.contributor.authorRocha, Ada
dc.date.accessioned2024-12-11T11:09:45Z
dc.date.available2024-12-11T11:09:45Z
dc.date.issued2024-11
dc.description.abstractBackground: Nowadays, most of the information directed to consumers focuses on nutrients, ignoring the impact of the interactions between different foods, origin, or degree of processing. The methodologies currently applied have led consumers to confuse foods with nutrients, meat, and fish are often referred to as “proteins”, and grains and potatoes are referred to as “carbohydrates, forgetting that these foods are sources of other nutrients, such as fat, proteins, or fiber. Furthermore, its efficacy is compromised by the difficulties of reading labels among consumers. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the understanding of food and nutritional information presented in menus to consumers, comparing the nutrient-focused approach (Nutrition Declaration) and the new food-focused approach (infographic - based on the Portuguese food Guide, from previous research). Methods: 4 different meals were created, 2 balanced and complete in terms of food and nutrient content and 2 unbalanced and incomplete. A questionnaire was applied, evaluating the understanding of the balance and healthiness of the meals, using the two approaches (nutrient-focused and food-focused). The order of presentation of the approaches and the meals was randomized for all participants. The questionnaire was distributed online through snowball sampling. Results: 221 individuals participated, mostly female (67%), aged 25 to 54 years old. Evaluation of meals (“how balanced” and “how to complete” the meal is) using the Nutrition Declaration did not allow to distinguish the quality of meals (Mb ¼ 3,8; Mc¼4,0), in opposite the Infographic returned significant differences between M1/M2 (Mb ¼ 4,3; Mc¼4,4) and M3/M4 (Mb ¼ 2,5; Mc¼2,6) (p < 0.01) allowing consumers to perceive differences between meals. The percentage of consumers that responded “I don’t know” to these questions decreased using the food-focused tool (13% vs 2%). Conclusions: The food-focused approach allows for a better understanding of meals’ nutritional balance.pt_PT
dc.description.versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionpt_PT
dc.identifier.citationViegas C, Lamy E, Prada M, Rocha A. Focus on food instead of nutrients improves consumers’ understanding of meals’ nutrition quality. In: 17th European Public Health Conference 2024 – Sailing the Waves of European Public Health: exploring a sea of innovation, Lisbon (Portugal), November 12-15, 2024. Eur J Public Health. 2024;34(Suppl 3):ckae144.1546.pt_PT
dc.identifier.doi10.1093/eurpub/ckae144.1546pt_PT
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/18008
dc.language.isoengpt_PT
dc.peerreviewedyespt_PT
dc.publisherOxford University Presspt_PT
dc.relation.publisherversionhttps://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/34/Supplement_3/ckae144.1546/7844659pt_PT
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/pt_PT
dc.subjectNutritional informationpt_PT
dc.subjectConsumer informationpt_PT
dc.subjectHealth literacypt_PT
dc.subjectFood qualitypt_PT
dc.titleFocus on food instead of nutrients improves consumers’ understanding of meals’ nutrition qualitypt_PT
dc.typeconference object
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.issueSupplement_3pt_PT
oaire.citation.startPageckae144.1546pt_PT
oaire.citation.titleEuropean Journal of Public Healthpt_PT
oaire.citation.volume34pt_PT
person.familyNameCOLAÇO LOURENÇO VIEGAS
person.givenNameCLÁUDIA ALEXANDRA
person.identifier.ciencia-id1E1E-A95A-5A71
person.identifier.orcid0000-0001-6051-7317
rcaap.rightsopenAccesspt_PT
rcaap.typeconferenceObjectpt_PT
relation.isAuthorOfPublication2539f10d-3879-4cc7-b781-9d03f8a68db2
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery2539f10d-3879-4cc7-b781-9d03f8a68db2

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