Research
Adherence
Marketing communications, including advertising, branding, and health claims, influence food intake by altering expectations of taste and health, often leading to overconsumption due to 'health halos' and 'negative calorie' illusions.
Do not trust 'health halos' created by marketing. A 'low fat' or 'organic' label does not mean the food is low-calorie. Often, these labels lead you to underestimate the calories and eat more. Always check the actual calorie count on the nutrition facts panel, regardless of the front-of-package claims.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Overall, the finding that people expect that they can eat more, and do, when marketing actions lead the food to be categorized as healthy is robust and is replicated independently of people’s BMI, gender, or restrained eating.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple experimental studies and field experiments.
Source
Does food marketing need to make us fat? A review and solutions
Pierre Chandon et al. · Nutrition Reviews · 2012
DOI 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00518.x
narrative_reviewCited 449×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Lowering the price of food, particularly through temporary promotions and quantity discounts, significantly increases energy intake and consumption volume, especially among low-income consumers and children.Good
- Packaging size, design, and convenience directly influence consumption volume, with larger packages and convenient access leading to increased intake, particularly for overweight consumers.Good
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →