Health warning labels are used to reduce alcohol and snack intake.

Original title: Health warning label diagrams that use or reduce alcohol and snack intake
A recent study published in the open-access journal BMC Public Health showed that using health warning labels (similar to those commonly found on cigarette packs) may reduce people's intake of alcoholic beverages and high-calorie-density snacks, such as chocolate bars.
studies have shown that the use of health warning labels describing the adverse health effects of smoking is an effective and acceptable means of changing smoking-related health prognossions. But there is limited evidence of whether health warning labels are effective in reducing the intake of alcohol and high-calorie snacks such as chocolate bars and chocolate crackers. The team from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol conducted two online studies that asked participants to rate different health warning labels, with 5,528 rated alcoholic drinks and 4,618 rated high-calorie snacks. Study co-author Dr Gareth Hollands said: "To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale study in the general population to explore the potential effectiveness and popular acceptance of health warning labels for alcohol and snacks. Previous studies in this area have generally looked at warning labels on sweet drinks, or have studied smaller or less representative samples.
researchers found that alcohol health warning labels associated with the strongest negative emotions ———e.g. fear, disgust, discomfort, and worry, and minimum intake desires are bowel cancer-related labels, followed by liver cancer-related labels. These two types of labels were also the labels with the lowest acceptance between the study participants. Overall, only three of the 21 alcohol health warning labels were rated "at least somewhat acceptable", which showed that few alcohol health warning labels were well received.
the top two snack health warning labels associated with the strongest negative emotions and minimum intake desires were bowel cancer-related labels and non-specific types of cancer-related labels. Health warning labels for high-calorie-density snacks were on average better than alcohol health warning labels, with 13 of the 18 labels rated "at least somewhat acceptable."
the authors, the response to bowel cancer-related labels may indicate what kind of health warning labels have more potential to reduce alcohol and snacking choices and intake. Participants in the alcohol portion were drawn from the British population and were self-reported to drink beer or red wine at least once a week. A total of 5,528 participants were shown a picture of a bottle of beer or wine with one of 21 related health warning labels showing the adverse health consequences of alcohol intake. After reading it, participants were asked how scared, worried, uncomfortable or disgusted they were, how willing they wanted to eat the product, and how much support they had for setting such labels on alcohol.
part of the study also included people from the UK who self-reported eating biscuits, cakes, crackers or chocolate at least once a week and who liked chocolate. A total of 4,618 participants were shown a picture of a chocolate bar with one of 18 health warning labels showing the adverse health consequences of obesity and related conditions caused by excess calorie intake.
authors caution that the study does not prove whether the arousal of negative emotions and the effects on ingestion are really effective in changing behavior. Since the study was conducted online, people may react differently to health warning labels on real-life products. Further research is needed to find out if these labels can really reduce alcohol and high-calorie density snacks.
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