Perception Versus Reality: Consumer Beliefs About the Caloric Content of Honey, Jaggery, and Sugar: Perception Versus Reality: Caloric Content of Honey, Jaggery, and Sugar

Alzumar Gul Khan; Joat Khalid

doi:10.54393/pbmj.v9i6.1396

Authors

Alzumar Gul Khan Department of Public Health, The University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Joat Khalid Department of Public Health, The University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54393/pbmj.v9i6.1396

Keywords:

Nutrition Literacy, Consumer Behavior, Food Choice, Sweetener Consumption, Health Halo, Dietary Beliefs

Abstract

Pakistan has one of the highest prevalence rates of diabetes in the world. Even so, while calorie and glycemic impacts of both may be similar, honey and jaggery are still seen as healthier than white sugar. Objectives: To find out the pattern of use of sweeteners, perception of consumers, knowledge about honey, jaggery, white sugar, and factors associated with the perception about their use among adults in Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted using the convenience sampling method, including 170 Pakistani people aged 18 years or older. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to determine the intake, perception, knowledge, and sources of information about the sweeteners. Descriptive statistics, Friedman tests, post-hoc comparisons, and chi-square tests were used. Results: 74.7% of the participants used white sugar as a sweetener, and 85.3% of them used it daily. White sugar was given a lower perceived healthfulness score than honey and jaggery. The nutritional-knowledge questions were answered correctly by only 12.9% of the participants. Family was positively linked to the perception of healthier honey through an unadjusted analysis, while this link was strong. This link was strong and positively associated with the perception of honey being healthier by family as an information source. Conclusions: There was a clear difference between what was perceived as healthy and the actual consumption of sweeteners. While the acceptance of honey and jaggery was better, white sugar was still the major sweetener. The results can be used for the development and assessment of nutrition-education interventions on misconceptions about natural sweeteners.

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