15 Health Claims on Food Labels That Are Total BS — Sorry!
Grocery stores offers so many different options for one specific type of food, meaning that you probably spend much of your time reading labels and trying to decide which brand to buy. Not only does the food industry know this, but they're eager to take advantage of it. Just look at all the bogus health claims on food labels. According to Statista, There's an especially big market for healthy foods out there. In fact, one 2019 survey found that 53 percent of Americans seek out healthier options at the store.
The reality is that many of the health claims on labels are actually just marketing terms that, well, don't really mean anything at all. Some of these words or phrases started out meaning one thing, but due to loose regulations or over-use, have now become pretty useless. If you're trying to make healthier choices, it might be better to ignore the splashy words and focus on the key elements on food labels, like fiber, fat, and sugar content. And definitely don't pay attention to these health claims that don't mean anything.
In the case of food labels, all-natural does not equal healthy. Or anything for that matter; the term is over-used, unregulated, and undefined. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) even had to respond to a petition on the idea of using the word "natural" as a marketing term, especially on processed foods.
Its official stance? "The FDA has considered the term 'natural' to mean that nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food."
On paper, "multigrain" sounds great — certainly healthier than a white flour product, right? Multigrain simply means that there is more than one type of grain in the food you're looking at, not that the grains in there are healthy.
Free radicals are compounds in your body that, if they become too high, can cause various illnesses like diabetes and cancer, according to Very Well Health. Antioxidants are molecules that fight these free radicals. So, yes, antioxidants are really good for you. But many brands have started plastering the word on everything from cereal boxes to granola bars.
The truth is that antioxidants are best when found in whole foods, like blueberries, raspberries, and kale. If you see the word on processed food, it's really meaningless.
You've probably seen plenty of foods with bold letters that say something like "good source of fiber" or "good source of calcium." That sounds great, but according to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, all it really means is that the food contains as little as 10% of the daily value. That's actually quite a small amount, so don't get too excited over it.
When you see the word "artisanal" on something, like a box of cookies or crackers, you might assume that means they're fancy or at least prepared in a better way. But artisanal means a food has been prepared in limited batches in a traditional or non-mechanized way. It's not regulated as a food label, so if you don't know the history behind the brand and exactly how they make food, there's a good chance they just threw that word on there to make the product sound better.
"Free-range chicken" might conjure up an image of chickens happily running around a large farm before meeting their fate. Unfortunately, this isn't usually the case. According to Certified Humane, the only requirement to use the word "free-range" is that the farm gives chickens an undefined amount of access to an outdoor area. For some, this means just having a "pop hole" where they can't even get their full bodies outside. Basically, it's not always as good as it sounds.
You'll often find the phrase "made with real fruit" on a bag of candy, making it seem like the item made with actual fruit. What it actually means is that only a very small amount of the fruit is there, according to WebMD, and it often just refers to fruit juice concentrate. If you see that claim, read the ingredients list — if it actually does have a lot of fruit in there, the fruit will be named at the top of the list.
The term "sugar free" will lead you to believe that there is zero sugar in whatever you're about to buy or ingest. But according to the FDA guidelines, "sugar free" means a food must contain less than 0.5 grams of sugar. Not only does this mean a small amount of sugar can still be in the product, but it also doesn't cover certain sweeteners, like agave, brown rice syrup, or sugar alcohols.
Like "all natural," the word "organic" as a food label has become so over-used that it's hard to know if it ever means anything anymore. For a food to be labeled "organic," it has to contain a minimum of 95 percent organic ingredients. For it to say "made with organic ingredients," it has to contain at least 70 percent organically produced ingredients.
According to Consumer Reports' Greener Choices handbook, saying a product is "pasture-raised" doesn't require any third-party verification or on-farm inspection. Instead of looking for "free range" or "pasture-raised," look for "grass fed." You can also look for "pasture-raised" along with the terms "organic" and "certified humane."
The term "fat-free" means that a food has no fat or a very small amount of fat. And although that sounds ideal, this doesn't always translate to healthy. Spruce Eats note that, in order to get the food to taste good, many fat-free options are higher in sugar, carbs, and preservatives, and can be more processed. Cutting out fat isn't a necessary part of getting healthy.
Many people know that a superfood typically applies to a nutritionally dense food, like kale, spinach, or blueberries. But "superfood" is only a marketing term, a buzzword to make something sound super healthy. It's not a regulated term, meaning it can basically be slapped on anything, even if the "superfood" is barely in there.
When a food says "no artificial colors" or "no artificial flavors" that doesn't mean that it doesn't contain anything artificial. If it says "no artificial colors," there can still be artificial flavors, and vice versa. It just doesn't actually mean anything important.
If something like a loaf of bread says "made with whole grains," this could mean that only a small part of that bread is made with whole grains. According to the Whole Grain Council, "whole grains" can be stamped onto any product with just a tiny amount of whole grains in it, meaning the produce may not be any healthier than it seems. Look for "100% whole grains" instead.
When you see "lightly sweetened," you might expect the product to still be sweet, just not as sugary as it could be. Actually, "lightly sweetened" is not a regulated term and could literally mean anything. Read the nutritional label for the truth.
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15 Health Claims on Food Labels That Are Total BS — Sorry!
Grocery stores offers so many different options for one specific type of food, meaning that you probably spend much of your time reading labels and trying to decide which brand to buy. Not only does the food industry know this, but they're eager to take advantage of it. Just look at all the bogus health claims on food labels. According to Statista, There's an especially big market for healthy foods out there. In fact, one 2019 survey found that 53 percent of Americans seek out healthier options at the store.
The reality is that many of the health claims on labels are actually just marketing terms that, well, don't really mean anything at all. Some of these words or phrases started out meaning one thing, but due to loose regulations or over-use, have now become pretty useless. If you're trying to make healthier choices, it might be better to ignore the splashy words and focus on the key elements on food labels, like fiber, fat, and sugar content. And definitely don't pay attention to these health claims that don't mean anything.
Don't be tricked into buying something that sounds like it's good for you!
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