For those of you that have seen our video on food marketing, you’ll know how crafty a lot of food manufacturers are in making you believe what they are selling you is good for you. This is one of the reasons so many people who come to our Group Personal Training clubs in Macclesfield are struggling to lose weight – they seem to be eating just healthy food, according to the labels of what they are eating.
The main trick is, of course, highlighting the pros and hiding the cons. Just because something is “high in fibre” or “low in fat” or “fortified with Vitamin D” does not mean it is healthy. Arsenic, for example is low in fat. It will kill you instantly though.
The name given to the product is the easiest way for food manufactures to make you think about their product in a certain way. An easy way to overcome this is to call the product by it’s first ingredient or two. This instantly makes many products sound less healthy and / or less appealing.
The list below shows what certain products become when called by what they actually are:
Chocolate Bar –> Sugar bar
‘Healthy Living Sandwich’ –> Bread and margarine
‘Fruit juice’ –> Sugar water
Learn to ignore the evocative images and words on food packaging. Real healthy food doesn’t need this. You don’t see such things on vegetables or fresh meat or nuts or fruit. The easiest way to eat healthily is to buy things with no / one ingredient. Ie: Chicken, beef, broccoli, apples, almonds, etc. If you must buy things with multiple ingredients, then call it by the name of the first ingredient or two and decide if it still sounds good for you.