Ingredients were more important than Nutrition Facts labels for many in a group of relatively healthy older American travelers
Health experts say diet and exercise are the foundation for healthy aging (Chien 2025). The U.S. population is aging rapidly, which poses serious challenges to the health care system (Butler 2024). For these reasons, I asked two food nutrition questions of 24 relatively healthy US travelers on a recent international trip (all but two ages 63-79):
What if anything do you most pay attention to on food nutrition labels when grocery shopping?
Why is that important to you?
This post is very consistent with routine healthy food choices contributing to people growing older while feeling good, given the relative health and robust activity level of this older group, described more in last week’s post.
The USDA reports that about 4 out of 5 adults read Nutrition Facts labels as they buy groceries (USDA 2023), so similar findings here are not surprising. But in talking with this group, what stood out was how many focused on the ingredients list — wanting foods without additives, preferring plant-based options, or simply choosing unprocessed items that don’t need a label at all. Women were especially likely to check ingredients closely, while some men likely leaned on a spouse or partner in food decisions. And beyond health reasons like avoiding chronic disease, a few were also motivated by values such as caring for the environment, animal welfare, supporting local farmers, or experiences earlier in life that shaped how they still eat today. More specifics follow…
1. What’s the focus?
Many focus on sugar, calories, sodium, and/or fat content from the Facts labels (19 of 24)—but instead or in addition to reading the labels, many consider the ingredients themselves (11).
Most of the ingredients-focused participants (8) look to avoid additives or artificial ingredients, or mentioned seeking unprocessed foods which usually have no labels, while two seek plant-based ingredients and one specifically avoids artificial sweetener.
Women participants more often consider the ingredients closely relative to men (54% versus 27%). However, among the men, a majority (55%) are either coupled with someone who considered the ingredients closely, or they do so themselves.
2. Reasons for the focus
Many seek to prevent or mitigate chronic disease (13)
Others simply seek best possible health (6)
A few (3) cited moral reasons for their choices, namely concern for the environment, concern for animal welfare, and supporting local farmers.
3. Several respondents stressed the long-term nature of their commitment to healthy eating.
Upbringing by a mother who had strong opinions and practices insisting they eat healthy, fresh foods (2).
An employer of 30 years, a health-related company, that “was always” emphasizing exercise and health (1)
Long-term habit, after motivation to change from health issues decades ago (2):
An inspirational book that helped her feel better through different eating after years of not feeling well (then-undiagnosed gluten intolerance)
The Atkins diet, which he had used to lose a lot of weight years ago, and now returns to it if his weight creeps up (1).
4. Where do they keep up with the latest nutrition advice?
Their sources of information on healthy food topics varied but included the New York Times (Magazine or Wellness section), Google, morning shows, their spouse, their yoga teacher, and research they need to do for their work. Not surprisingly given the older ages of most participants, only one of the two younger participants mentioned noting trends in social media.
My Take
For me, this reinforced my own food selection habits as aligned with those of healthy older people, and encouraged me further toward unprocessed foods. But I remember the days of juggling kids and full-time job and in those days, the prep time I take now with fresh foods would have been unthinkable.
This same group of older travelers who themselves eat healthy recognized it is a steep but critical path to get to a society where it is feasible for everyone to shop and eat in ways that will lead them to a healthy old age. For example, they identified eliminating food deserts and addressing the cost of healthy foods as high priorities in the first blog post in this series.
To my mind, the stories shared here highlight some important ways to influence personal preferences, as we work on community-level and policy-based solutions to make healthy choices more affordable and available:
Parents: For two participants, their mom had successfully instilled in them a lifetime of healthy eating
Employers: One participant attributed his good exercise and food habits to the emphasis his long-time employer placed on employees’ health habits
Appealing to moral reasons as well as personal benefits: Several participants said their healthy shopping habits had been formed for moral reasons, not personal welfare
Media and “all hands approach”: The participants were tuned in to a variety of media, social, and community sources, so it follows that the more sources giving the same information the better.
This is the fourth post based on the Healthcare For the People by the People project, self-funded by Bluemont Health Consulting LLC. For more details about the sample and method, scroll to the end of the first post in this series here.