Think wine is a virtue, not a vice? Nutrition label information surprised many US consumers

Getty Images Stock Photo by Deidre Popovich, Texas Tech University When you reach for that bottle of wine this Valentine’s Day, do you know how healthy it is? Many people have a too-rosy view of the beverage and are surprised when confronted with the facts about it on a nutrition label, according to a study my co-author Natalia Velikova and I recently published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing. Our findings could have big implications for the wine industry, particularly as some groups in the U.S. are pushing for wine to have mandatory nutrition labels. Right now, people usually think of wine as a “virtue” rather than a “vice,” thanks to popular beliefs about its health benefits and news coverage of its antioxidant effects. But requiring nutrition labels, which are currently voluntary, could change those views. In our experimental research, which included nearly 800 participants, we found that American consumers aren’t used to seeing nutrition information on wine labels, and most are surprised by what they read since they don’t associate wine with calories, carbohydrates and sugar. People who were prompted to read labels viewed wine as less healthy than they did beforehand, and they were less likely to buy...