Don't be Duped!!!

It says "healthy" right on the label. It screams "nutritious!" all over the packaging. From cereal to crackers, soup to yogurt, manufacturers are hyping a range of "healthy" products with slick marketing campaigns. But do most packaged health foods really live up to their advertising?

We say no way. We believe that food-makers, more committed to profits than nutrition, have resorted to despicable marketing practices to seduce consumers into purchasing their products. They use deceptive language and endless gimmicks to convince busy and overloaded shoppers that their packaged, processed foods are “good for them”.

One major grocery chain was fed up with deceptive labeling on the part of food-makers and took matters into its own hands, using a rating system to grade a wide range of packaged food and beverage products. The results may shock you. According to the New England-based chain, Hannaford Brothers, the results of its review of more than 27,000 popular supermarket products showed 77% of the so-called "health foods" available in its stores received a zero-star rating on their 1-3 rating scale. Among the "healthy" items to flunk out were many of America's most popular brands, including Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, Campbell's soups, and Yoplait and Dannon yogurt.

A part of the reason the marketing works is simple; even when consumers bother to read the labels on what they're eating, most lack the nutritional background to understand or make use of the information. That finding comes courtesy of a new Vanderbilt University study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers surveyed a sampling of 200 primary care patients, finding that less than one-third could glean helpful information from food labels.

Adding to the problem is the reality that most of us WANT to believe that the convenient foods on the grocery store shelves are OK for our families. We are overloaded and overwhelmed. We are desperate for some kind of solution that will make healthy eating, well, easier. So, we leave common sense behind and collude with advertisers in a game of deception that may be costing us our health and well being.

This is the reality that caused the Principals of Forget Perfect… NOW to declare “enough already” and begin a journey to educate and support families so that they can reclaim the possibility of a healthy lifestyle.

Each week we will present another “marketing label” that is frequently used to mislead consumers into believing they are making healthy choices when they are not. Please use them to make better choices in selecting food that will nourish and support the health of your family.