Note: Question of the Week is a new weekly series designed to help create more awareness and conversation about various aspects of your health and well-being. I hope you join in the conversation.
I was recently interviewed on Money Matters Radio by host Chuck Nilosek. (You can listen to the full 30 minute interview here.) We started our conversation talking about managing workplace stress, then we talked about yoga then wellness in general. We even talked a little bit about the movie Food Inc and while we didn’t go deep into a discussion the idea was mentioned: is food marketing misleading?
I haven’t been able to get that thought out of my head ever since.
And that leads me to this weeks question:
Is food marketing misleading to the consumer?
I was reminded of a study that was published in the January 2010 Journal of the American Dietetic Association about the number of calories in some of the food you eat and how in many instances caloric consumption may be up to 20% more than what is reported.
The press release stated:
Measured energy values of 29 quick-serve and sit-down restaurant foods averaged 18% more calories than the stated values. Likewise, measured energy values of 10 frozen meals purchased from supermarkets averaged 8% more calories than stated on the label.
Then I read a post from Evita Ochel a holistic health counselor and biologist at Evolving Wellness about foods that seem healthy but are not and again I became curious about whether food marketing is misleading.
Admittedly I am a label reader. I do not take the claims on the front of a food package at face value, regardless of what they tell me – High fiber, low in calories, good source of vitamins/minerals – and I have a few rules I never stray from when food shopping including: food stays on the shelf if it contains high fructose corn syrup or ingredients I can’t pronounce.
Knowing what is in your food helps you look and feel your best – and that is a critical part of feel-good living.
What about you? Do you read food labels? What are your thoughts on how food is marketed to the consumer?
Please join the conversation and share your thoughts, comments and knowledge below.
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Hi Stacey
What an excellent question to pose and get a discussion going on for more awareness and increased education.
I personally think – yes, and very much so.
I had the idea over the past few years, but it wasn’t really that it hit me when 2 things happened:
1. I picked up a jar of tomato/pasta sauce a couple of years ago and it had a health check/approval from the Heart and Stroke Foundation. When I read the label, it had way more sodium than is accepted as a healthy level for a healthy diet.
So I thought, okay so high sodium generally speaking = high blood pressure, which can result in various stages of heart disease and here is the heart and stroke foundation telling people to it eat as they approved it with their seal? Something didn’t add up for sure.
2. Then I think the winter of 2008 I watched a presentation by famous dietitian Jeff Novick on reading labels and especially focusing on whether “health food” is really healthy food. Well, let’s just say my eyes were opened so wide. I couldn’t believe all the tricks companies use to downplay or adjust the numbers to make them seem good!
And than I think of the most recent stuff like “Lucky Charms” and other similar cereals putting claims on the box that it boosts your child’s immune system. I mean I don’t know how far this is going to go, but it is getting a little ridiculous if you ask me. It is not hard to find today that it has been proven that sugar lowers immune function, so for them to say that a few added synthetic vitamins are going to help, is sort of laughable.
Anyway, I applaud your decision for reading your labels, and yes the back ones, not the front ones – that I always say to people is already a huge benefit in making healthy choices.
After that it depends on how far we want to take those “healthy choices”. I generally recommend to people to really decrease or completely eliminate any processed food. Some is obviously worse than others, but still.
So thank you for stirring this very important topic, and thank you also for linking to the article on the not so healthy foods.
Oh yeah I read the labels. I refuse to eat anything with high fructose, fractionated, and chemical based (MSG). I noticed that I’m a lot happier and more productive. I also noticed my weight staying very stable. Only time it fluctuates is when I go to my parent’s for Christmas.
I think food marketing is misleading. I like Evita’s post 5 foods that you may think are healthy, but they really aren’t – http://bit.ly/35ef9. For example orange juice is marketed as healthy, but in reality it’s mostly processed by our bodies as sugar.
Great post, and great topic, Stacey! Like Karl, I read and loved Evita’s post, and have been much more aware these days than ever before. Food, Inc. was a HUGE part of that.
In a nutshell, after watching the movie and knowing what I do about politics and Corporate America (it’s all about money!), I believe food marketing & labeling is horribly misleading. I am not convinced that the US Government – FDA or otherwise – has our best interests at heart. I believe whatever makes money is what they’ll market.
That being said, I actually use intuition and energy testing to choose the majority of my foods now. Muscle testing, or kinesiology, helped me eliminate foods that weren’t a good vibrational match for my body. It’s amazing what our bodies instinctively know; we just have to tune in and listen.
Hi Evita – I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. And with all the articles recently about obesity, especially in kids, it’s heart breaking. Thank you for writing about it, too!
Karl – Yes, I enjoyed Evita’s article, too. Such great information more people need to know about!
Megan – Food Inc had such a huge impact on me. I love how you use intuition and energy . I recently met someone who does that work and I may purchase a session or two to do the same.
Hi Stacey .. I agree – fortunately being single, and having been brought up with fresh food – that’s the way I cook. I do a few sauces – but so few I don’t worry. I just know that anything made up is going to be questionable, and some that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole are horrible – tasting and in health elements .. so I don’t read labels .. but then I feel I don’t need to – I rarely buy them (& a few years ago wouldn’t have bought them). I must see Food Inc.
Thanks – so many need to know these things and be aware of them ..
Hilary – Like you, I grew up with fresh cooking. When I was single, and even now with only 2 of us, I cook fresh and then freeze the rest. Makes it easy for future meals, too!
Good thread, a nice follow up to Food Inc. is King Corn a film about subsidized farming, GMO, and the origins of our food. Labels are decieving, refined sugar (poison) has many pseudonyms, like organic evaporated cane juice, maltodextrin, corn syrup, ect. it’s very confusing. The funny thing is HFCS products like Coke & Heinz are offering limited product lines that use good old fashioned “less worse” sugar. Maddness! http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/refined-sugar-the-sweetest-poison-of-all.html