Nutrition-related claims mislead parents to choose less healthy drinks for kids

A randomized trial in a virtual convenience store has shown the negative effect of nutrition-related claims that seem to encourage parents to select less healthy beverages for their children and mislead them on the healthfulness of fruit drinks.

“Labeling regulations could mitigate misleading marketing of fruit drinks,” the authors suggested.

An experiment was conducted in a virtual convenience store involving 2,219 parents of children ages 1‒5 years. Participants were randomized to view fruit drinks displaying one of three claims (“No artificial sweeteners,” “100% Vitamin C,” and “100% All Natural”) or no claim (ie, control group).

Parents then chose among each of two drinks for their children: a fruit drink or 100% juice (primary outcome) and a fruit drink or water.

When choosing between a fruit drink and 100% juice, nearly half of the parents who viewed the fruit drink with the “No artificial sweeteners” (45 percent), the “100% Vitamin C” (51 percent), and the “100% All Natural” claims (54 percent) picked the fruit drink compared with 32 percent of those in the no-claim control group (p<0.001 for all).

The claims “No artificial sweeteners” (Cohen’s d, 0.13; p<0.05) and “100% All Natural” (d, 0.15; p<0.05) increased the odds of parents choosing the fruit drink instead of water, but not “100% Vitamin C” (p=0.06). As assessed in a post-test survey, all claims made parents more likely to mistakenly think that the fruit drinks contained no added sugar and were 100% juice than the control (d range, 0.26‒0.84; p<0.001 for all).

None of the moderators examined (eg, race/ethnicity, income; p>0.05 for all) influenced the impact of claims on the selection of the fruit drink (compared with 100% juice).

“Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including fruit drinks (ie, fruit-flavoured drinks containing added sugar), contributes to childhood obesity,” the authors said.