What does “nutritious” mean to you?
According to a study published in the journal Nutrients, the word “nutritious” has a very different meaning depending on whether you’re a nutritionist or a consumer. In the study, nutrition experts and lay people provided definitions of the term “nutritious” and evaluated the “nutritiousness” of 20 different snack foods in a cross-sectional survey. Expert and lay definitions differed considerably, with experts using terms such as nutrient-density, macro- and micronutrients, kilojoules/calories. Consumers used words like fuel, fresh, natural, body needs, and functioning. The study results show the need for an agreed definition of the terms and potential regulation of “nutritious.” How do you define nutritious?