Green calorie labels increase the perceived healthfulness of foods, and lead to people to see low-nutrition food in a healthier light, according to a new study.
The study was conducted by Jonathon Schuldt, the director of Cornell University's Social Cognition and Communication Lab. It was published in the journal Health Communication.
For the study, about 93 students were shown an image of a candy bar bearing either a red or a green calorie label. The students were asked whether the candy bar, compared to others, contains more or fewer calories and how healthy it is.
The students perceived the green-labeled bar as more healthful than the red one, even though the calorie content was the same.
The experiment was repeated with 39 online participants, who perceived the white-labeled candy bar as less healthful. This pattern was eliminated when the candy bar had a green label.
Jonathon Schuldt said that green calorie labels buffer relatively poor nutrition foods from appearing less healthful among those especially concerned with healthy eating.
"As government organizations including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration consider developing a uniform front-of-package labeling system for the U.S. marketplace, these findings suggest that the design and color of the labels may deserve as much attention as the nutritional information they convey," Schuldt added.
