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

Health Buzzwords

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... 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.

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Organic Snacks Aren't Necessarily Healthier Than Junk Food

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huffpost.com

Our increasingly health-conscious society has created more and more of a demand for organic versions of our favorite junk foods ― things like Newman's Own "Oreos" or Annie's boxed mac and cheese ― and American consumers are eating it up . But are these products actually healthier for us than their non-organic equivalents?

Key Ideas

Organic junk food is still junk food

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From a macronutrient perspective, organic junk foods are often identical to their conventional counterparts.

They tend to be equally high in sugar and low in pro...

Organic isn't always healthy

Many organic brands tend to cater to a health-conscious crowd, meaning they’ll often use less processing or healthier ingredients to appeal to their consumers. But the organic label alone does not guarantee this.

The “health halo” effect

It refers to a scientifically researched phenomenon in which certain claims, such as “low fat” or “made with organic ingredients” can lead us to assume a food is healthier or lower in calories.

one more idea

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8 Health Halo Foods That Are Far From Angelic

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everydayhealth.com

Food labels should be like the table of contents of a book -- they should describe what's really inside. Labels represent the link between supermarkets, manufacturers, and consumers, helping supermarkets showcase their goods, enabling manufacturers to inform shoppers about what's contained within their products, and educating consumers about how to make sensible food choices.

Key Ideas

100 Calorie Packs

These pre-portioned packages usually contain little to no nutritional value, and people often eat more than one.

Instead, prepare your own 150 calorie snack by combining almonds and yo...

100% Wheat Bread Or Brown Bread

That doesn’t mean they are made of 100% whole grains. All 3 components (endosperm, germ, and bran) of a grain must be present for it to be classified as a whole grain.

Yogurt

It’s made by adding bacteria to milk, which can soothe several gastrointestinal ailments. But highly sweetened yogurts are like candy in a container instead of a valuable dose of dairy.

Opt for Greek yogurt, which is thicker in texture, and also contains double the amount of protein and less sugar than most yogurts.

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The health halo: how good PR is misleading shoppers

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theguardian.com

Humans show biases in many ways. We are what researchers call cognitive misers, we conceptualise our world using mental shortcuts in an effort to make quicker, more efficient decisions. One area in which we rely on mental shortcuts is food consumption.

Key Ideas

Don’t Believe Healthy Labels

Don’t let your guard down when you see items labeled with healthy-sounding terms and don’t assume there is a correlation between things without proof. Know what you are eating by paying c...

Research On The Health Halo Effect

This effect often leads to consumers confusing “low fat” with “low calorie”, which results in the overconsumption of the former.
When choosing between similar products with different names, consumers prefer products with healthier-sounding names.
If you are eating at a restaurant you believe is healthy, you assume that the food choices you are making are healthy as well.
People who think their meal is healthy are more likely to add side dishes, drinks and desserts, resulting in over twice as many additional calories.
Items marketed by firms known as socially responsible stewards are assumed to be better and healthier products.

The Health Halo Effect

Happens when we overestimate the healthfulness of an item based on a single claim, such as being low in calories or low in fat.

This halo effect makes us more comfortable to eat more than we otherwise would if a product is promoted as low in fat or calories.