‘Diet’ Foods a Scam?

Diet food is big business. Obviously. And wherever there is big business involved it is wise to question the level of altruism and the motives of the do-gooder. A couple of articles I have read in the press this week have eluded to this point, such as this article from CNN which charts a woman’s inability to lose weight despite switching to those food product that the manufacturers were packaging as a diet choice.

Admittedly, her choices, in my opinion were pretty flawed, regardless of whether they were the diet version or not, but the message is still very important. Check your diet range – and look out for hidden no-no’s!

Unfortunately, some food manufacturers are very savvy, and are very aware of what makes us tick. I give them a hat-tip from a marketing perspective, but from an ethical and health perspective I rearrange my hat exactly where it was. The premise of this marketing and communications strategy is this question:

• what does the general public perceive as healthy and what do they look for as a measure of healthy food

In the large part, most of the people I know (including a fair few serial dieters) look to the following before deciding whether a product is healthy enough to go into their shopping trolley:

• Calories
• % Fat (i.e. 98% fat free!)
• Sugar Content

The goal of the health company is to make you purchase this product and feel guilt free, whilst ensuring that the product is tasty and satisfying enough for you to buy again and again (and if they are a really savvy marketer to make it so remarkable that you will tell all of your friends).

Now I am not a qualified food scientist (although most recent Energise recruit Giles is – maybe I can get him to chip in on this rant), but off the top of my head I can see at least a few issues with the above, and ways in which (if I were a manufacturer) I would look to get around this.

1. Sugar content can be hidden, not necessarily in terms of taste, but in terms of how the sugar reaches your body – carbs. Look out for carb content! It really is one of the silent dangers to any diet plan!
2. Fat content – what kind of fat? And if the product is 94% fat free, how many grams of fat does that 6% equate to? If it is a 250g meal, this could be 15g of trans-fats for all you know!
3. Calories – sure it is lower in calories, but check for fat content, sugar content, carb content, sweeteners, additives etc etc etc. There are a million ways to make something taste tasty – but something that is just low in calories will do your diet no good if it is still high in salt, fat or carbs.
4. Serving sizes – a great trick that is best exemplified by M&S’s Count on Us wraps and sandwiches. They are half the calories and half the fat because they are half the size! And to quote Marjorie Dawes – “And because it’s half the calories… …you can eat twice as much”!
5. Microwaved – I would steer clear of any diet range that has you microwaving all of your food. Microwaving might not be the antichrist as some people suggest, but it certainly does not retain many of the nutrients contained within the foods that have been cooked in this way. And let’s face it, any food that has been refined and manipulated to be put into a format whereby microwaving for 3 minutes on high will make it edible is probably worth steering clear of. Don’t even get me started on Jenny Craig (everything is prepackaged, refined, nutrient free, microwave meals – what the ****!).

There are many more considerations to make, these are just a few off the top of my head. But the message is this – don’t believe the hype. The goal of the food company is to sell as much as possible and your diet plan is well down on their list of priorities. Not all brands and products are bad, but don’t go unwittingly undoing all of your hard work because of a few unethical companies!

Be savvy too and read between the lines!!!