{"id":268,"date":"2013-05-30T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adamjacksonphoto.com\/life_and_health\/?p=307"},"modified":"2021-09-29T14:11:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T21:11:09","slug":"health-halos-and-deceptive-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/food\/nutrition\/health-halos-and-deceptive-marketing\/14268.html","title":{"rendered":"Health Halos and Deceptive Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, an article<\/a> appeared in the Huffington Post discussing health halos. You may not have heard the term before, but I\u2019m sure you\u2019re familiar with the concept. The article discussed a small change in the menu of the fast food chain Panda Express. They recently replaced their \u2018fried rice\u2019 side dish with \u2018fried brown rice\u2019. That\u2019s a good thing right? Brown rice is healthier than white rice\u2014but does this change mean that this side is a healthy choice?<\/p>\n

According to the nutrition data on their website, Panda Express fried rice has 470 calories\u2014a lot for a side dish! Besides having fewer calories overall, the white rice has 0 calories from fat, while the fried rice has 170 calories from fat. White rice also has no sodium, but the fried rice has 830mg\u2014about one third of the recommended daily limit for a healthy adult. But brown rice is healthier than white rice right? It is\u2014but in an unhealthy recipe, changing one ingredient does not instantly erase the numerous health woes caused by salt, oil, and goodness knows what else.<\/p>\n

The above case is a perfect example of a health halo. Essentially, it\u2019s an undeserved \u2018healthy\u2019 reputation derived from a buzzword or crafty marketing. In this case, the casual diner is led to believe that, just because the dish is made with brown rice, it is the healthier choice. As we have demonstrated, this is simply not the case.<\/p>\n

Now, health halos extend far beyond your local fast food joint. They have become a fixture of the food industry\u2019s marketing strategy. Nearly every product is looking to create an aura of health. Take a look next time you\u2019re at the supermarket. You\u2019ll be greeted by a host of health halos such as, \u201chigh in antioxidants,\u201d \u201c100% daily vitamin C,\u201d \u201cgreat source of fiber,\u201d and \u201cgluten free\u201d (even in the case of foods that are naturally gluten free, such as rice or quinoa etc.).<\/p>\n

Turning Condiments into Essential Nutrients.<\/h3>\n

Does marketing with health halos really work? A few years ago, I was eating lunch with a group of people. An older man in the group began explaining that all the men in the group needed to eat ketchup 3 times a week. Ketchup, he claimed, helped to prevent prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

I did a little research and it turns out that he was talking about lycopene\u2014which is a beneficial phytonutrient. If you\u2019ve ever heard of lycopene, chances are good that it was brought to your attention by the ketchup industry. They are actively promoting ketchup as a great source. Does lycopene make ketchup seem healthier?<\/p>\n

The truth is we can get lycopene from other sources, without the added sugars, fillers, chemicals, and preservatives ketchup contains. Lycopene was actually discovered when researchers were studying why Italian men had lower rates of prostate cancer compared to the surrounding countries. What were Italians doing differently than their neighbors? They discovered that tomatoes, when cooked, contain large amounts of lycopene. (When cooked, the lycopene content in tomatoes experiences a major increase.) So the pasta loving Italians were getting their fair share. Other sources include certain red fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, pink grapefruit, or red bell peppers.<\/p>\n

So nothing changed in ketchup recipes. Lycopene has always been found in ketchup. The lycopene just gave ketchup\u2014an otherwise calorically dense, nutritionally empty food\u2014a healthy halo.<\/p>\n

Call It as You See It<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a saying: \u201cYou can\u2019t put lipstick on a pig.\u201d That may be true, but food manufactures are getting good at slathering lipstick on their proverbial pigs. Too many of us see the lipstick and not the pig.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to the root of the issue. Buzz aside\u2014lets make it a goal to evaluate foods for what they really are. Is the food you are thinking about buying healthy? Chances are, if the food you are buying (and eating) is fresh and unprocessed, it will do more to benefit your body than anything you\u2019ll find in a box. Healthy food should be easily identifiable. If the food is trying too hard to sell itself, it may be better to avoid it. Nothing is too good to be true\u2026 if something looks like a health halo, it probably is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning to read between the lines and seperate facts from buzzwords<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260,147,203,215,233],"thb-sponsors":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition","tag-health-halos","tag-plant-based-nutrition","tag-plant-to-plate-nutrition","tag-smart-buying","tag-smart-shopping","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"views":1169,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2439,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/2439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}