Introduction to Human Nutrition

296 Introduction to Human Nutrition

From the data in Boxes 12.3 and 12.4 it is easy to
defend the folic acid option but less easy to defend
the SFA option for supply-driven policy. It should be
borne in mind that a supply-driven policy effectively
takes away from the individual the right to choose in
this regard and thus there are always social and some-
times ethical dimensions to this approach.
Demand-driven nutrition policy is based on edu-
cating the consumer to demand newer and healthier
types of foods from the food supply. This is a chicken-
and-egg situation. Consumers may want something
that is not within the scope of industry to produce
either for economic or technical reasons. Equally
many companies have developed food products with
very obvious health benefi ts which were market fail-
ures because the consumer saw no benefi t. The success
of this area is thus very market driven. Industry made
spreadable fats low in SFAs, which consumers liked.
They developed immune-boosting probiotics, choles-
terol-lowering phytosterols, high-fi ber ready-to-eat
cereals and cereal bars, juices with various antioxi-
dants, low-fat milks, n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs, and so
on. For demand-driven food supply to work, we need
to invoke a major new area of public health nutrition

• communication.

12.5 Nutrition communication

One of the great attractions of the science of human
nutrition is the breadth of topics to be covered from
molecular biology, through population science to
communication. The greatest mistake a nutrition
regulatory policy initiative can make is for scientists
to think they know the consumer and his or her

beliefs. The only way that this can be understood is to

study what consumers feel and believe before we can

expect them (a) to listen to our communication, (b)

believe it, (c) understand it, or (d) care about it. The

present section assumes that is a given. In terms of

nutrition communication, there are three very impor-

tant areas to consider: nutrition labeling, nutrition

claims, and nutrition profi ling.

Nutrition labeling

In most countries, packaged foods bear a label listing

particular nutrients in particular ways. The number

of nutrients listed can vary either because of the

prevailing food policy or because it suits a manufac-

turer to have more or less nutritional information

imparted to the consumer. The standard format is to

express the target nutrients per 100 g of the food or

per some specifi ed portion of the food. Generally,

nutrition labeling was a “back of pack” issue, generally

considered less important. Today, it is becoming

increasingly a “front of the pack” issue, with visuals

to immediately let the consumer see what a typical

serving supplies in terms of target nutrients and then

to express these as a percentage of some reference

intake. Often colors are used where a serving greatly

exceeds some nutritional standard (red) or green if it

is well below.

Nutrition labels fulfi ll a very important role in

nutrition communication – helping the consumer see

the nutrient content of the food. However, there are

aspects that are not so obvious which we need to

bear in mind. Comparisons of the nutritional com-

position of different foods are often diffi cult to

interpret. For example, in choosing a packaged sand-

wich, the consumer can unite their gastronome

preferences with nutritional data to make a choice.

On the other hand, if the choice was a carton of

ready-to-eat soup versus a sandwich, the comparison

is much more diffi cult; when it comes to making a

decision on any two foods versus another set of two

foods, then the decision process is exceeded for almost

everybody. Another limitation of nutritional labeling

is that fresh foods are often not packaged and thus are

not labeled for nutritional content. The same is true

for meals, snacks outside the home, in bars, restau-

rants, canteens, delicatessens, and the like. Notwith-

standing the shortcomings, nutrition labeling is a very

positive step in helping consumers make informed

choices.

Box 12.4

a+b There is certainly strong evidence that elevated levels of

SFAs can raise plasma LDL cholesterol. However, within the

category SFAs, some individual fatty acids are more potent

than others and these are not uniquely found in one single

dietary source of fat

c The effect of SFAs is to some extent also dependent on the

simultaneous intakes of trans unsaturated fatty acids and

different forms of unsaturated fatty acids

d+e There are no adverse effects known and the problem is not

truly important