SHOULD WE BUY food with health claims on the label?
These days, we are seeing more and more health claims that go beyond the usual. These include “trans fat-free,” “gluten-free,” “heart healthy,” and foods spiked with vitamins, such as my new favorite: Diet Coke Plus, with vitamins and minerals.
We see whole-grain Pop Tarts and Tyson chicken with misleading labels such as “raised without antibiotics.” We see natural sweeteners called Sweet Fiber. We see whole-grain Cheerios that are still full of sugar.
Now you can get “health food” like salads at McDonald’s, but with salad dressings that have more calories than a Big Mac.
And we also see antioxidant-spiked junk food and ginkgo-spiked energy drinks.
What should we make of all these marketing claims? Do they provide any benefit?
In Michael Pollan’s new book “In Defense of Food,” he rails against the notion of “nutritionism,” the idea that we can single out nutrients from whole foods, add them back to processed food, or take them as supplements, and achieve health benefits.
His point is very well taken.
We must be very careful to avoid the marketing ploys of the food industry, which wants to trick us into eating more junk food by putting it in friendlier packaging.
Make no mistake.
These foods are still wolves in sheep’s clothing.
I encourage you to eat food that comes from a farmer’s field and not a food chemist’s laboratory…
We need to be very wary of any food that comes in a package, box, or a can. That is not to say that there are not some good whole foods that are available in boxes, packages, or cans.
However, most of what is available in the marketplace is simply not real food.
A recent patient of mine is a food scientist who works for a large food industry company. His job is to invent and create new foods in the laboratory by mixing food and chemicals to create certain tastes and flavors that mimic real food or that stimulate appetite and satisfy our need for various tastes.
Think of these as “Frankenfoods.”
My patient became quite sick from handling these compounds and chemicals everyday. I have been working hard to get him to not only stop eating processed food, but also to stop playing with it.
He wore a funny T-shirt to my office, which listed the top 10 reasons to major in food science, a scientific discipline that teaches people how to invent foods for the food industry.
According to his shirt, here are the top 10 reasons to become a food scientist:
- Eat ice cream for breakfast and get credit for it.
- We are in it for the dough.
- Grocery shopping is research instead of a chore.
- We get to eat the results of our research project.
- Because hairnets are a fashion statement.
- Because we know what is really in your hot dogs.
- Not only do we know how to drink beer, we can make it.
- Cheese, yogurt, and buttermilk — who says we are not cultured?
- As long as you are eating, we will be working.
- We have not stopped playing with our food and now we are playing with yours.
He gave me an industry trade journal called “Food Business News,” which I found very enlightening.
I was shocked to read the very careful and deliberate marketing ploys used to gain a foothold in our increasingly health conscious market.
The advice to the food industry was clear: Modify packaging and ingredients in food just slightly to give the impression of health, while continuing to provide poor-quality, nutrient-poor, calorie-dense foods.
For example, there was an ad for Food Ingredient Solutions, a company that provides new types of food coloring. This allows manufacturers to color junk food with natural pigments, which can replace the artificial coloring used in tablets, coatings, pan confections, rubs, sauces, and more.
Who are they fooling?
Tyson Foods cleverly labels their chicken as “produced without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans,” meaning they did use antibiotics — just not ones that cause problems in humans.
Conagra, which has been losing money, is creating a food line called Healthy Choice Steamers.
Another article documented a company called Fitch Ratings who said that innovation in the food industry will continue in areas of “perceived” health and wellness, convenience, and ethnic products.
Read that carefully.
“Perceived” health and wellness — not actual health and wellness.
As long as you make people think they are getting something healthy, that is good enough — even if it is the same old junk food.
Other new junk foods include allergy-free junk foods and energy drinks. There was also an article about Lean Pockets. This company now offers whole-grain pocket sandwiches, which are still full of chemicals and processed food, but now have a few more flecks of fiber to give the illusion of a health food.
There is even an ad for something called Vegi Pure, a compound designed for cholesterol reduction that puts plant phytosterols in sugary junk food!
So what’s the bottom line?
As I have always said, if it has a label, do not eat it. And as Michael Pollan says, “Eat food [meaning real, whole food]. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
We have to be very cautious as consumers to recognize label claims for health benefits on processed foods, which sprinkle miniscule, non-therapeutic amounts of healthful ingredients into otherwise poor-quality, high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods, giving us the illusion that we are doing something good for ourselves.
I encourage you to eat food that comes from a farmer’s field and not a food chemist’s laboratory — and you will not have to worry about all these functional food claims.
Here is what to eat:
- Whole, real food such as vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, lean animal protein like small wild fish and poultry, and whole omega-3 eggs.
