Question #3 September 2014
This article touched based on consumers with low health and literary competencies. How would you go about conveying nutrition information to this population?
posted by Unknown @ 11:59 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
The best way to go about it would be with pictures and colors. I think restaurants have been developing small symbols for their healthy choices so I think this is a good trend.
I also think I would make the servers go through a short training. I would encourage them to direct all of the customers attentions to the nutrition information and point out where the information is on the menu and ask them if they have any questions.
This is also a great question, unfortunately, health literacy & just literacy overall are not a universal competencies, and we have to prepare for that in our future careers. Like Jess just said, and like I've said in my previous two posts, symbols are a great way to get the point across. Putting a picture of a salt shaker with an X through it could denote that the product is low in salt, if it's high in protein, put a picture of a bulging bicep, if it's high in fruits, put a picture of an apple, high in veggies, put a carrot...things like that.
It's also very important to make the menu, and all of the restaurants promotional materials, very easy to read and understand. Like I said in a previous post, we don't want everything looking jumbled with a header here, text here, italicized information here...that's just sensory overload. I asked my wife, who has a degree in graphic design, and she said that her professors always preached "simplicity in design", because your marketing materials (in most instances) are meant to appeal to everyone, so (and I do not mean this in any offensive or otherwise derogatory way), we have to create our materials to cater towards the lowest of literacy, education and understanding not just for the sake of doing it, but so that we know that we are promoting our brand (in this case, healthy menu items) and what we offer to everyone, not just those with college degrees.
I think this is the biggest barrier for improving healthy habits in the US. There are so many things that people need to learn in order to understand the value and impact of all the recommendations health professionals give them. The lower the income and education levels of people, the less likely they are to have the time to spend learning about nutrition. Therefore, we need to summarize it and make it easily recognizable, as Jessica suggested, using something that can separate meals into simple groups.
The problem with simplifying it to that degree is that what’s healthy for one person may not be healthy for another. Is it enough to identify heart healthy meals and the number of carbs in a meal?
I think it's smart to educate and train the servers for sure. It may be a little more work but hopefully that serves the customer's needs and also possibly lessen the questions servers will have to answer regarding the nutrition on the menu. When I was developing menus for Day Care Resources, we used little symbols to represent the different vegetable groups for the day care providers. This definitely helps the providers easily understand which vegetable went into which category. Jeanne made a great point regarding what's healthy for one person may not be for another and I agree wit that. Diet is not a universal one size fits all, so what should be the focus when it comes to nutrition labeling?
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As future dietitans I think we will all struggle with comprehensive gaps when educating clients/patients. Pictures and symbols are great but if they aren't sure about the reasoning behind making healthier choices it may be difficult to get their attention. It would be nice if servers were educated about nutrition risks and what the health benefits are to picking better food items are but that's probably not going to be a reality anytime soon. Catering to demographics and cultural food preferences I think will be valuable to informing populations with barriers.
I also agree that pictures and symbols would be the best method for reaching low-literacy groups. We also have to make sure as our country continues to become more diverse that we offer information in a variety of languages to reach as many populations as possible.
I like Arthur's point of making sure that the menus are easy to read and understand. When you think of a menu, such as Chipotle, it is very easy to understand, and yet there are very few words posted on the board. And in contrast, a menu like at the Cheesecake Factory that is 100 pages long can be confusing and wordy. When you look at a menu such as that, you may feel overwhelmed and choose to pick the first item you see that looks appetizing, meaning that it may not be very healthy. We should be involved in helping to make sure the menu is easy to understand and the healthier options are easy to point out.
I’m going to go ahead and agree with everyone else and say that pictures and symbols are the easiest way to communicate ideas to a low literacy population. With that being said, I couldn’t agree more with Arthur’s wife’s idea of simplicity in design. I think when people are just bombarded with information and signs and posters and colors and symbols it’s just overwhelming and they just ignore it all. They don’t take the time to interpret what it all means, especially when making a quick decision about what to order. We not only need to find a way to communicate the nutrition information, but why it’s important to them. That’s the real challenge!
I agree that conveying nutrition information to a population of low literacy requires simplicity. I would try not to overwhelm this population with too much information. I also agree that pictures and symbols would be a great way to denote healthier options on a menu. Again, even a smiley face or a thumbs up icon could be used to indicate healthier options.
An example of simplicity with nutrition information can be seen with MyPlate, because this tool is a lot more simplistic than the food pyramids of the past. MyPlate’s principles are easier to explain and are more understandable and relatable to people with low literacy levels. Therefore, I think keeping menus simple and healthy options easy to find and understand can assist this population with making healthier choices.
I like Jessica's idea of training servers about the nutrition information on their menus, and then having them point out healthier options to customers. Many times servers at restaurants ask customers to start their meal off with an alcoholic drink or a deep-fried appetizer. Also, when servers describe the specials at the restaurant, they are typically high-calorie and high-fat dishes. So it would be a nice change if servers promoted healthier options to customers.
In terms of menus, as mentioned in the article, the interpretive method might be a little more useful to help someone understand a healthy choice. For example, explaining calories to someone might not be as easily grasped as saying: it takes X minutes to work off this double cheese burger or X minutes to work off this grilled chicken. Or just using the little heart symbols and things like that can really work for someone without a lot of knowledge in nutrition.
I would also go visual, and just how basic would depend on the age. From what I've seen in rotations so far, those little rubber food samples are far more useful for educating adults than I ever would have thought. They are great for teaching serving sizes. Keeping messages simple is always important, regardless of age.
I really like Susan's point about having a diverse menu, but also that it's imperative to make it easy to read. It could get easy to get carried away when creating a menu, making it too intricate and just too difficult for the lay person to read and choose from. Chipolte is a fantastic example, it's simple and very to the point, whereas I go to some restaurants and it's like "I can't even read this, and I'm in my 6th year of nutrition related education". We don't want to overwhelm our customers, which can be easy to do, especially in a society where it seems like more is always better.
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