Marketing Magic: When Labels Lie Without Breaking the Law
Here’s the thing. You pick up a snack bar at the grocery store with “natural” splashed across the front. Health-conscious consumers increasingly fall prey to powerful marketing that makes them believe they’re getting healthier options when, in reality, they may be purchasing highly processed, empty calorie foods that could lead to unwanted health outcomes. Let’s be real, food companies spend millions figuring out which buzzwords suit the dietary zeitgeist.
Structure/function and nutrient content claims are not pre-approved by the FDA and are often misleading when plastered on a conventional food package or dietary supplement. That’s exactly how manufacturers exploit the system. They know we’re scanning for shortcuts to health. Companies spend millions of dollars to figure out which buzzwords suit the dietary zeitgeist, labels that tout things like “gluten-free” even though over 90% of people have no issue with gluten.
Ultra-Processed Wolves in Healthy Sheep’s Clothing
Recent data shows that roughly over half of caloric intake in adults comes from ultra-processed foods, while for children it’s sadly even higher, with around two-thirds of children’s daily calories from relatively empty ultra-processed foods. Shocking, right? These foods aren’t just unhealthy, they’re designed to be irresistible.
Among 43 studies reviewed, 37 found dietary ultra-processed food exposure associated with at least one adverse health outcome, including overweight, obesity and cardio-metabolic risks; cancer, type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; irritable bowel syndrome, depression and frailty conditions; and all-cause mortality. That’s not a minor association. A 2024 review of 45 meta-analyses found “convincing” evidence that a diet high in ultra-processed foods increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 50% and the risk of anxiety by 48%, with “highly suggestive” evidence showing greater consumption of these foods increases the risk of death from heart disease by 66%, the risk of obesity by 55%, and Type 2 diabetes by 40%.
Protein Bars: The Candy Bars Playing Dress-Up
Honestly, protein bars might be one of the biggest offenders in the fake health food category. Protein bars are often teeming with added sugars and it may be the sugar, not the protein, that gives you that energy kick, which also gives you a blood-sugar spike and an energy crash. I know it sounds crazy, but some of these bars have more sugar than actual candy.
The Gatorade Peanut Butter Chocolate Recover Protein Bar contains 24 grams of sugar, with 23 of those grams being added sugar, which has as much total sugar as a chocolate candy Crunch Bar and includes more added sugar since a Crunch Bar has 22 grams of added sugar. Each Clif Bar chocolate chip flavor includes 17 grams of sugar, with 16 grams of that being added, derived from ingredients such as organic cane syrup and organic brown rice syrup, which means one Clif Bar contains as much sugar as a Snickers Original Share Size Egg Easter. You might as well enjoy a real treat.
Using the UK’s current traffic-light labelling system, 37 per cent of bars were high in sugars and 55 per cent were high in saturated fat, and when assessed against Chile’s widely recognised warning-label system, 68 per cent would require a high-sugar warning.
The “Natural” Trap Nobody Talks About
“Natural” claims are only loosely and informally regulated, meaning that they are currently allowed on many unhealthy foods, and the FDA and USDA could create a formal definition of the term “natural” and its variations and enforce the use of the terms. Think about that for a moment. The word “natural” can mean practically anything.
The “natural” label doesn’t necessarily mean that the product resembles anything natural; it simply indicates that the manufacturer worked with a natural source, like apples or rice, at one point in the process. So basically, they can process the life out of something natural and still slap that label on the front. It’s misleading at best.
Yogurt’s Sweet Secret
Yogurt seems like an obvious health food choice. Probiotics, protein, calcium. What could go wrong? The sugar content of most types of yogurt is well above the recommended threshold, with organic varieties containing some of the highest average sugar content, at 13.1 grams per 100 grams. Organic doesn’t always mean healthier when it comes to sugar content.
