Nutritional Analysis of Foods and Beverages Depicted in Top-Grossing US Movies, 1994-2018

Abstract

IMPORTANCEMany countries now restrict advertisements for unhealthy foods. However, movies depict foods and beverages with nutritional quality that is unknown, unregulated, and underappreciated as a source of dietary influence.OBJECTIVE To compare nutritional content depicted in top-grossing US movies with established nutrition rating systems, dietary recommendations, and US individuals' actual consumption. DESIGN AND SETTINGIn this qualitative study, a content analysis was performed from April 2019 to May 2020 of the 250 top-grossing US movies released from 1994 to 2018.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The proportion of movies with less healthy nutrition ratings using the Nutrient Profile Index, the proportion of movies with medium or high food nutrition ratings according to the United Kingdom's "traffic light" guidelines (in which green is low and indicates the healthiest foods; amber, medium; and red is high and indicates the least healthy foods), and how the movie-depicted nutritional content compared with US Food and Drug Administration-recommended daily levels and US individuals' actual consumption according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015-2016 data. Secondary outcomes compared branded and nonbranded items and tested whether outcomes changed over time or for movies targeting youths.RESULTS Across 9198 foods and 5748 beverages, snacks and sweets (2173 [23.6%]) and alcoholic beverages (2303 [40.1%]) were most commonly depicted. Alcohol comprised 23 of 127 beverages (18.1%) in G-rated movies, 268 of 992 beverages (27.0%) in PG-rated movies, 1503 of 3592 beverages (41.8%) in PG-13-rated movies, and 509 of 1037 beverages (49.1%) in R-rated movies. Overall, 178 of 245 movies (72.7%) earned less healthy Nutrient Profile Index food ratings and 222 of 246 movies (90.2%) earned less healthy beverage ratings, which would be unhealthy enough to fail legal limits for advertising to youths in the United Kingdom. Among foods, most movies depicted medium or high (amber or red traffic light) levels of sugar (229 of 245 [93.5%]), saturated fat (208 of 245 [84.9%]), total fat (228 of 245 [93.1%]), and, to a lesser extent, sodium (123 of 245 [50.2%]). Only 1721 foods and beverages (11.5%) were visibly branded, but branded items received less healthy nutrition ratings than nonbranded items. Overall, movies failed recommended levels of saturated fat per 2000 kcal by 25.0% (95% CI, 20.6%-29.9%), sodium per 2000 kcal by 3.9% (95% CI, 0.2%-7.9%), and fiber per 2000 kcal by 45.1% (95% CI, 42.9%-47.0%). Movies also depicted 16.5% (95% CI, 12.3%-21.0%) higher total sugar content per 2000 kcal and 313% (95% CI, 298%-329%) higher alcohol content per 2000 kcal than US individuals consume. Neither food nor beverage nutrition scores improved over time or among movies targeting youths.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This study suggests that popular US movies depict an unhealthy diet that fails national dietary recommendations, akin to US individuals' actual diets. Depicting unhealthy consumption in media is a sociocultural probl...

Nutritional Analysis of Foods and Beverages Posted in Social Media Accounts of Highly Followed Celebrities

“… 36 We selected 200 of the most popular athletes, music artists, actors, actresses, and television personalities by consulting 4 lists: the ESPN 2018 World Fame 100, 37 2018 Billboard year-end top 100 artists, 38 2018 Internet Movie Database (IMDb) 100 most in-demand actors and actresses, 39 and Trackalytics’ most followed profiles on the platform. 40 The ESPN World Fame 100 list, billboard year-end lists, and IMDb lists have been used in prior research 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 to identify influential celebrities, songs, or movies, and Trackalytics provides updated follower counts for highly followed social media accounts. To balance by gender, the top 25 females and top 25 males were selected from each list.…”

“…As in prior research, 12,46,51 interrater reliability between the 2 researchers who conducted the coding (B.P.T. and K.G.A.)…”

Psychosocial context and food healthiness in top-grossing American films.

“…In total, 9,198 foods were identified in the movie sample. Turnwald and colleagues (2021) then quantified detailed nutrition information for every food that appeared by consulting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS; USDA, 2016). Finally, these nutrition values for foods were then converted to a summary nutrition score (0 = least healthy , 100 = healthiest ) using the Nutrient Profile Index (NPI; Harris et al, 2013; Public Health England, 2018).…”

“…However, the study by Turnwald and colleagues (2021) did not code for any variables related to contextual factors, character behaviors, or character demographics. Whereas the purpose of that research was to identify which foods appear in popular Hollywood movies, the purpose of the present research was to understand how foods appear in these movies—specifically, whether contextual factors, character behaviors, and character demographics are associated with food healthiness.…”

“…In recent years, more research has examined the types of foods that appear in popular movies in an effort to understand the health qualities of what foods are depicted and the impact that such depictions may have on viewers. Analyses of the types of foods depicted in movies show that unhealthy foods are most common, particularly snacks and sweets like sweet bakery products, candies, and processed salty snacks (Matthes & Naderer, 2019; Sutherland et al, 2010; Turnwald et al, 2021). Yet little is known about the contexts in which healthy and unhealthy foods are depicted in movies.…”