Misinformation Causes Frustration: Understanding 3 Types of Food Mis-Information
Its about six weeks into 2021 and its a good time to re-evaluate your health and wellness goals, is what you’re doing really working? Is the plan you’re on really holding up its promises?
If you are struggling with your objectives and you’ve been sticking to the plan you may want to evaluate if you’ve been misguided by health and wellness misinformation. If you’ve been dooped by the savvy marketing experts of the health and wellness industry, you’re not alone, and there is hope…you just need to know what you’re looking for!
The wellness industry is a 4.7 Trillion dollar, rapidly growing business sector.[1] This means that people are becoming increasingly interested in the health and wellbeing of themselves, their families and the world at large. Yey! This also means that many companies are trying their hardest to get in on the action! Businesses can cash in on some sketchy tactics to gobble up your wellness budget, including the use of misinformation. So what does this misinformation look like?
Food Fads
According to the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), food fads, “involve unreasonable or exaggerated beliefs that eating specific foods, nutrient supplements, or combinations of certain foods may cure disease, convey special health benefits, or offer quick weight loss." Two examples of a “food fads” are the Military Diet and the Grape fruit and black coffee diet. Neither of these diets are proven effective for long term weight loss and can be detrimental to one’s health.
Health Fraud
The American Dietetics Association (ADA) defines health fraud as, “promotion for financial gain, a health remedy that doesn’t work- or hasn’t yet been proved to work.” [2] The Food and Drug Administration provides some helpful tips to avoid heath fraud and its dangers! Two examples of health fraud are some popular quick fix weight loss pills and product based diets. Hydroxycut, had many products recalled by the FDA as use was associated with severe liver damage.[3] Many weight loss pills and supplements have been pulled from the market found to contain sibutramine, an effective appetite suppressant, associated with cardiovascular events and stroke. Health fraud can also take a different form where a particular diet promotes "fast weight loss," but only if you buy their products, for example, the Special K diet.
Misdirected Claims
A misdirected claim is something that, “lead consumers to make incorrect inferences or generalizations about the health benefits of food.” This type of claim misdirects consumers by leading them to believe that the foods are more healthful than is the case. ”[2] Two examples of this type of misinformation are products labeled “made with whole grain” and “excellent source of fiber.” More often products that advertise these claims are technically made with whole grains but this could mean that within a whole vat of product, one cup of whole grain was thrown into the mix. Alternatively, just because a product may be made of 100% whole grain, it doesn’t mean it is free from added sugars, preservatives and other harmful ingredients that could be damaging to your health. Many products that claim to be an “excellent source of fiber” pail in comparison to whole plant foods and do not contain naturally occurring fibers such as those found in fruit, vegetables, grains, beans etc. Many of these products contain synthetic fiber that has not been shown to produce any of the same health benefits as naturally occurring fiber sources.[4-5]
Taking control of your health
Knowledge is power. Use this information to avoid frustration and think twice about the products you buy… advertisements cant fool you now!
Whole Foods are Best When buying products, it is best to follow a whole foods approach to avoid assaulting your body with unwanted additives. When looking at your shopping cart, try to decrease or eliminate packaged foods…consider it a challenge!
Start from Scratch The only way to truly know every ingredient in your food is to grow at home and cook from scratch. Food additives are even applied to produce in some cases to improve color, flavor and increase shelf life.
Get back to Basics The basics of health and wellness are centered around whole foods, proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, hydration, stress management and sense of purpose. You don’t need a fancy program, shakes, gizmos and gadgets to cover the basics.
Small Steps Count Stay calm cool and collected, this stuff can be overwhelming and if you’re like me you want to do EVERYTHING at once. Take it from an expert at failing - you don’t want to make this hard and overwhelming - small changes add up over time as long as you stick to them. Accomplish one small change and only move on to the next once you feel comfortable.
For some really great product examples that may help sharpen your shopping skills, check out this blog post by Modern Health Monk, and share your questions or comments below!
References
Global Wellness Institute: Statistics & Facts. Accessed Feb 01, 2021. https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/press-room/statistics-and-facts/
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. https://jandonline.org/article/S0002-8223(06)00202-1/fulltext . Accessed February 01, 2021.
Dara, L., Hewett, J., Kartaik Lim, J. Hydroxycut Hepatotoxicity: a case series and review of liver toxicity from herbal weight loss supplements. World J Gastroenterol. 2008 Dec 7;14(45):6999-7004.
How to Diet: Is Adding Processed Fiber to Foods Beneficial? Nutrition Action. Published September 29, 2014. Accessed February 17, 2021. https://www.nutritionaction.com/daily/how-to-diet/how-to-diet-is-adding-processed-fiber-to-foods-beneficial/
The FDA Will Decide Whether 26 Ingredients Count As Fiber. NPR.org. Accessed February 17, 2021. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/10/23/558761819/the-fda-will-decide-if-these-26-ingredients-count-as-fiber