Eating healthy can feel like guesswork. Nutrition science often evolves, and recommendations can be complex. What’s healthy for one group, like college athletes, may be different from what’s healthy for another, like older adults.
Adding to this dynamic, Americans can encounter different advice shaped by science, fad diet trends, and a high-volume commercial information environment. This includes nearly $14 billion a year in food industry advertising, which can influence health expectations and norms.1 Additionally, half of Americans say they have encountered food and nutrition content on social media in the past year, according to the 2025 International Food Information Council Food and Health Survey of US adults.2
Current federal priorities focus on improving healthy diets through a whole-of-government approach to confronting America’s chronic disease crisis, with key reforms aiming to develop a uniform definition of ultra-processed foods, reform dietary guidelines, and strengthen nutrition research and education.3 States and localities have also been exploring ways to integrate nutrition into health care, expand education, and help patients, families, and communities access healthy foods.4
Helping Americans make healthier food choices involves an understanding of not just what they know about healthy eating, but also what they think they know. It also means examining how habits, preferences, and today’s information ecosystem shape those perceptions.
To explore these dynamics, Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,500 US adults in October 2025 using an online panel matched to US census categories (see methodology). The results show that while Americans want to <a t always align perfectly, some foods could even be classified into more than one processing category.
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If you found this survey question confusing, you’re not alone. Respondents had a hard time distinguishing between processed and ultra-processed foods in particular.
Even for a food like store-bought carrot cake, 54% identified it as ultra-processed, while 40% classified it as processed, effectively collapsing the two categories. Canned carrots were most often identified as processed, but a sizable share classified them as ultra-processed. Respondents were split on whether bagged baby carrots are processed or unprocessed, potentially reflecting uncertainty about the contribution of packaging and peeling to processing. Labels also influenced perceptions: When bagged carrots were labeled “organic,” they were more likely to be rated as unprocessed.
The results suggest that uncertainty about food processing isn’t just a knowledge gap but reflects the fact that processing is often defined in different ways and that health effects don’t always map cleanly onto a single category.16
Most surveyed Americans value clear, actionable nutrition guidance and labels
Our survey findings help identify where Americans appear to be stuck—and what rers
Nutrition labels serve as many Americans’ primaryrvey, 71% of respondents say they use nutrition labels at least sometimes when deciding what to eat, while 29% report rarely or never using them (figure 9)
In contrast to the widespread use of nutrition labels, only 13% of respondents report using other federal resources in the past year, such as MyPlate, the visual guide for healthy eating—which was retired in January 2026, or the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Seventy-nine percent of respondents report not using these resources at all (figure 10). This low uptake points to an opportunity for the recently published 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines—which are designed to promote healthy eating patterns and inform efforts to improve access to nutritious foods—to be translated into more digestible resources to support everyday decisions.17
When it comes to understanding which foods to eat for health, respondents place high importance on three potential nutrition labeling tools: markers for ultra-processed foods, overall healthiness, and healthiness for specific chronic conditions. More than 50% rate each as very or extremely important, while about 20% consider them minimally or not at all important (figure 11).
However, some respondents want to dig deeper and seek further explanations: Fifty-five percent say they would consult scientific studies to manage apparent conflicts in information (figure 12). This suggests that Americans may prioritize scientific evidence when questions or conflicts arise. Still, 41% say they would want a website or app to help them manage these conflicts, implying that easy access to information is also a priority.
When faced with contradictory nutrition information, our findings suggest that Americans want trusted interpretation, have an appetite for deeper understanding, and accept some uncertainty—as long as it’s clearly explained.
Americans may want scientific studies that can answer their top three information requirements (figure 13):
- What is known and unknown about food and its effects on health
- The “why” behind nutrition guidance
- Reliable answers to ongoing nutrition science debates
Still, 31% find personalized nutrition guidance most helpful, and 22% say information about nutritional needs specific to their communities would be most helpful.
Three considerations to make healthy choices easier
Our survey of 1,500 Americans shows that intuition and convenience often guide decisions about healthy eating. A confusing, sometimes conflicting information environment means that, despite prioritizing healthy eating, people may struggle to make healthy food choices.
More information alone likely won’t make people healthier, but making the healthy choice the easy choice can. Based on the survey results, we have identified three key considerations that can help Americans make healthier choices.
1. Clear and accessible nutrition labels could make nutrition information more widely understandable and usable.A majority of respondents felt that standardized markers for ultra-processed foods, an overall healthiness score, and healthiness scores tied to major chronic conditions would be helpful. Increasing the clarity and visibility of ultra-processed foods—by providing clear definitions and ultra-processed food-specific labeling on packaging—may help build public understanding.
Developing a widely accepted scientific standard for nutrition choices, especially for those with chronic conditions, may pave the way for providers to further incorporate nutrition information and guidance into traditional models of care. A shared, evidence-based framework for nutrition-related treatments, endorsed by government, scientists, and health care professionals, may also help insurers consider whether to cover such treatments in their plans.
Updating labels would involve coordination across the ecosystem, with government, retailers, food manufacturers, and others, to standardize “at-a-glance” signals at the point of purchase. Some grocery retailers have already implemented overall markers for healthiness to help shoppers make informed choices both in-store and online.18 One model uses a single score from 1 to 100 to signify the healthfulness of a food based on factors like nutrient density, while another store uses a star-ranking system to help customers distinguish overall item healthfulness.19
2. An ecosystem-driven, interoperable nutrition information hub could help Americans navigate conflicting messages and improve their eating habits.Our survey finds that respondents often feel confused by nutrition information and want clear labels and access to deeper resources to resolve conflicting information. A centralized hub, developed as a collaboration among federal agencies, nutrition scientists, retailers, and technology developers, could address these concerns by combining point-of-purchase guidance, scientific context, habit-building support, and personalized recommendations based on health needs, affordability, taste preferences, and demystified science.
Rather than replacing today’s tools, a centralized hub could establish common rails—data standards, labeling rules, and interoperability requirements—that private-sector innovators could build on. Recent advances in technology could make this vision for improving healthy eating across America more attainable.
To drive efficiency, the hub could build on existing efforts to advance AI-driven, interoperable medical records. By connecting with systems where people already receive care, a nutrition information hub could offer clinicians and patients alike nutrition data at the point of care. Within this platform, an AI-powered chatbot could also give Americans access to nutrition research from literature databases like PubMed in a digestible and easy-to-use format.
3. Well-crafted social marketing campaigns can shift behaviors, even among those with deeply entrenched unhealthy eating habits. Information alone has limited power to change eating habits;20 factors such as identity, emotions, social norms, and confidence in maintaining new behaviors can all influence food decisions.21 For this reason, social marketing campaigns can serve as a powerful complement to other efforts, helping achieve lasting dietary change by reshaping how people view food choices and everyday eating habits.
Healthy eating is important for reducing the overall chronic disease burden,22 yet many Americans struggle to meet recommended dietary guidelines. Evidence from past public health campaigns demonstrates the return on investment when campaigns are well designed and sustained over time. For example, the Truth Initiative’s “Know the truth, spread the truth” campaign featured real teens with opioid use disorders and emphasized that opioid dependence can happen in as little as five days.23 The campaign led to a 27% drop in the number of teens willing to share prescription opioids and a 600% increase in searches for the term “opioid epidemic.”24Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign, which employed real stories of smoking-related harm from former smokers, has been associated with an estimated 16.4 million quit attempts and over one million sustained quits.25
These examples underscore the opportunity for modern nutrition campaigns to make a measurable impact. Leaders can consider reaching Americans where they most often seek information—across media and online environments, through health and science professionals, and within their communities (figure 6). Campaigns can also be delivered through libraries and local and state government resources, where our survey indicates respondents actively seek information at least twice as often as they encounter it by chance. By crafting campaigns that are entertaining, empowering, and relatable, modern nutrition campaigns could break through a crowded information environment, reinforce healthier dietary choices, and help shift everyday eating habits.
From confusion to clarity: Supporting Americans in making healthier choices
Every day, millions of Americans are making decisions about what to eat likely while scrolling, shopping, or cooking. Our survey of 1,500 Americans reveals that apparent conflicting information can make it difficult to know what counts as healthy, and many are uncertain about the health effects of processed foods.
While most respondents want to make healthier choices, many rely on gut feelings as much as nutrition labels and perceived health benefits when deciding what’s healthy.
To support these decisions, respondents want deeper context: explanations of why guidance exists and how evidence supports it. Making nutrition information easier to interpret, without oversimplifying, could <a na:');
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Endnotes
UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, “
<li><p>Véronique Provencher and Raphaëlle Jacob, “Making health messages matter: Reaching Americans amid information overload
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