Today the markets are flooded with numerous food options which are both tempting and confusing at the same time. Many people get tempted by labels such as no trans-fat, gluten free, sugar free etc that suggest a product could be particularly nutritious.
But the researchers have found that these labels could be misleading shoppers into thinking they are eating well. Health related buzzwords – such as ‘antioxidant,’ ‘gluten-free’ and ‘wholegrain’ – lull shoppers into thinking products labelled with these words are healthier than they actually are. People pick up products labelled with health-related terms such as whole wheat, sugar free, gluten free etc than those without them.
The researchers said that food marketers are exploiting consumer desires to be healthy by marketing products as nutritious when, in fact, they’re not.’The false sense of health facts and failure to understand the complete information mentioned on the pack leads to obesity.
Team AAW also asked few ladies about the products they pick from the department store during the monthly grocery shopping.
“Both my kids are fitness freak so I make sure that I pick only healthy and nutritious items minus sugar , trans-fat and are whole wheat”, says a 50 year old housewife while on the other hand Rupam, a 29 year old working professional believes that I opt for things I like and don’t pay attention on the health related terms as I know they are just to fool the customers.
“Today everyone wants to stay fit to look beautiful and food companies are taking advantage of this , I don’t say that food products with health labels are completely false but that’s just half the information. A food high in calcium and protein can be high in sugar and carbohydrates too ,so always read out the nutritional facts given at the back of the pack to get the complete information” says a fitness expert.
Team AAW requests all its readers not to get cajoled by health related buzzwords and read out the nutrition facts properly before purchasing any product as little information can be harmful for health.
