How Marketing Terms Affect Our Diet

Media can greatly influence how we eat, behave, react and live our lives. Advertisements such as consumption of food beverages with attractive models, alcoholic drinks associated with superstars, and our emotions can determine how we make decisions when it comes to eating habits.

Let us look at some of the terms widely used by advertising companies to entice their consumers.

Natural Foods

Natural labeled foods are widely used in food labeling and advertising campaign nowadays. The term implies foods that are minimally processed and do not contain artificial flavorings, food colors and other manufactured ingredients. Unfortunately, natural does not mean healthy. It can contain a significant amount of fat and sodium such as natural potato chips.

Organic Foods

Organic are those food produce without synthetic involvements such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers. An organic food in the market undergoes a standard inspection and such foods are not processed using industrial solvents and chemical additives. Are organic foods healthier than ordinary food? To date, no conclusive studies are able to verify the claim in terms of health and safety.

High in Fiber

High in fiber foods is popular in the market due to increase problem with obesity. Fiber helps them feel full longer. There are wide varieties of food and beverages labeled with "high in fiber".

While the market industry entices your attention with these products, the truth is you can find cheap fiber sources from vegetables and fruits. You don't have to specifically purchase these products. All you need to do is consume more vegetables and fruits in order lose weight.

Naturally or Artificially Flavored

We have all read "artificially flavored or naturally flavored" products. Sadly, not all natural flavorings are really natural. By logic, any added flavor is not really natural.Most of our food flavorings were developed by scientist to create exactly the same flavor found in nature in order to boost the taste.

A perfect example is the MSG. Some food companies will defined it under natural flavors. A professor named Phil Lempert stated that "the line between natural and artificial is so thin when it comes to health. The label only causes the food to become more expensive".

Zero Trans Fat

According to the FDA Guidelines, foods with less than 0.5 grams trans fat per serving can list zero grams trans fat on their nutritional food labels. So Zero trans fat labeling does not necessarily mean zero. This is a very misleading notion. You might enjoy the zero trans fat food without knowing you are adding additional calories into your diet.

Fat Free

Is a product labeled fat-free does actually mean no fat at all? The FDA permits foods to be labeled "fat-free" if they contain less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving. If we consume more than a serving of fat-free food, all those fractions of a gram will count towards your daily fat intake.

We should be aware of every ingredient our food contains lest our health will be compromise in return.