Relationship between reading nutritional labeling and consumption of ultra-processed foods in Health Sciences students

Abstract

Abstract: 

Diet is a determinant key to health. However, the high consumption of ultra-processed foods interferes with the achievement of healthy nutrition. Reading the nutritional labeling as information for the population would reduce their consumption.

The aims of our study were to determine the relationship between the reading of food labels and the consumption of ultra-processed foods and to investigate both qualitatively and quantitatively their consumption in Health Sciences students.

An observational cross-sectional study was carried out, through a virtual survey in Google form, sent through the Guaraní System of the National University of Córdoba among students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in August / 2021.

Qualitative variables were described as frequency and percentage, Student's t test was performed, p <0.05 was considered significant.

3011 surveys were completed, 81.6% were answered by women, 63.9% of the participants were in the first three years of their university career, 39.7% were 24 years old or over and 98.3% believe that diet is important for health care. 51.9% do not read the nutritional information on the packaging. Regarding eating habits, only 3.5% do not consume ultra-processed foods. The most consumed utra processed food were: 62.1% packaged cookies, 62% chocolate, 54% French fries or similar, 52.6% jams, 51.2% ice cream, 50.4% soft drinks, 44.6% , sauces, 18.4% sweetened cereals, 14.5% cereal bars or energizers. 37.5% consumed them at least 3 times a week, while 8.5%  consumed 5 or more days a week.

When the comparison was made on the consumption of ultra-processed foods between the group that reads the nutritional labeling versus the group that does not read it , the p was <0.00000001, odds ratio 0.29 (0.18-0.45).

The demonstrated relationship between the reading of nutritional information and the lower consumption of ultra-processed products is important, since the people who read nutritional labeling can choose foods with less processing and therefore improve the quality of their diet.