- Small amounts of grass-fed, antibiotic- and hormone-free beef or lamb.
That is it.
Food scientists tend to make us think that we need all these special ingredients in foods to stay healthy.
Bu they are just extracting them from real, whole foods — so why not start with the whole food in the first place?
Now I’d like to hear from you…
Have you sampled any of these “Frankenfoods”?
What did you think of them?
Why do you think the food industry is trying to make junk food seem healthier?
Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
Dr. Hyman,
1. I no longer use “better living through chemistry” food stuffs. Since I subscribe to macrobiotics as a diet regimen, anything with a label is verboten.
2. Now that I only eat organic fruits I can taste the chemicals in non-organics. Blech!
3. Oh, gee, why does Mad Ave do anything? $$$$$$$!
Thanks to my current diet I have lost in excess of 100 pounds and feel better than ever. No more joint pain, shortness of breath, etc. I believe the argument that the ‘American diet’ is the cause of cancer, high blood pressure and heat disease among other incurable illnesses. It would be nice if we didn’t pass these pleasant experiences along to other cultures…McDonald’s in Tokyo! A sin.
It’s frightening how we have allowed Frankenfoods to become the norm. (emphasis on WE HAVE ALLOWED)
Unfortunately, the choice between processed and whole food is often made because people think that processed=easy and whole foods=difficult and time consuming to prepare. Not necessarily true. Consumers have also been quick to take the clever wording of marketing folks and believe that a food is “healthy” because they use the current and popular buzz-words.
It will take consumers voting by the use of their grocery dollars to make the changes we need in our food systems. Vote wisely.
Dr. Lendon Smith gave us a phrase to live by decades ago, “eat foods that rot, but eat them before they do.” A little good old-fashioned common sense doesn’t hurt either!
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I have been studying this idea of processed food being healthy–what a joke! As a high school teacher, I have given homework to students asking them to find the most dishonest food label they can find and bring it in. This after we discuss what foods are NOT healthy (processed) and those that are. I was AMAZED at the false advertising/misleading labels out there–and so were my students! There should be laws protecting consumers. We could lower our debts by taking this garbage off the market–then health care would not be nearly as expensive!!!!!
I am a very healthy eater-no packaged food, etc-BUT-I am wondering and I would like an answer-what is in the fruits and veggies from the store that keep forever in the fridge-ALL NATURAL-NO PESTICIDES labeled products-berries, apples. (one apple stayed FRESH for 4 months). Now when mine (grown at home, harvested in June, July, etc.), mold and spoil within days even though they are in the fridge. WHAT AM I PUTTING IN MY MOUTH? Please help-I don’t think I’m buying REAL food-am I?
Hi Kathy, thank you for your interest in Dr. Hyman’s website and for your comment. The only way you can know how your food is grown is by knowing the source. It is best to buy from farmer’s markets when you can to ensure this.
Wishing You the Best of Health!
Thank you Dr. Hyman for your tireless efforts on behalf of what is right. Apparently, this is near-impossible for many of the nation’s businesses, but the food industry (along with pharmaceuticals) has no conscience when it comes to deceit……………….a moral wrong in any setting. I think this is CRITICAL in our role as consumers, not only to hold the food industry accountable for truth, but also to refuse to buy their “trash” no matter how they describe it or picture it. Our tolerance for deceit and the art of loop-hole creating is astounding. Even the slightest pressure on false and dangerous food salesmen gets them right where they live. Case in point is the recent deceptive and massively expensive ad campaign (referenced by you earlier) on the untrue “benign effects of corn syrup”. It takes more than reading labels……..it takes education and enlightenment, and willingness all of which you are so generous to share. Schools and institutions are also beginning to respond to pressure from consumers to offer healthier choices. Now if we can only couple that with being examples of a higher moral conduct ourselves(e.g., lying, cheating, stealing are wrong, even if you do have deep pockets and endless supplies of money) and what we are willing to tolerate……………it just might raise the awareness of exactly how easy it really is for the faceless food industry to slowly kill our children, our aging parents and ourselves…..one box of”whatever” at a time. With groans and whining from the house full of football players that rummage through my pantries weekly, I still refuse to cave-in to the demand for fake food when it would be so much easier to buy it in bulk, pass it out and be done. They tell my boys that we have “old people food’ at our house. Ha! (Fruits, vegetables, salads made up in the fridge, salmon patties, raw nut snacks, etc.). But………………………………………………it all still disappears!
Gratefully, Karen H.
