After Mexico started putting warning labels on unhealthy foods, many companies changed their recipes to make their products healthier—so they wouldn’t have to put the scary labels on them anymore.

Mexico put warning labels on dairy products that have artificial sweeteners, and as a result, companies started using way fewer of those sweeteners—down by almost a third. Meanwhile, Chile and Peru didn’t warn about sweeteners, and they actually started using more. So, it looks like warning people about artificial sweeteners might push companies to stop putting them in food.

After Mexico put warning labels on sugary drinks, companies changed their recipes to make the drinks just under the sugar and calorie limits—so they wouldn’t get the scary label—and this happened mostly to drinks that were barely over the limit before.

After Mexico put warning labels on unhealthy foods, companies started making bread, snacks, and instant meals with less salt—so much less that in some cases, over 60% fewer products were labeled as too salty.

After Mexico started putting warning labels on unhealthy food packages, companies made bigger and more frequent changes to make their products healthier—much more than they did just after announcing the plan but before the labels were actually on shelves. This suggests the real push came from the rules being enforced, not just from talking about them.

After Mexico started putting warning labels on unhealthy snacks and dairy products, people bought fewer of the ones with too much saturated fat—like cheese and chips—because the labels helped them make better choices.