[Health claims made about foods: the new European regulation]. / Actualités de la législation européenne en matière d'aliments et d'allégations santé.

Pursuant to the regulation harmonized relating to labelling, the presentation of the foodstuffs and publicity on them, the health claims made on these products should not be likely to mislead the consumer, must be able to be scientifically substantiated and it cannot be stated nor be evoked a property relating to the prevention, the treatment or the cure of a human disease. The recent publication of the European regulation concerning nutrition and health claims made on foods is a specific text, which supplements this device. The scientific evaluation of health claims allegations is centralized at the European Food Safety Authority and is preliminary to the launching of the food products. The food supplements, defined in the lawful plan in the field of the food right, are also subjected to these provisions.

Underreporting of food intake in obese "small eaters".

Thirty sedentary and stable weight obese women were classified as small, normal or large eaters depending on their report of 24 h energy intake (EI) through a dietary history questionnaire. For each subject, resting metabolic rate (RMR) was assessed through indirect calorimetry, physical activity through a self-administered questionnaire and psychological evaluation through psychometric tests. Neither RMR nor indices of physical activity were different between the three groups; however for small eaters, RMR was higher than reported EI (p < 0.001). Thus, the low EI reported by obese small eaters reflected an underreporting of food intake. Psychometric evaluation was not different between normal and large eaters. Small eaters exhibited a better perception of food size than normal or large eaters, and no difference in tests assessing memory or attention; their score (2.8 +/- 1.3) in a nutritional dissimulation test was higher (p = 0.015) than that of normal (1.0 +/- 0.7) or large eaters (1.5 +/- 0.09). This suggests that underreporting in obese small eaters might be due to specific nutritional concealment; because small eaters reported a low intake particularly in foods which are often perceived as unhealthy (fats, sugars, extra-prandial consumption), they probably reported what, in their opinion, they should have eaten, instead of what they did eat.