Are ‘fat free’, ‘cholesterol free’ foods really healthy?

Aditya had very unorthodox eating habits, that can be attributed to eating a lot of junk food. He was very fond of Italian and Chinese cuisine. During the beginning of the year, Aditya started experiencing acute pain in the right side of abdomen. The physician he consulted asked him to get an ultrasound done. As per the ultrasound report, he was diagnosed with Grade-I Fatty Liver. He immediately decided to cut off all the junk from his meal and shift to a healthy diet.

In another case, Shilpi, a 19-year-old college girl was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). Her gynaec suggested her to immediately opt for a healthy regime, which she followed along with routine exercise.

But in both the aforementioned cases, both Shilpi and Aditya were finding it very difficult to lose even 2-3 kilos. Where did they go wrong? They made a blunder while following their supposedly healthy regime- they fell for fancy words like ‘Fat Free’, ‘Cholesterol Free’, ‘Nutritious’, ‘Added with extra vitamins and minerals’.

The new trend of selling food with FANCY WORDS

Any youngster can be heard saying that, ‘gone are the days when only home cooked foods were healthy’. This is a common belief that many giants have jumped in the food market and different types of food products/ eatables are being manufactured that can be put in the healthy category. There are vast variety of products which are being manufactured in order to cater to the block looking for healthy food outside.

I, myself or many of us, in our endeavour to eat something healthy often buy products labelled ‘healthy’, or ‘fat-free’, ‘low calories’, ‘organic’ among others. But are these products actually delivering what they promise on the label, or once again humankind has become a victim to another market strategy.

How ads fools in this case?

Marketing and advertisement have drastically changed everything from making important choices to experiencing life. What marketing has also affected a lot is how we eat and what we eat. Remember how consuming junk food became a part of pop culture. All due to ads. Once again millions are getting fooled due to ads.

A study conducted at the Jack Valenti School of Communication at UH titled Truth, Lies, and Packaging: How Food Marketing creates a false sense of Health revealed the impact of ‘healthy’ labels being used by marketers. During the research, each time a participant saw one of the triggering words on a label, they would identify it as healthier than the other image without the respective word.

This is exactly what is happening with the common masses. They are looking out for healthier options; they get triggered by the buzzwords and end up buying something that is not at all healthy in the name of health.

Some Examples that can blow your mind:-

Low Fat/ Zero Trans Fat

The most consumers pick the packet on which is being written FAT FREE/TRANS FAT FREE. However, in the low-fat version it is nowhere mentioned how much lower in fat it is in comparison to the original. As if there is not a considerable difference, it is always better to eat a small portion of the original rather than a large portion of the low-fat version.

As per the law, a product that contains below 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving can be labelled as ‘zero trans-fat’. If you are sticking to just one serving of food with this label, it’s okay. But if you are going to eat more than one serving, then some trans-fat will definitely make its way into your system, which can raise your bad cholesterol level, lower your good cholesterol level and increase the risk of heart disease.

Sugar-Free/Low Sugar

A lot of products are sold in the name of being sugar free, which are also marketed as diet friendly foods. Marketers proudly claim on their labels that they contain no sugar and are still sweet or have ‘great taste’. However, a little effort and you know it all. A little sneak peek onto the labels of the packaged food will show an addition of either honey or high fructose corn syrup, malt, dextrin, saccharine, or even sugar alcohols like maltitol or sorbitol.

The products marketed as absence of sugar, does not mean absence of sugar calories. The product with ‘no added sugar’ may not contain any sweetener, but could still contain sugar in the form of fruits that are part of the ingredients.

Also Read- We can live for at least 150 years, provided we go back to our ancient way of life

Gluten-Free/Lite-Light

What the era of social media does, is that it ends with a lot of information. The newest enemy in the era of content is Gluten. Gluten is being blamed for digestive problems, weight issues, gas, indigestion and everything you can possibly think of. Mild amount of gluten is necessary for survival. As gluten is a protein that is basically present in wheat products, barley or rye. But some brands are even selling the products not made of wheat or it’s like for higher prices by just calling it gluten free, for instance some sell- gluten free water and you go like, koi logic hai iss bat ka?

The next marketing mania is related to the term Light or Lite. It is claimed that the variety which contains the ‘lite’ label would contain less calorie and can be eaten without worrying about your health. Many times, a gram of fat is replaced with sugar and is sold with the label of LITE.

Many times, sugary junk drinks are seen carrying labels like good sources of iron, calcium etc. But actually, these drinks are loaded with sugar and many times they are fortified, thus showing only the goods and hiding the negatives. Many products that claim to be healthy contain a huge amount of sodium that ultimately causes severe ailments.

What nutrition labels or these buzzwords do is they relax you mentally, by making you feel that what you are consuming causes no damage and hence can be eaten in any amount. This is how labels interfere with our psyche and end up causing more harm than good.

All that can save us in this chaos is reading the label correctly and eating mindfully.