Marketing and Perception of Nutrition Facts and Food Labels

Marketing plays a huge role in the way food is now accepted, eaten, and perceived by people. As body image becomes more important to people, and health knowledge is more available, many are looking for additional healthy alternatives.
    Smart (food) marketers, see this as a valuable opportunity to promote the products they are working with as "healthy", but what is healthy has essentially become subjective. Does healthy mean low calorie? Low fat? Nutrient Rich? Green? It might be different depending on the individual needs of the "dieter".

A lot of words on a small wrapper is a lot to sort through!

    The problem is there is an extraordinary amount of vast information for people to sort through to find out what they want as a nutritious option that fits them. We are a "time pressed" society and the last thing people want to do is sort through first the initial advertising, then the food labels, then the nutrition facts, ingredients, unknown chemicals... the list goes on. One piece of packaged food may contain tonnnss of text, and if we can't even identify what half the ingredients are, how can we tell if they are good for us, and how much does someone have to care in order to actually find out what they are putting in their body? At what point does the value of nutrition overrule the value of time/energy for someone?

     So many claims are made when it comes to food marketing. One example is Sugar Free Coffee Mate Creamer,  or the fat free version applies here as well. This creamer may have low sugar or low fat accordingly, but the sugar free version contains tons of fat, the fat free contains tons of sugar! Both creamers are full of chemicals and artificial ingredients that create empty calories with very very little nutritional value! Also the serving size is a mere tablespoon, so according to the label, there isn't much of anything in it as far as negative nutrients go. 30 calories of the SF Vanilla-Caramel Creamer don't sound like much, but it can be misleading for the type of food it is and how it is affecting your body. Corn syrup is one negative thing, then there are things like dipotassium phosphate, and acesulfame potassium that are extremely unfamiliar to most, so out of the large number of buyers, the chances that those who regularly purchase the product actually knowing the purpose of the ingredients is slim.Serving size is another thing people take for granted, and when they don't measure, their evaluation of the nutrition facts is generally off. This creamer is just a mere example of the extensive amount of items out there with similar issues.

The harsh reality is that many people are drawn to diet type products like "the cookie diet" pictured above and don't even bother to think about the fact that it might not be optimally nutritional. They are thinking that a bunch of chemicals and preservatives are something that is going to help them be healthy and loose weight. It might in the short-run, but they need to be able to maintain healthy diets, because in general quick fix treatments are ineffective. They generally result in the dieter falling back to their old weight, possibly gaining more. Special K may promise that you will loose weight in just 2 weeks with their challenge; but of course anyone who is eating 2 very low nutrient low calorie meals a day is going to loose weight. They probably aren't going to want to be hungry and their body craves other nutrients in the long term, so 2-weeks is unlikely to be effective.

So what can we do to remedy this issue and know what we are eating? For starters, you can always start with fresh whole food ingredients especially  those that you know the source of. Beyond this, if people do have the free time, do some research. Figure out what you want out of your food, and find the foods that meet your criteria. Make small changes. Instead of buying Yoplait light yogurt, try buying plain nonfat yogurt and adding fresh fruit and agave if necessary to sweeten it. For the same calories you are getting more protein, more calcium, MUCH LESS SUGAR, and more satisfying and healthful ingredients.
I truly hope this helps raise awareness so people do start paying more attention to what they are actually eating vs. what they thought they were.