Knowledge and gaps in French people’s nutritional education

02 September 2010

1000 French adults have been questioned about their interest in the nutritional value of food and about their relation to the health issue, during a study which was cofinanced by the European Community.

Two thirds of French people think that the diet has an impact on health and that it is therefore important to be informed, in particular about the nutrition facts in food. They get information mainly through the Internet (82%) but also thanks to labels (53%). However, they trust more the medical profession (70%) as for the reliability of information, rather than labels (15%) or the Internet (14%).

French people know for instance that micronutrients such as zinc, omega 3, selenium, magnesium… are good for health they ignore where to find them in food.

Besides, 65% of them affirm that fat must be consumed in reasonable quantities but they are totally unable to assess correctly the lipid content of food. Thus, on average, French people assume that whole milk contains 42% of fat and semi-skimmed milk 25% whereas they actually respectively contain 3,5 and 1,8 % of fat! On the contrary, they underestimate the lipid content of olive oil: this one is attributed on average a very small 55% fat instead of 99%... as any oil!