A new study published in the November issue of the “American Journal of Preventative Medicine” and conducted by Dr. Russell Rothman and others at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center showed that a majority of people studied cannot understand basic food nutrition labels (read as: a majority of people cannot do the simplest math imaginable).

Two of the most amazing findings were that:

Two-thirds of patients surveyed could not correctly calculate the amount of carbohydrates consumed in a 20-ounce bottle of soda that had 2.5 servings in the bottle.

Just over half could calculate the number of carbohydrates in half of a bagel, when the serving size on the label was listed as a whole bagel.

Clearly, the problem is far larger than determining how many grams of saturated fat are in three Mr. Goodbars. More succinctly, Americans seemed mystified by simple multiplication.

More good news:

Researchers found that even patients with higher levels of education can struggle to interpret current food labels, particularly in situations that involve interpretation and application of serving sizes.

(Read as: even “educated” folk don’t have a clue).

When the Food and Drug Administration changed the mandates for nutrition labeling in 1990’s, their intent was to simplify and enlarge the labels. The mandate for larger text, a uniform design, and the use of categories and subcategories were all done so that even the densest American consumer could understand the nutritional differences between onions and Funyuns. According to this study, it clearly hasn’t worked. Apparently, the addition of a miniature slide-rule was also necessary.

If consumers don’t understand labels, then they will do one of two things: incorrectly assess the food they consume or disregard the labels altogether. Worse yet, as with the bagel example, some of the participants failed at tasks where there was no real math involved at all! The subject simply needed to “multiply” the “Total Carbohydrates” line on a food label by the number two.

Studies like this reveal more about the problems with our educational system than the “confusing” nature of food labels. Rule of thumb to teachers: you can’t let a student move onto a grade level they can’t count to (one, two, three, four, four, four). While I could continue into a rant on the failings of our nation’s public education system at the hands of politically correct and functionally inept teachers’ unions, I will hold back.

This study seems to speak for itself.