Children's nutritional judgments: relation to eating attitudes and body image

To determine if middle school students use simplified cognitive heuristics with regard to nutritional judgments, a sample of 136 sixth and seventh grade students responded to a series of questions about nutrition, eating attitudes, and body image. Evidence for simplified strategies was obtained. Approximately 50% of the students showed dose insensitivity (i.e., something harmful in large amounts should be avoided in small amounts) and categorical thinking (i.e., foods are either good or bad). Further, 16% of participants selected a fat-free diet as the healthiest. Higher scores on the measure of disordered eating attitudes (Maloney, McGuire, & Daniels, 1988) were associated with stronger endorsement of dose insensitivity and low- or fat-free diets. No relation between body image dissatisfaction and nutritional judgments was found. Educators continue to need to better understand what leads individuals to adopt the cognitive heuristics of dose insensitivity and categorical thinking that can lead to inaccurate nutritional judgments and to address these mistakes in nutritional information programs. Researchers also need to determine if these judgments are reflected in actual dietary behaviors.