False Advertising

Hey! It has been four and a half months since I’ve posted last… and that’s pretty pathetic. My summer got really busy at the end of July, and then school happened. However, I’m determined to post a lot more often now.

Today's post is about advertising. To make a product more appealing, companies use different advertising techniques. A lot of medicine commercials show people who “used the medicine” and were pleased with its results, but half of the time those people are actors. In some commercials, companies like Verizon Wireless and AT&T will compare the scope of their cell phone service compared to that of other companies. However, many times the graphs and charts they use to compare are disproportionate or don’t use correct intervals. We see stuff like this in commercials of every type…. But what about advertisements for food? Not just advertisements, but the labels that make the food more appealing. Food companies have a plethora of advertising tricks that make their food look healthier and tastier based on the words associated with that food. “Fresh”, “premium” and “all natural” are among these tricks. As a consumer, how can we figure out what the true meanings of these labels are?

You’re watching TV and a Subway commercial comes on. Everyone knows the $5 Foot-long song, and that every Subway commercial ends with their famous slogan of “Subway. Eat fresh.” The whole nation has associated Subway’s food with the word healthy. Yes, Subway does offer nutritional information and has pretty healthy options, but there are also a lot of unhealthy options served at Subway. Why does is the word “fresh” synonymous for “healthy”? Let’s look at the definition of fresh food: food that is not preserved by canning, dehydration, freezing or smoking. Also, something that is considered fresh will not be rotten or expired. So how does this definition match up with what the public thinks about the term “fresh”? My theory is that the reason why so many people think that fresh = healthy is because of fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables that you can buy in the store are packed with nutrients, are (hopefully) not rotting and are the freshest a food could be. Since vegetables and fruits are fresh and healthy, those two words seem like they’d go together. While it is true that a lot of fresh foods are very healthy, there are also lots of fresh foods that are not healthy. Take fresh bread as an example. You can make or buy freshly baked bread, but when it is made solely out of highly processed white flour, it has lost almost all of its nutritional value. What about a fatty steak? It’s fresh, but is it good for you? No. The next time you see the word “fresh” associated with a food product that you are purchasing, read the nutritional information and ingredients. Yes, this item wasn’t frozen or canned with preservatives, but how healthy is it?

 

 “Premium.” We see this word everywhere when walking through the grocery stores. Food companies will use the word “premium” to make their products more attractive. I’ve seen “premium” used a lot for ice cream, dairy products, and store-brand processed snacks. The use of “premium” creates the illusion that the product is of a higher quality than its competitors… but is it? When I Googled “definition of premium food”, “does food need to be certified to be premium” and other keywords similar to that, I didn’t find any helpful results. I just found links of companies that claim to have premium foods. I’m almost positive that USA food companies do not have to be certified premium. Premium is a word that is used whenever to entice consumers, but it doesn’t actually have very much value. That being said, a lot of truly healthy foods are also advertised with “premium” on their packages. We as consumers can learn to ignore the “premium” and learn about the actual quality of the ingredients in our food.  

The term “all natural” is another term that we should sit back and think about. While a food that is all natural doesn’t contain any artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, it isn’t a perfect food. Many people think that if something is all natural, it’s healthy. This isn’t the case. Some types of Lay’s potato chips are all natural, but they have barely any nutritional value. The term “all natural” also made me believe that the dairy used in the products were hormone free, the eggs used came from chickens that were not fed antibiotics and hormones, and that the meat used also followed these guidelines. However, to be all natural, a food just has to be free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. While it is much better to eat all natural food than artificial food, it still isn’t perfect. Finally, companies do not need to be certified all natural. A food company could easily be lying about their food being “all natural”. As a consumer, what do you do with this information? When you see that a product is all natural, you’ll know that the company that made that product is making steps into producing better food. However, still check the package for an indication that it is free of hormones and antibiotics (if the product contains meat, dairy or eggs). Check the ingredient list even if it’s an all natural product. Finally, try to buy all natural food from smaller companies that you know use good quality ingredients. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are great places to find natural and organic foods with trustworthy ingredients and labels.

I hope you enjoyed my first post in a long time! Again, I’m sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog very well. However, my goal is to post every Thursday from here on out. I also want to try and post a video every month, where that’s a cooking video or just a random video that shows you guys more about who I am and what I like to do other than cook. Plus, I’m going to start a series of special holiday posts called The Twelve Days of Cooking. In the final twelve days leading up to Christmas, I am going to cook something every day, and every day there will be a post about what I made.

As I get into a regular blogging schedule, I will try to make a Teens Can Cook, Too Facebook page. I know that I always find it annoying when my favorite YouTubers don’t post a link to their videos on their Facebook pages, and I feel like I should make my videos and posts easier to find than by digging through Google. For now, I need to get back into blogging regularly.

Thanks for reading this post! Please share my blog on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus (which no one uses, but whatever) ANYTHING! I’d love to get the word out about improving the food system and educating my generation about the food we eat. Remember to come here on Thursday for the kick-off of The Twelve Days of Cooking. Stay healthy and happy holidays!