top of page
Search

Redesigning Nutrition Labels

Updated: Mar 18, 2022

Redesigning Nutrition Labels From A Trauma-Informed Lens


Nutrition labels are intended to help consumers make healthier food choices. But what is healthier? What determines one food to be healthier than another? While the food label provides a wide range of information that can help consumers figure out what will work best for them, individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder have trouble determining what is healthy. These individuals tend to use the nutrition labels to help them set multiple demanding and highly specific dieting rules leading to food avoidance and other harmful habits (Fairburn, 2008). The experience using nutrition labels can be traumatizing. How can we use trauma-informed lenses to redesign nutrition labels to promote physical health, mental health, and well-being for individuals with eating disorders?



Notebook of Abigail Auwaerter


What Is Trauma-Informed Design?


Trauma is an event, series of events, or circumstances experienced by an individual that brings physical or emotional harm and has lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being (Dahle, 2022). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention named it a leading health concern where over 60% of adults had at least one adverse childhood event (Shopworks Architecture & et al., 2020). The design concept of trauma-informed design process uses trauma-informed care principles to develop better environments, services, systems, and more for those who have experience one or more forms of trauma (Harte & Roche, 2022).


To understand how the nutrition label can be better designed for those experiencing trauma from eating disorders we must understand the current design of the nutrition label, and understand the lens in which these individuals view it.


FDA Approved


The current nutrition label design in the United States is created and overseen by the Food and Drug Administration. The label provides “product-specific information” which varies between products (Food an Drug Administration, 2020).


While all information on the label is equal in helping make informed decisions, the visual hierarchy signals to consumers that some things are more important than others. The two main being serving size and calories. They are the top two areas of the label and have a larger font size and weight compared to other areas.


Not only does the visual hierarchy have an effect on how people interpret the information, the information is also not self-explanatory. A recent study showed that 57.7% of consumers “don’t understand” the food labels, and 39.7% “partially understand” the information (Goyal & Deshmukh, 2018). One common misconception is that the values are one size fits all. It is often assumed that the serving size and calories indicate how much is the right amount for everyone, but in reality everyone has different caloric needs, and serving size does not indicate how much an individual should eat. In the nutrients and percent daily values section, implies that the user understands what the nutrients are, and what the daily values mean. The figure below created by the Food and Drug Administration indicates the four main sections (2020).


Diagram of Nutrition Label

Looking Through The Lens


For individuals who have eating disorders these minor design choices can impact and trigger physical and emotional distress. Dietary restraints and rules are a main behavior of individuals with an eating disorder. Some common dietary restraints include regulating when to eat (specific times of day), what to eat (distinguishing foods as bad and good), and how much to eat (serving size, amount of calories, etc)(Fairburn, 2008). Often individuals do not recognize these dietary rules as harmful. The combination of the individual's distorted perception, the misinformation on the label and visual hierarchy can make the experience of choosing foods harmful and traumatizing.


Redesigning The Label


How can we redesign the nutrition label to communicate and promote positive habits, avoid negative triggers while offering choice for individuals with eating disorders?


Core Values


To guide the design process, I referenced core values developed by Shopworks Architecture's trauma-informed design process (2020).


Hope, Dignity, & Self Esteem


Celebrate individual's self worth, communicate positivity, emphasize strengths, and maximize potential.


To accomplish this the redesign:


Removes the hierarchy in the nutrition label to reduce fixation on good and bad foods.


Adds visualizations to show a holistic view of nutrition and make the information more easily accessible and understood.


Safety, Security, & Privacy


Encourage individual agency, welcome self-expression, and offer

choices for residents.


To accomplish this the redesign:


Minimizes the negative triggers of serving size and calories through data visualization, uses a neutral blue color palette to convey nutrition information, and reduces the hierarchy to make calories and serving size equivalent to all the other nutritional information.


Empowerment & Personal Control


Understand that residents’ perceived safety is just as important

as actual safety. Minimize negative triggers and recognize the role of

design features in creating a sense of safety and security.


To accomplish this the redesign:


Provides the ability for consumers to customize their nutrition label based on their diet needs through AR.



New Nutrition Label Design By Abigail Auwaerter
Nutrition Label Redesign By Abigail Auwaerter


Reflection


While this redesign retains some of the structure of the current nutrition label system, it challenges people to consider how the current system of nutrition labeling can affect individuals with trauma and specifically in this case eating disorder trauma. In future redesigns one might consider the value of the information displayed, how to incorporate existing and future technology into the experience, and overall identify what is the leverage points in the system where we can make change to improve people's overall well-being.



References


Dahle, C., (2022). Lecture, Family Systems & Trauma-Informed Design, Retrieved on 27 January 2022


Fairburn, Christopher G. Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Eating Disorders. New York: Guilford Press, 2008. Print.


Food and Drug Administration. (2020). How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label


Goyal, R., & Deshmukh, N. (2018). Food label reading: Read before you eat. Journal of education and health promotion, 7, 56. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_35_17


Harte, J., & Roche, J. (2022). Trauma-Informed Design. Retrieved from https://traumainformeddesign.org/




 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page