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Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods

In order to adhere to dietary guidelines and manage health risks, consumers need to be able to estimate with some accuracy the sugar and energy content of foods. The present study compared how well participants could estimate the sugar and energy content of foods, the weight of foods, and approximat...

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Autores principales: König, Laura M., Ziesemer, Katrin, Renner, Britta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31614559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102425
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author König, Laura M.
Ziesemer, Katrin
Renner, Britta
author_facet König, Laura M.
Ziesemer, Katrin
Renner, Britta
author_sort König, Laura M.
collection PubMed
description In order to adhere to dietary guidelines and manage health risks, consumers need to be able to estimate with some accuracy the sugar and energy content of foods. The present study compared how well participants could estimate the sugar and energy content of foods, the weight of foods, and approximate portion size (using a hand measure estimation aid). The study had three aims. First, it aimed to investigate differences in accuracy across the four measures. Second, it aimed to examine whether these differences in accuracy between estimation measures were accurately perceived by the participants. Third, it aimed to test if estimation accuracy was related to food journaling experience, body-mass index or gender. One hundred and ninety-seven participants took part in an estimation task and filled in a questionnaire. While the participants were inaccurate when using all four estimation measures, inaccuracy was most pronounced for sugar content (ds ≥ 0.39), which was consistently overestimated by between 62.1% and 98.5% of the sample. None of the other measures showed a consistent pattern of under- or overestimation. Participants’ perceived accuracy did not match their actual accuracy (rs ≤ |0.20|, ps ≥ 0.005). Actual accuracy showed only marginal covariation with food journaling experience (ts ≤ 2.01, ps ≥ 0.049, ds ≤ 0.14), body-mass index (rs ≤ |0.15|, ps ≥ 0.041) or gender (ts ≤ 3.17, ps ≥ 0.002, ds ≤ 0.46). It is particularly challenging for consumers to estimate the sugar content of food, which might have negative consequences for health and well-being. Thus, more education about sugar content and misperceptions is needed to support consumers so that they can make healthy food choices.
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spelling pubmed-68359632019-11-25 Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods König, Laura M. Ziesemer, Katrin Renner, Britta Nutrients Article In order to adhere to dietary guidelines and manage health risks, consumers need to be able to estimate with some accuracy the sugar and energy content of foods. The present study compared how well participants could estimate the sugar and energy content of foods, the weight of foods, and approximate portion size (using a hand measure estimation aid). The study had three aims. First, it aimed to investigate differences in accuracy across the four measures. Second, it aimed to examine whether these differences in accuracy between estimation measures were accurately perceived by the participants. Third, it aimed to test if estimation accuracy was related to food journaling experience, body-mass index or gender. One hundred and ninety-seven participants took part in an estimation task and filled in a questionnaire. While the participants were inaccurate when using all four estimation measures, inaccuracy was most pronounced for sugar content (ds ≥ 0.39), which was consistently overestimated by between 62.1% and 98.5% of the sample. None of the other measures showed a consistent pattern of under- or overestimation. Participants’ perceived accuracy did not match their actual accuracy (rs ≤ |0.20|, ps ≥ 0.005). Actual accuracy showed only marginal covariation with food journaling experience (ts ≤ 2.01, ps ≥ 0.049, ds ≤ 0.14), body-mass index (rs ≤ |0.15|, ps ≥ 0.041) or gender (ts ≤ 3.17, ps ≥ 0.002, ds ≤ 0.46). It is particularly challenging for consumers to estimate the sugar content of food, which might have negative consequences for health and well-being. Thus, more education about sugar content and misperceptions is needed to support consumers so that they can make healthy food choices. MDPI 2019-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6835963/ /pubmed/31614559 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102425 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
König, Laura M.
Ziesemer, Katrin
Renner, Britta
Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title_full Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title_fullStr Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title_short Quantifying Actual and Perceived Inaccuracy When Estimating the Sugar, Energy Content and Portion Size of Foods
title_sort quantifying actual and perceived inaccuracy when estimating the sugar, energy content and portion size of foods
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31614559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102425
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