Poster Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 in conjunction with ENSA

Dietary fat and sugar consumption is associated with perceived health of fast-food brand logos (129021)

Simone Rehn 1 , Gemma Hart 2 , Anoushka Parylo 2 3 , Jardena Sturm 2 4 , Laura A Bradfield 1 , Adrian R Camilleri 5 , Natalina Zlatevska 5 , Michael Kendig 1 , Poppy Watson 2
  1. School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney
  2. Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney
  3. School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff
  4. Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen
  5. Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney

Background: Discretionary foods high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat are heavily marketed with easily recognisable brand logos. This study investigated whether self-reported consumption of foods high in fat and sugar was associated with attitudes such as liking, familiarity, excitement, and perceived healthiness of fast-food and sugary drink brand logos, and with body mass index (BMI).

Methods: In Study 1, university students in Sydney, Australia completed the study in a lab setting; in Study 2, U.S.-based participants were recruited online and completed the study remotely. Participants rated major commercial fast food and beverage brand logos on liking, familiarity, perceived healthiness, and frequency of interaction, and completed dietary questionnaires (DFS, RED-13) and demographic measures. All hypotheses and analyses for Study 2 were pre-registered. Data analyses included Pearson correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions.

Results: Both studies found a positive association between how much participants liked fast-food brands and how healthy they perceived them to be, a relationship that was not predicted by education level. Liking and healthiness ratings for fast-food brands correlated positively with self-reported fat and sugar consumption, even after controlling for age, gender and education. These associations were not observed for technology and social media brands, suggesting a domain-specific effect. Both reward-based eating and brand attitudes independently predicted dietary patterns. Greater reward-based eating tendencies predicted BMI in the study of U.S.-based participants (Study 2) but not in the study of Australian university students (Study 1).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that positive attitudes toward fast-food and sugary drink brands are linked to poorer diet quality. However, it remains unclear whether positive brand attitudes lead to poorer diets, or if unhealthy eating habits shape more favourable views of these brands. Further research is needed to clarify the directionality and underlying mechanisms of these associations, with important implications for public health.