Are you a smart grocery shopper? Hopefully, you buy as much for health as for taste. If you buy packaged foods, read the labels, and don’t let clever advertising and marketing speak fool you. Food marketers use packaging and advertising, as well as social media messages, to make foods sound like healthier choices than they are.
Food marketers are skilled at what they do. They know that if they can trick you into thinking a food is healthy, you’re more likely to buy it. It’s not always easy to see through the tricks they use to get you to buy their products. Let’s look at some strategies they use to give ultra-processed foods a “health halo” and how you can avoid their antics.
Don’t Be Fooled by Pictures
Don’t let the photos and graphics on the package fool you. What counts is what’s inside the box or bag. Packaged food makers deceive customers by using pictures and words that make them think a product is healthy or natural when it may not be.
Don’t let the pictures seduce you with their rich colors and beautiful graphics. Focus only on the ingredients and nutritional data. A package might display photos with lots of berries and other foods that make it look healthy, but when you check the nutrition label or ingredient list, there’s no mention of fruit. You might be surprised to know that some so-called “blueberries” in breakfast cereals are often made from food starch, oils, and artificial colors and flavors! There’s nothing fruity about that.
Don’t Be Fooled by Clever Words and Marketing Speak
Packaged food manufacturers like to add words to the front of the packaging that has a healthy connotation. They hope their words will convince you that what they offer is healthy, but it’s deceptive. Here are some examples:
- “No added sugar” — It sounds great, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t sugars in the product — only that none were added after it was made. That means there still might be a lot of sugar naturally from fruit juices or other ingredients in the product. Plus, the refined carbohydrates in packaged products still cause a sharp rise in blood sugar.
- “All natural” — According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), foods labeled “natural” must not contain artificial flavors or colors, chemicals added during processing, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But it’s not a guarantee that your food is healthy.
- “Low fat” — This one is a red flag. Fat has more than twice as many calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein, so if something is low in fat, manufacturers would have you believe it must be a good choice because of its lower calorie content. But many processed foods labeled low fat have high sugar content, which can lead to weight gain and contribute to diabetes and heart disease. Don’t switch fat for sugar. You need a certain amount of fat in your diet, but sugar has no nutritional benefits.
- “Organic” — Words like “organic” don’t necessarily mean the food is better for you. Organic just means it was grown without synthetic pesticides. It could still be high in sugar and refined carbohydrates.
The take-home message? Just because a food item is low in something like fat doesn’t make it a healthy addition to your plate. Dig deeper and look at the bigger picture.
Don’t Be Fooled by Product Names
Just because something is labeled “healthy” or distributed by a company like “Health Palace” doesn’t mean they offer better for you options. Giving a product a healthy-sounding name is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Food companies know that if they don’t use real ingredients in their products, they had better have a healthy name. Don’t let product or company names sway you either. Read the nutritional info and the ingredient list to get the full scoop.
Don’t Be Fooled by Colors or Artwork
There’s a reason companies use green on their packaging. It suggests something is natural. But don’t be swayed by colors or artwork. Research shows more people buy products with pictures on the front than those without pictures. So, companies try to make their packaging as attractive as possible. They use natural colors and images of fresh ingredients that make you think you’re making a healthy choice. And yes, these images influence people!
Serving Size Deception
Here’s a common trick. Manufacturers will change or reformulate their products and claim they are lowering the sugar content. You look at the package, and it now says it has 15 grams of sugar when it had 20 grams before. But if you read the nutrition label, you’ll see they reduced the serving size from one cup to three-quarters of a cup. Tricky! Plus, manufacturers sometimes make serving sizes unrealistically small so they can keep the calorie and sugar content down on the package.
Conclusion
In the end, it’s important to remember that there are many ways food marketers use packaging and advertising to trick you into thinking their product is better for your health. The best way to make smarter choices is to read the nutritional information and ingredient list. While this may seem tedious, it is vital to making an informed decision.
Don’t be fooled by marketing techniques designed to make a product appear to be healthier than it is. Instead, take the time to perform due diligence to make sure you’re getting the most nutritionally sound option available. Even better choose more unpackaged foods that are unaltered by processing. They’ll taste better and you’ll be doing your health a favor too.
References:
- “Food Labels | CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” 20 Sept. 2022, cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/eat-well/food-labels.html.
- “Food Labeling & Nutrition | FDA.” 16 May. 2022, fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition.
- “How To Read Food and Beverage Labels – National Institute on Aging.” 24 Feb. 2022, nia.nih.gov/health/how-read-food-and-beverage-labels.
- “What are ultra-processed foods and are they bad for our health?.” 09 Jan. 2020, https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-processed-foods-and-are-they-bad-for-our-health-2020010918605.
- Marti A. Ultra-Processed Foods Are Not “Real Food” but Really Affect Your Health. Nutrients. 2019 Aug 15;11(8):1902. doi: 10.3390/nu11081902. PMID: 31443142; PMCID: PMC6723973.
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