Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
An Instagram carousel post on the WhitworthsUK page for their nut range, seen on 8 May 2026, included five images of Whitworths posters appearing on billboards across various London sites.
The first image included a poster that stated “Eat pecans. Live longer” alongside a picture of a pecan. Small text at the bottom of the poster stated “Clinical studies suggest pecans can help lower cholesterol – and large international studies link regular nut consumption to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death.”
The remaining four images included posters that all stated “Eat nuts. Live longer” alongside pictures of cashews and walnuts. Small text at the bottom of the posters stated “Large international studies suggest regular nut consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death.” All five posters also stated “Just add +Whitworths” on the bottom right corner.
The caption for the Instagram post stated “EAT NUTS. LIVE LONGER. We have spent years talking about what people should eat less of…but far less time talking about what we should be eating more of […] At Whitworths, we’ve modelled what that could mean at scale. If everyone in the UK added a daily portion of nuts, we estimate it could help save up to 20,000 lives every year. That’s why we’re doing this. If you want to go deeper into the evidence behind this, we’ve published two papers which you can download and read via the link in our bio! ‘Gaps to Gains – our latest work on how closing nutrient gaps could transform public health’ ‘Nut, Seeds & Dried Fruit White Paper – an independent paper exploring the role of these foods in reducing disease risk’ So yes…challenge it. Debate it. Disagree with it. But most importantly, let’s start talking about it. #whitworths #nutrition #eatnutslivelonger #nutrientgaps #health.”
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims:
- “Eat pecans. Live longer” and “Eat nuts. Live longer” were health claims that complied with the Code; and
- “pecans can help lower cholesterol”, “regular nut consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death” and “If everyone in the UK added a daily portion of nuts, we estimate it could help save up to 20,000 lives every year” were claims to prevent disease, which were prohibited by the Code.
Response
1. Whitworths Limited (Whitworths) said the claims “Eat pecans. Live longer” and “Eat nuts. Live longer” were intended as concise campaign wording to communicate that regular nut consumption was associated with better long-term health outcomes and a lower risk of premature mortality. They said the claims were not intended, or would not be reasonably understood, to guarantee that eating a particular quantity of nuts would cause an individual to live longer for a defined period of time. That meaning was, in their view, reinforced by the qualifying wording that “Large international studies suggest regular nut consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death”, which referred to an association rather than a guaranteed outcome.
Whitworths referred to a body of scientific evidence which they said consistently showed an association between nut consumption, better cardiovascular outcomes and lower all-cause mortality. However, they accepted that the scientific evidence was separate from the regulatory requirements of the CAP Code regarding specific health claims. They understood that specific health claims had to be authorised on the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register, or have the same meaning as an authorised claim, and that general health claims had to be accompanied by a relevant authorised specific health claim. They referred to authorised claims relating to walnuts and blood-vessel elasticity, and the permitted claim, for relevant products high in unsaturated fatty acids, that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats contributed to maintaining normal blood cholesterol levels, but accepted that those authorised formulations had not appeared in the ad.
2. Whitworths said the claim “pecans can help lower cholesterol” was supported by clinical evidence they provided, which found that pecan-enriched diets improved cholesterol profiles in adults. They said the claim “regular nut consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death” had been deliberately worded to describe an observed association rather than to state that nuts would prevent or treat disease. They said the words “is linked to” were important because the evidence showed inverse associations between nut intake, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Whitworths therefore did not consider that consumers would understand the wording as a claim that eating one of their products would prevent or treat heart disease.
Whitworths stated the claim “If everyone in the UK added a daily portion of nuts, we estimate it could help save up to 20,000 lives every year” was expressly presented as an estimate rather than a guaranteed outcome. They said it was based on population-health modelling using published evidence and UK mortality data.
Whitworths said the campaign had not intended to present their products as medicines or as treatments or cures for disease. They maintained that the claims were based on a credible body of scientific evidence. However, they also recognised that the CAP Code’s rules regarding claims that stated a food prevents, treats or cures disease and reduction-of disease-risk claims were considered a separate issue, regardless of substantiation.
They stated that if the wording in the ad was found not to comply, they would work with the ASA on compliant wording for future advertising.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The CAP Code defined health claims as those that stated, suggested or implied a relationship between a food or ingredient, and health, and required that only health claims authorised on the applicable register, which in this case was the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register (the GB NHC Register), were permitted in marketing communications for foods. Marketers must also ensure that they met the conditions of use associated with the claims in question.
The ASA considered that consumers were likely to understand the claims “Eat pecans. Live longer” and “Eat nuts. Live longer” as meaning that eating pecans or nuts in general would have a beneficial effect on health which could contribute to a longer life. We considered that the small-print wording, which referred to studies linking pecan and nut consumption with lower cholesterol, a lower risk of heart disease and premature death, reinforced that interpretation.
We acknowledged the scientific evidence Whitworths referred to in support of the claims. However, regardless of the evidence, there were no claims authorised on the GB NHC Register that related to pecans, or nuts in general, and extended life expectancy.
Because the claims “Eat pecans. Live longer” and “Eat nuts. Live longer” were health claims that were not authorised on the GB NHC Register, we concluded that they breached the Code.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 15.1 and 15.1.1 (Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims).
2. Upheld
The CAP Code stated that claims which stated or implied that a food prevented, treated or cured human disease were not acceptable in marketing communications for food. Reduction-of disease-risk claims were acceptable if authorised on the applicable register.
We considered that consumers were likely to understand the claim “pecans can help lower cholesterol” as meaning that eating pecans could reduce their cholesterol levels. We therefore considered that the claim implied that eating pecans could reduce cholesterol, and the risk of developing heart disease, or treat high or raised cholesterol levels.
We also considered that consumers were likely to understand the claim “regular nut consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death” as meaning that regularly eating nuts could reduce their risk of developing heart disease and dying prematurely. We therefore considered that the claim directly referred to preventing the risk of heart disease and early death.
We further considered that consumers were likely to understand the claim “If everyone in the UK added a daily portion of nuts, we estimate it could help save up to 20,000 lives every year” as meaning that eating a daily portion of nuts could avert deaths which would otherwise occur because of disease. We therefore considered that the claim implied that eating nuts could prevent deaths due to disease.
We acknowledged Whitworths’ view that the claims were based on scientific evidence and, in the case of the latter two claims, had been framed as an association or estimate rather than a guaranteed outcome. We considered, however, that regardless of the evidence cited by Whitworths, the Code prohibited claims that stated or implied that a food could prevent, treat or cure human disease, and required that reduction of disease risk claims must be authorised.
Because each of the claims stated or implied that eating nuts or pecans could prevent or treat disease, and because the claims had not been authorised, we concluded that they had breached the Code.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 15.6 and 15.6.2 (Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Whitworths Limited not to make health claims for foods unless they were authorised on the applicable register, or had the same meaning for consumers as an authorised claim. We also told them not to state or imply that a food could prevent, treat or cure human disease, unless making an authorised reduction-of-disease-risk claim in line with the applicable conditions of use.
