Does green mean healthy?

Consumers are more likely to view a candy bar as - better for you - when it has a green calorie label compared with a red one  - even though the number of calories are the same.?

According to researchers at Cornell University, when consumers see foods with green calorie labels they tend to perceive them as healthy.  For ?example, consumers are more likely to view a candy bar as - better for you - when it has a green calorie label compared with a red one  - even though the number of calories are the same. Jonathon Schuldt, Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Cornell's Social Cognition and Communication Lab asked 93 university students to imagine they were hungry and visualize a candy bar. ?The students were then shown an image of a candy bar with either a red or a green calorie label. Schuldt asked them whether the candy bar, compared to others, contains more or fewer calories and how healthy it is. The students perceived the green-labeled bar as more healthful than the red one, even though the calorie content was the same.?Research was also done online with participants being asked to rate how important the healthfulness of foods are to them. Results showed that the more importance participants placed on healthy eating, the more they perceived the white-labeled candy bar as less healthful – a pattern that was eliminated when the candy bar had a green label.?So what are the implications of such research?  Well, front-of-package calorie labels are increasingly common in the United States and Europe and the U.S Food and Drug Administration is considering developing a  uniform front-of-package labeling system for the U.S. marketplace. So with this in mind , as Jonathon Schuldt says, it may be important to remember  "the design and color of the labels may deserve as much attention as the nutritional information they convey."