Editorial: Battling the bulge

Tuesday, July 4, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

A new poll suggests America is a nation of label-reading tubby tummies who scan the nutrition information panels on food in the grocery store, then toss the bad stuff into their carts anyway.

According to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted in June, 78 percent of participants said they check labels at least occasionally, and 73 percent said that nutrition information influenced their food-buying decisions. But 44 percent said they also buy foods that are not so healthy even after reading the labels.

It is a conflicted picture that is further confounded by the fact that the number of overweight Americans has risen from 56 percent to 66 percent since food label standards were set in 1994. And it's not because we don't understand what we are reading. Of those who responded to the poll, 81 percent said the labels are easy to understand.

Either we're fudging about how often we read labels, or we know we're eating high-calorie, high-fat foods and we simply don't care. Experts told AP that Americans are a little of both. A Harvard University public health professor said people also routinely fib to pollsters about how often they go to church or vote.

And although people look at labels, the professor added, many don't connect what they're reading to weight loss. They focus on their one concern - diabetics looking for sugar content or people with high blood pressure watching sodium content - and fail to see the information in the context of overall health and weight management.

AP's story, using the example of a pint of store-bought ice cream, also suggested it might be helpful to know the number of calories in an entire container rather than just a listing of the calories for a single serving. After all, who eats a measly half-cup of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia? That would be positively un-American. Other experts pointed out that it also is hard to keep track of nutritional information when a third of our meals are eaten at restaurants, where food details aren't listed.

Still, AP's poll shows most of us know exactly what we're eating. We simply figure that some food tastes so good, we just have to be bad.

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