As consumers, we put our trust in brands and labels or so we would like to. The deceitful act of falsely labeling foods natural or promoting its “healthfulness” is being taken on by a myriad of companies we indulge in on the daily.
In the current times of the 21st century, many Americans have been made aware of the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Because of this, we have been introduced to the idea of healthy eating in order to benefit our bodies and minds.
As you browse the aisles of your beloved supermarket, or even preferred health store, false advertising smothers the shelves. The term “natural” is noticeably used on many products. If you’re someone who has been skeptical of this for a while now, you should be happy to hear that you were right.
Co.create.com, a business and innovation resource, has recently shared some very intriguing information relating to this issue. “Since the claim of being "natural" is not regulated by the FDA, many products that are anything but can be found bearing the label. 'Natural' has become the linguistic equivalent to social-media vocabulary victims 'like' and 'conversation'—hollow and meaningless.”
Along with false statements of naturally, the concern of misleading food labels is also relevant. According to the FDA’s (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) latest official health and diet survey, “54% of all consumers read a product's label before they buy a food product for the first time, and 41% of this group believes that the claims made- like “low fat” or “high fiber”- are accurate.” Based on this information, it’s obvious that many of our fellow citizens are victims to this corruption of the food industry.
After just two minutes of researching, I came across a statement on the FDA’s government website that raised some more concerns. “The term 'organic' is not defined by law or regulations FDA enforces.” This means that any brand, whether truthfully organic or filled with chemical and preservatives, can label their food organic because of the “lack of definition.”
When it comes to serving sizes, the ridiculousness is unbearable. Companies intentionally make the serving size a minuscule amount in order to be able to put that it’s low calorie. When, in reality, a normal person would consume around 2.5 times more in one sitting than what the suggested serving size is, based on several studies.
As human beings, our personal health is one of the few things that we have complete control over. Because of this, that birthright of ours is being tampered with. While so many people, ranging from young to old, are making the attempt to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s obvious that the deceiving and misleading from our entrusted food industry must come to an end.
