Author: Riley Pearce
Director of Social Media
Have you ever found yourself in a grocery aisle when all of a sudden something catches your eye. It reads something along the lines of “Now with more protein!”, “No added sugar!”, “Feel Full Longer”, or “A healthy choice!”
It may seem like everything in the grocery store has some type of health benefit to it, but this would be a great time to not judge a box by its label. Food producers are carefully choosing names and claims that will attract the health conscious consumer because health is on trend.
The psychological phenomena that compels us to buy these products, sometimes without even checking the actual nutrition label, is called the Health Halo. We subconsciously believe that foods that are labelled as organic, local, natural, high protein, low fat, no added sugar, healthy, etc. – are the healthy choice for us.
The issue with the health halo is that once we have purchased it, we don’t show the same moderation with these products as we would be the normal version of them. We assume that because it is the healthier option, we can have more of it and still be healthy.
Ever heard of Halo Top ice cream? This low-calorie frozen dessert, which prints its total calories onto the front of the container, is a hit amongst health and fitness “gurus”. It is touted as the answer to our ice-cream prayers and gives us a chance to truly indulge in salted caramel, or birthday cake flavoured “ice cream”. Even on the label inside the container they tell you to enjoy the whole container – guilt free.
Before the times of Halo Top, eating an entire container of Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerry’s was something we may have only experienced because of heart-break or extreme stress.
With products like Halo Top we know exactly how many calories we are getting ourselves into, and with the promise of “high-protein” we feel no guilt eating it right down to the bottom.
This is where the health halo becomes dangerous. The regulation on these types of health claims can be very weak, meaning that companies can make a claim without anyone fact-checking them. It’s the fake news of the food industry.
Here’s why it gets dangerous for our health. We’ve spoken before about what happened when we took the fat out of food in the late 20th century. Take the fat out, you take away the natural flavour. How do we replace that natural flavour? With processed and refined sugars.
Keep this in mind when you go to buy your next high protein product item. Protein can be flavourless, or sometimes add a chalky element to food. Companies have to add sweeteners, or binders to the product to make it more palatable. If you look at a product like a cliff bar. Yes, they may have up to 20g of protein in them, but how do they taste so good? Turn the cliff bar around and you find out it has 22g of sugar per bar.
For reference – the daily intake suggestion of sugar for women is 25g (6 teaspoons), and for men is 37.5g (9 teaspoons).
Clever packaging and health buzzwords are all there to serve the purpose of convincing us that whatever is inside that bag or box is good for us.
Although it is shocking how many of these products exist on grocery store shelves, it does not mean that it is impossible to make good choices at the grocery store. If you think something looks too good to be true, chances are it is (organic gummy bears are still gummy bears).
To be a smart consumer you should take the next step and turn the box/bag/package around. Look at the nutrition facts and the ingredient list. If it claims to be high protein, but there’s more sugar than protein, it’s a candy bar. If one of the first 5 ingredients is some form of sugar (ends in -ose, or -tol) then there’s probably more sugar in there than you were bargaining for. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for sneaky trans fats, like vegetable oils, canola oil, or safflower oil, to name a few.
Health claims and labels can certainly point us in the direction of healthier items, but just be diligent about ensuring what claims to be healthy truly fits your parameters for healthy.
