How health buzzwords trick consumers and create a 'health halo' effect

... like ‘protein’, ‘paleo’ and ‘organic’ are used in marketing as key selling points for many of today’s health products. Yet these words can also trick consumers into believing a product is healthier than it really is.

Inaccurate health messages can be dangerous as they don’t help to educate consumers to make informed choices and are often in conflict with credible, accurate health information.

It is difficult for consumers to differentiate and make healthy choices between products when there is a wide variation in serving sizes and nutritional values. So, increasing the amount of information will not help.

The best way to tackle it is for writers, companies and consumers to ensure that people can understand the context and the information already existing on their labels.