Yogurt, as a perceived ‘healthy food,’ may be an unrecognised source of free or added sugars in the diet, and the well documented ‘health-halo effect’ means that consumers most often underestimate the caloric content and perceive the nutritional contents of organic products, including yogurts, more favourably. One Yoplait yogurt marketed with Disney’s popular Frozen characters contains 13 grams of sugar in a 113 gram serving, while Chobani Kids had 9 grams of sugar in a 99 gram serving.
The Front-of-Package Illusion
One of the best tips may be to completely ignore claims on the front of the packaging, as front labels are often designed to attract buyers by highlighting health-related claims, which may not always accurately reflect the product’s overall nutritional value. Seriously, flip that package around and read the actual ingredients.
Only three kinds of claims are regulated by the FDA, with health claims that link specific foods or nutrients to health conditions closely regulated, but structure and function claims give food manufacturers the most leeway as they describe how a nutrient in the food supports your health, and the FDA doesn’t require companies to provide proof or even notify them about the claims being made. That’s a massive loophole.
Sugar’s Many Disguises
Sugar goes by countless names, many of which you may not recognize, and food manufacturers may use this to their advantage by adding many different types of sugar to their products to hide the actual amount, so even though a product may be loaded with sugar, it doesn’t necessarily appear as one of the first three ingredients.
Protein bar manufacturers are crafty when it comes to disguising sugar on their ingredient lists, and you may not always see the word “sugar” in bold letters; instead, you’ll encounter a variety of sweeteners under different aliases like high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar and even fruit juice concentrate. This sleight of hand makes it nearly impossible to track how much sugar you’re really eating.
Reading Labels Like a Detective
Product ingredients are listed by quantity, from the highest to the lowest amount, meaning the manufacturer used the most of the first ingredient, and a good rule of thumb is to scan the first three ingredients, as they make up the largest part of what you’re eating.
The food label tells the story, as ultra-processed foods typically contain a long list of ingredients, most of which are not used in home cooking and would be more familiar in a chemistry lab, and looking at a nutrition label will give you an idea if a food is ultra-processed, since if you don’t recognize many of the ingredients listed, that can be a sign that there was a lot of processing involved. If it reads like a science experiment, it probably is one.
The “Low-Fat” and “Fat-Free” Deception
Light products are processed to reduce either calories or fat, and some products are simply watered down, so you should check carefully whether anything has been added instead, like sugar. That’s the dirty secret about many low-fat products. They replace fat with sugar to maintain flavor.
For far too long, consumers have been misled by outdated and inconsistent standards that allowed sugary cereals and processed snacks to be labeled as ‘healthy,’ and the FDA’s new rule still falls short, particularly in allowing food products with harmful food chemicals and ultra-processed ingredients to be labeled as ‘healthy.’ Even the recently updated regulations in December 2024 don’t go far enough to protect consumers from misleading health claims.
Spotting the Real Deal: Practical Strategies
To avoid falling into the sugar trap with protein bars, it’s essential to become a diligent label reader by looking beyond the front-of-package claims and checking the ingredient list for hidden sugars, then opting for bars with minimal added sugars or those sweetened with natural alternatives like stevia or monk fruit.
If you’re buying a grain-based bar, check that it’s made with whole grains, such as oats or quinoa, as whole grains are an excellent base because they contain carbs and fiber, which keep blood sugar levels steady and help you feel full for longer. Look for recognizable whole food ingredients like nuts, seeds, and dried fruits rather than protein isolates and flavor enhancers.
Read ingredient lists a little more carefully to find foods that have fewer additives, buying a pasta sauce with simple, recognizable ingredients like tomatoes, olive oil, herbs and not too much salt. Prioritize whole, unprocessed foods whenever possible.
The fake healthy food industry thrives on confusion and clever marketing. The perception of healthfulness is a key driver of food purchases for most individuals, but gauging the health quality of foods can be daunting and is made all the more difficult by misleading nutrition information that appears on most food labels. The best defense is knowledge and a healthy skepticism about anything that seems too good to be true. What surprised you most about these fake health foods? Did you discover that your go-to snack might not be as virtuous as you thought?
