It may not sound like rocket science, but you may need certain reading and math skills before getting the message behind the numbers on today's nutritional labels.

Vanderbilt University researchers found that insufficient reading and math skills for a significant number of people kept them from knowing what the labels on the backs of food products meant.

"Poor understanding of nutrition labels can make it difficult for patients to follow a good diet," says Dr. Russell L. Rothman, one of the researchers from Vanderbilt's medical school in Nashville, Tenn. "Of particular concern are situations that involve interpretation and application of serving size."

Rothman's team said in the study the findings are critical because as many as 90 million Americans have inadequate literacy and math skills. However, "even patients with higher levels of education can struggle to interpret current food labels," researchers said, in the study

Varied educational levels 

Rothman says U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which came up with the nutrition labels as a way to communicate facts about the foods to the public, should simplify the labels to avoid such confusion.

Rothman's team used a standardized test that measured adult literacy in medicine and a test that measured numbers literacy with 200 primary-care patients from various socioeconomic ranges.

Looking at nutritional labels, patients were asked to describe carbohydrate and caloric content of a particular amount of food. They also were asked to choose which of two foods contained more or less of a certain nutrient. Other questions on the survey involved products clearly labeled as "reduced carb," "low carb," or designed for "a low-carb diet."

Among the patients, 68 percent had at least some college, 77 percent possessed at least 9th-grade literacy skills, but 63 percent had less than 9th-grade skill with numbers. More than 40 percent suffered from a chronic illness, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, that required dietary intervention. Just under 25 percent said they were on some diet plan.

Most patients reported using food labels and found labels easy to understand.

The results showed:

•  patients got nearly 70 percent of the questions right;

•  only 32 percent could correctly calculate the amount of carbohydrates consumed in a 20-ounce bottle of soda that had 2.5 servings;

•  60 percent correctly calculated the number of carbohydrates consumed if they ate half a bagel, when the serving size was a whole bagel;

•  only 22 percent of patients could determine the amount of net carbs in two slices of low-carb bread;

•  only 23 percent could determine the amount of net carbohydrates in a serving of low-carb spaghetti.

Common reasons for incorrect responses included misapplication of the serving size, confusion by extraneous material on the food label, and incorrect calculations.

The study appears in November's American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Convoluted?

Many other health experts agree that nutritional labels, to some folks, are too convoluted to make sense.

"Several surveys now show that most people claim to check nutrition labels when shopping, but may not use that information in making food purchases," says Karen Collins, a nationally known nutritionist and registered dietitian with the American Institute of Cancer Research. "Many shoppers don't know how to interpret the data on labels or create an overall healthy diet."

Collins says workshops held by the International Food Information Council, an industry trade group, revealed that many people's confusion over the "Daily Values listed on labels. They also complained that nutrition information was too complicated and  required too much math, she adds.

However,  Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center, said the labels don't help parents decide whether something is good for their family.

"This question cannot be answered by anyone relying on the nutrition facts panel, so even intelligent, committed people can be mislead by marketing claims on the package," he said. "We need an objective assessment of the overall nutritional quality of foods," Katz said. "We need that translated into simple, interpretable-at-a-glance symbols on the front of every packaged food. And we need it applied to chain restaurant meals, too."

For more information on understanding and using nutritional facts labels, check out the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

This article includes information from HealthDay.

Nubella News, a division of Marketing Technology Solutions, Inc., offers content intended for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We encourage our readers to seek prompt medical care for health issues and consult their physicians before starting a new diet, fitness regimen, or medical treatment.

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