Healthy or hype? What food labels don’t tell you

PERFECTLY FINE, SOFT AND WHITE, HEALTHY AND TASTY MAIDA.

Emami says so. 

There is a glut of 'healthy this and healthy that' in the market. 

Because the consumer is most gullible, they barely read the front of the pack, forget the back of the pack, and are easy to fool into believing it's healthy by using health clichés like: 

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1) Protein snacks

2) Ragi chips, oats and honey, fibre-rich

3) Baked, not fried

4) No palm oil

5) Lite snacks

6) HEALTHY AND TASTY 

7) The healthy

8) Low calorie 

9) No sugar

10) Cholesterol-free 

No one asks: 

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1) If not palm oil, then what? How many times has that so-called healthy oil been reused? 

2) Low calorie, but how much fat?

3) Baked, but what is the oil content?

4) Lite... by whose standards?

5) How much ragi, oats or honey

and funniest ever...

😂

What exactly makes soft and white, perfectly fine maida... healthy???? 

I'm reading: 

WHY YOU EAT WHAT YOU EAT. By Rachel Herz.

Some learnings (and excerpts) from the book:

HEALTH DECLARATIONS ARE ACTUALLY MAKING YOU MORE UNHEALTHY. 

▪️Three 'reduced fat' and free regular Oreos both contain 14 grams of sugar; regular Oreos have 160 calories versus 150 calories for the reduced-fat variety.

▪️ Consumers who read 'healthy ingredients' on the pack ate 35% more than when they were told that the same cookies were 'new gourmet cookies made with fresh butter and old-fashioned brown sugar'. 

VERY INTERESTING RESEARCH:

▪️ Weight-conscious individuals were asked to estimate how many calories were in a pepperoni cheese steak; the average guess was 840 calories. But when that same cheesesteak was shown on a plate beside a few celery and carrot sticks, the average guess dropped to 714 calories. 

That's a 15% decrease in perceived calories elicited merely by the presence of a healthy garnish. 

By contrast, the drop in perceived calories between a cheese steak alone and when it was accompanied by the veggies was only 2% for people who were not watching their weight. 

THE REASON WEIGHT WATCHERS UNDERESTIMATE CALORIES WHEN HIGH-CALORIE FOOD IS PRESENTED WITH THE HEALTHY SIDE IS BECAUSE THEIR DIET PREOCCUPATION MAKES THEM PRONE TO CLASSIFYING FOODS INTO VIRTUES VERSUS VICES. 

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Here is an idea for a food and beverage brand to play in a territory still left entirely virgin. 

🤤🥮🥧

◾Play up gorgeous rich taste and ingredients. 

◾Then challenge people to compare its health score vs everything that claims health!!! 

When everyone goes zig ... 

You go, Zag!! 

(Our guest author, Vani Gupta Dandia, is a seasoned consultant in consumer sales and marketing with over 27 years of experience across leading global and Indian brands. She has held senior roles at PepsiCo, Unilever, and KPMG, and is currently the founder of CherryPeachPlum, advising numerous brands on growth strategy.)