Commentary: Assigning grades to sugary drinks speaks to the Singaporean in me

Nutri-Grade is a type of Entrance-of-Pack diet labelling, thought to be nudges – makes an attempt to affect more healthy behaviour with out forbidding any choices or considerably altering the prices of sure drinks.

Positive, shoppers already had the elements record and dietary values desk, however it takes effort and time to check and examine every time we attain for a drink – partly why shoppers are creatures of behavior and have a tendency to repurchase merchandise we’ve already tried earlier than.

A grade makes it straightforward to inform whether or not a drink is more healthy at one look, decreasing client uncertainty. Sure meals misconceptions might be dispelled, for instance we could rethink if pure fruit juice is all the time a more healthy choice every time we attain for the carton. Nutri-Grade labels reminds us that drinks too might be unhealthy.

MAKING HEALTHIER DECISIONS LESS MENTALLY TAXING

In fact, Nutri-Grade, like different dietary labels, isn’t excellent. For one, drinks generally thought to be wholesome, resembling pure fruit juice and full fats milk, have astonishingly poorer grades than a number of manufacturers of artificially sweetened carbonated drinks which have acquired B grades.

Clearly there are different dietary advantages of juice and milk, resembling nutritional vitamins and calcium. However the Nutri-Grade is scored primarily based on sugar and saturated fats content material – each linked to the danger of diabetes – and never on “healthiness” per se.

Since “more healthy” doesn’t equate to “wholesome”, these psychological contradictions could threaten the general perceived veracity of Nutri-Grade. The Ministry of Well being and Well being Promotion Board have recognised a few of these perceived contradictions and are looking for to deal with them, resembling by public schooling efforts.