from Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
As many Americans try to make better food choices, companies have responded with product packaging that makes claims such as low-fat or low-sodium. However, a study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that making such a low-content claim on the label was not a reliable indicator of a product’s actual nutritional quality. Further, the study suggests those claims may give consumers a false sense of confidence about the healthfulness of their food. The Duke University study involved over eighty million food purchases from more forty thousand households and shows that a single particular low-content claim on a food label does not always represent the best nutritional value.