The danger of low-fat products

Obesity is a problem facing many developed countries where governments consider it one of the most urgent challenges. As an answer, a surge of healthier products have arisen on the market. Although lower in fat and higher in nutritional value, consumption of these products does not necessarily have the expected effects. One reason for this is that their increased consumption can lead to more calorie intake.

'The real impact of healthier products on consumption and calorie intake' (HEALTHY PRODUCTS) is an EU-funded project that looked into the health claims of such products within a real-life setting and examined their short- and long-term effects. Consumption quantity and calorie intake play a role since people have a tendency to overgeneralise the healthiness of the product. In order to make the assessment, a dataset was collected that included the purchase history of a sample of 311 households as well as product information on the health claims found on packaging.

A range of diversity was found in terms of long-term impact of low-fat purchases. Potential differences between groups of households were also considered. Results showed that purchasing more low-fat products after the first year correlated with an increase in purchase volumes, reiterating the potential danger of low-fat products.

The results are useful for policymakers and civil society in gathering more insights into the effect of low-fat products in the fight against the obesity epidemic. It can also be beneficial for companies of health food products to make better claims on their packaging.