Dr. Dan Graham, an Assistant Professor in the Physical Activity and Healthy Lifestyles concentration at the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU, is taking a unique approach to measure food buying practices and their effects on the prevalence of obesity.

Concurrent with the new FDA regulations for Nutrition Labels that aim to enhance the consumption of more healthy foods, Dr. Graham and his collaborators have developed an even simpler label on the front of packages to help consumers make the healthiest choices. Their star system is based on overall healthfulness recommendations from the Institutes of Medicine.

In his lab, Graham has a fake market where his volunteer participants are given money to shop for food with the star system, while wearing glasses with eye-tracking cameras. This technology is used to help researchers see if – and how long – shoppers spend looking at the star labels, and correlate that data with purchasing decisions.

The ultimate goal of this research is to create labels that make it as easy as possible for consumers to make healthy choices.

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