the food marketing myths we’ve swallowed whole

[robert99]

Take it with a pinch of salt – the food marketing myths we’ve swallowed whole
What came first, the chicken-is-healthy study or the eggs-are-unhealthy study? Nutritional advice is notoriously nebulous, and food groups regularly alternate between demonisation and deification. Fat makes you fat; fat makes you thin; carbs are basically crack; carbs are back. Corporate agendas are behind much of this confusion. But, more worryingly, they’re also behind many of the food “facts” we take for granted. Much conventional health wisdom is actually commercialised wisdom: the result of canny marketing campaigns or industry-funded studies. Even if you think you’re above advertising, immune to the seductions of pseudoscience, you would be surprised how many marketing myths you may have inadvertently swallowed.

 

[Andy_T]

That one is awesome!

The military-industrial-carrot complex
Some food myths go deep into the upper levels of government. The idea that carrots imbue you with night vision originated in the second world war, when the British government dealt with an oversupply of carrots via propaganda suggesting carotene was the source of the RAF’s night-flying abilities. The actual source was radar, but that was sort of classified. It’s unlikely the Luftwaffe bought the carrot-vision story, but the British public did and millions of carrots were consumed in the hope of being able to see better in a blackout.

 

[Amy SF]

The carrots make you see better idea has been popular in the US, too. I once read about American soldiers in WWII who ate lots of carrots hoping it would allow them to become pilots, and one young soldier hoping to become a pilot who ate so many carrots that his skin turned briefly, but brightly, orange.

It's interesting that there's no mention of milk in the article. When I was growing up, milk was called "the perfect food", and nobody challenged that idea. I suspect it was mainly dairy industry marketing that gave us the idea that milk contained all the nutrients one needed. My mother totally believed it, and since I was always pale and skinny, she forced me to drink it. However, I always hated milk, all kinds (but especially nonfat, yuck). It made me gag and the only way I could take it was either added to cereal or mixed with Hershey's chocolate syrup. It wasn't until I was an adult living on my own that I finally rebelled and switched to plant milks for my cereal. Even with plant milks, I only buy it for my cereal.

Edited to add: In fact, I've noticed that, with the exception of blaming bacon for the belief in breakfast as an important meal (WHICH IT IS because a healthy breakfast gives you enough energy to sustain you for several hours), the targets of the article are all food and beverage items that veg*ans have no problem consuming. The author conveniently doesn't mention any marketing myths behind dairy products, eggs and meats and sea animals. However, orange juice, carrots and spinach, while their nutritional benefits may have been exaggerated, do HAVE nutritional benefits, are listed instead. Isn't that curious?

 

[Rusty]

I think the dairy industry might be behind much of the bad press out there regarding the soy bean. I mean, it's an amazing food after all. Sure, if you consume 5 glasses of soy milk a day, have a soy protein shake for breakfast, eat tofu cakes for lunch, miso for dinner with a soy nut salad on the side, and snack on roasted soy nuts throughout the day... you'll probably see some problems, isn't it in the best interest of the dairy industry that has been king as far as dietary proteins to sew some misinformation?

 

[robert99]

Rusty, the milk industry along with every other industry you can think of, is online making sure "the message" gets across.
Spin it, bend it, make it sing and dance - the message is being pushed. (I looked into Arla and they have 11 people hired to work on "social media" including a "social manager"- how many others, plus hired PR bureaus, are working online is unknown - unless you trawl through Linkedin and other such sites)

 

[Rusty]

Huh, yeah I know you're right. Infuriating... but I suppose we all do it to an extent (we want others to agree with us after all) - except I think the difference is that if you really believe in something then it is acceptable, versus part of some mindless corporate or industry structure (I don't think all corporations are necessarily bad by the way). My problem with this in particular is that it hinders progress in regards to awesome, sustainable, plant food proteins and/or other plant food sources. There is a complex to overcome - if you do a search for, "Is soy good for me?" you'll find a whole bunch of bad press. If, on the other hand, you do a search for, "Has soy gotten a bad rap?" you'll get a much different result. By the way, there are some killer new plant proteins coming on the horizon - my favorite, a "deflavored" faba bean protein that doesn't have as strong a beany/earthy flavor as other concentrated/isolated plant proteins.