Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2009
  • Article
  • Journal of the American Dietetic Association

Modeling Expert Opinions on Food Healthfulness: A Nutrition Metric

By: Jolie M. Martin, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Max H. Bazerman and Lisa Sutherland
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:4
ShareBar

Abstract

Research over the last several decades indicates the failure of existing nutritional labels to substantially improve the healthiness of consumers' food and beverage choices. The difficulty for policy-makers is to encapsulate a wide body of scientific knowledge in a labeling scheme that is comprehensible to the average shopper. Here, we describe our method of developing a nutrition metric to fill this void.

Methods

We asked leading nutrition experts to rate the healthiness of 205 sample foods and beverages, and after verifying the similarity of their responses, we generated a model that calculates the expected average healthiness rating that experts would give to any other product based on its nutrient content.

Results

The form of the model is a linear regression that places weights on 12 nutritional components (total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron) to predict the average healthiness rating that experts would give to any food or beverage. We provide sample predictions for other items in our database.

Conclusions

Major benefits of the model include its basis in expert judgment, its straightforward application, the flexibility of transforming its output ratings to any linear scale, and its ease of interpretation. This metric serves the purpose of distilling expert knowledge into a form usable by consumers so that they are empowered to make healthier decisions.

Keywords

Judgments; Food; Nutrition; Labels; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Demand and Consumers; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods

Citation

Martin, Jolie M., John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Max H. Bazerman, and Lisa Sutherland. "Modeling Expert Opinions on Food Healthfulness: A Nutrition Metric." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109, no. 6 (June 2009): 1088–1091.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Authors

John Beshears

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

Max H. Bazerman

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • March 2025
    • Journal of Financial Economics

    Optimal Illiquidity

    By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
    • February 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform

    By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
    • February 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform (B)

    By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
More from the Authors
  • Optimal Illiquidity By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
  • Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
  • Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform (B) By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.