Individuals With Greater Attentional and Memory Abilities Exhibit Higher Food Label and Numeracy Nutrition Skills

Abstract Objectives The impact of dietary practices on human health has received considerable interest however the role of nutritional knowledge and skills to eat healthy remains understudied. The implementation of nutritional knowledge probably impacts human food behavior and food choices. We investigated the relationship between nutrition literacy, diet quality, carotenoid status, and cognitive function. Methods Adults aged 37 ± 17 years (N = 52, 39 females) completed the 42 item Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument (NLit) and Dietary History Questionnaire III (DHQIII). DHQIII was analyzed to determine adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Healthy Eating Index [HEI-2015]). Reflection spectroscopy was utilized to estimate skin carotenoids as a biomarker of diet quality. Attentional inhibition was evaluated using a modified Flanker Task. Hippocampal memory was assessed using a spatial reconstruction task and the Mnemonic Separation Task. Covariates adjusted for included age, sex, education level, and BMI. Results No significant associations were observed between total NLit scores, HEI-2015 and skin carotenoid status. Also, HEI-2015 was not correlated to the NLit subscales. However, the NLit Food Label & Numeracy subscale was related to greater accuracy in the incongruent flanker trials (rho = .39, p = 0.01) and Pattern Separation (rho = .43, p = 0.01). Conclusions Overall nutrition literacy was not related to diet quality, carotenoid status, or cognitive function in this sample. However, skills involved in processing quantitative food label information were associated with attentional and memory abilities. Future studies among larger samples are needed to determine whether interventions improving nutrition skills should also target cognitive domains to improve dietary patterns. Funding Sources This work was funded by the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health and Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois.