The Deception of Healthy Food Products: Introduction

(A Blog Series by Chef Maika)
Health has always been an issue in American society. We have gone far as to create ridiculous machines to fad diets. For example, eat only a grapefruit daily to lose weight. In addition, we have gone from simply knowing “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” to having a bowl of Wheaties to be healthy and strong like Michael Jordan and other well known athletes. Fad Diet Crazes have become popular in the late 20st Century with books like “The South Beach Diet” and “The Atkins Diet”. The food industries like Kraft have hopped on the bandwagon by creating convenient healthy packaged meals like South Beach Living. Now just imagine, staring with their eyes piercing down below from their high towers, CEOs of great food industry companies breathing with the desire and undying will to find out what the next new demand is going to be out there in the bustling world below and how they can get a piece of the money pie. From various market research presentations coming in and out of their office, they have come to the conclusion of the growing health marketing trend. Marketers are now doing everything in their will power from creating to changing old products to deceiving products to appeal to the large health conscious consumer segment that seems to be growing rapidly every day. But what does that mean for us, the health conscious consumer? Ever heard of “Buyers Beware”? Simply this: We can no longer go by what manufactures say on their pretty packaged labels to stay healthy. Health conscious consumers will benefit more by becoming more aware of these marketing tactics and learn how to decipher health food labels and ingredients lists by knowing how to decode manufactures’ wordings.