We the People really do have the power, and have always had it. I lies in our wallets. The markets in my area are responding to this fact a bit at a time. I stand in line & tell folks about the poison they are purchasing (like Splenda, etc), & many times they will return it to the shelf. Lots of education, sharing what we know, not hitting people over the head with it, & especially using our power to boycott the obscene corporations whose only concern is the almighty dollar. Thank-you Dr. Hyman for sharing.
RE: buying food from Farmers Markets-I have stopped in several Farmers Mkt here in Central PA and asked them if they used pesticides on their fruits/veggies and the answer I got was “yes-how do you think we keep the bugs off “. (Yes-we have a lot of bugs out here). SO don’t assume just because the food is at the Farmers Mkt-it had no pesticides on it. I guess the only way to eat, is to be sure you scrub your foods and I only eat the ones I can peel-I know I’m going to miss out on a lot but I’ll continue to grow my own and peel the ones I buy
I try to eat healthy and cut out A’s much processed food A’s possible but it’s hard
When there is no health food store or farmers market anywhere near I live. I thought about ordering online, and it’s so expensive. and also if it says all natural, does that mean no colors or preservatives.
Hi Jennifer, thank you for your comment. If you have space to grow your own foods that would be a good option or check with your local grocery to see where they get their produce from. Sometimes communities have coops where you can buy food from your neighbors who do have gardens. Eat as healthy as you can where you live and try to avoid artifical coloring and preservatives when possible.
Wishing you the best of heath!
Wouldn’t it be true to say that Omega-3 eggs could qualify as “processed” food? The chicken feed is augmented with a source of omega-3, but how pure and clean is that source – there are so many different sources of omega-3 and some are better than others. It is an interesting question to ask, correct? My approach is that I’d like to get my omega-3 directly from a clean source of oil like krill, walnuts, sardines, flax seeds and even vegans can obtain omega-3s from Neuromins DHA, a product which is extracted from carefully grown microalgae. Why not eat eggs that are free-range, pastured-raised, organically fed and get your omega-3 directly from one of these other foods that I’ve listed?
I work at a food co-op in CO where we are labeling our non-GMO food choices. Being an avid label reader, it is amazing the deception we have to deal with on labels. Recently for example while doing product research (I’m in charge of that), I researched Evol Foods where their website claims “no GMO ingredients” but after looking closer at their “vegetarian fed, free range chicken” I contacted them and found out NO they were not sourcing chickens fed non GMO or organic feed. So their claim on their website is wrong if you believe like I do that if a chicken eats GMO food and lays eggs, that all these products ARE GMO as I believe these GMOs stay in your body and could have health consequences. Labels like “70% organic” are always curious-what’s the other stuff!? And things like “no added MSG” have always confused me. And it GALLS me that the hormone free dairy products have to still have the disclaimer that there has been no proven difference between these and the non-hormone ones. Funny how Monsanto et al claim their “substantial equivalent” BS unless they are on their way to the patent office to patent something because it is so different. Be careful in all stores, not just the “natural” ones. Everything has pretty much been taken over by chemical companies and industry consolidation….
“These include “trans fat-free,” “gluten-free,” “heart healthy,” [...]”
I have coeliac disease, so I’m not happy to hear a respected health ‘expert’ categorizing gluten-free food as something that just pretends to be healthier. For people with coeliac disease, there is a very real health benefit in eating gluten-free foods: it prevents the nasty reaction we would have if we ate the same product made with wheat, oats, barley or rye.
Obviously, that doesn’t make choc-chip cookies and foods like that ‘healthy’ in any absolute sense, and the people who don’t have coeliac disease or gluten intolerance who buy GF cookies because they’re ‘healthier’ are kidding themselves. But if us coeliacs want to eat junk occasionally, eating the GF version is vital to our health. (And for what it’s worth, I appreciate the efforts of the non-coeliac GF cookie eaters in keeping them on supermarket shelves; I don’t buy nearly enough to make it profitable enough for the stores to keep stocking them!)
But not all gluten-free foods are cookies, and for some of us gluten-free foods in packets are essential to have a reasonably healthy diet. For example, I often eat bought GF crackers with home-made cheese; I use a commercial GF bread flour to make bread at home; and GF pasta is eaten with made-from-scratch sauces, sometimes using tomatoes canned from my own garden. I’ve experimented a lot with gluten-free cooking, and in my experience some carefully-chosen pre-packaged ‘staples’ are essential to turn fresh food into homemade meals that are tasty and can be prepared in a reasonable amount of time, in my experience.
So no, I don’t agree that all pre-packaged food is automatically unhealthy (although I do agree that any meal that’s entirely pre-packaged probably is) and I don’t agree that gluten-free is a meaningless marketing tool; for some of us, it is genuinely much healthier.