Food Fight: miracle food or marketing?

Kristen Wright, FNP-C

Canyon View Women’s Care Adjunct Faculty, BYU College of Nursing

Health Tips to Empower You to Live a Longer, Stronger & More Meaningful Life

Objectives

•  Understand how diet affects our health

•  Review the food industry

•  Create an awareness of how marketing

techniques influence our food choices

•  Review nutritional information, potential

benefits and research behind popular

superfoods

CANCER

CHRONIC ILLNESS

Colon

Breast Uterine

Obesity ↑BloodPressure

Type 2 Diabetes

↑ cholesterol

Arthritis Sleep apnea

malabsorption ... HEART DISEASE

(stroke)

Popular diets

Mediterranean Diet Raw Food Diet Weight Watchers Diet Atkins Diet South Beach Diet

vegetarian diet Biggest Loser Best Life Belly Fat Diet

Jenny Craig Mayo Clinic Diet the cookie diet elimination diet The Caveman (Paleo) Diet Slim-Fast

Plan Sonoma Diet Medifast Diet Nutri-Systems Diet Hcg Diet Sugar busters hydroxycut

You – On a Diet The Zone 3 Day Diet Macrobiotic Diet Volumetrics Diet Maple Syrup Diet Detox Diet

BloodTypeDiet Geno Type Diet American Heart Association Diet

Beyonce 19 lbs. maple syrup diet

Madonna, 12 lbs macrobiotic diet

Oprah, 19 lbs geno type Diet

elimination diet

Supplements for Well-Being • Essential oils •  Supplement ▫  Brain function ▫  Energy ▫  Weight loss ▫  Build muscle mass ▫  Disease prevention ▫  Fight infection

Sources of Information

Media Spinach is

healthy!

1.  Testing 2.  Marketing

1.  Packaging 2.  Real Estate

3.  Words

BLISS POINT

A + B + C = craving

BLISS POINT TESTING

Packaging 1949 current

Marketing Terms & Claims

• Healthy • Multigrain • Whole • Natural • Organic • Non-GMO

Marketing Term:

Organic

Organic

Consider buying organic

•  Apples •  Strawberries •  Grapes •  Celery •  Peaches •  Spinach •  Peppers •  Imported nectarines

Don’t “need” to buy organic

•  Avocados •  Sweet corn •  Pineapple •  Cabbage •  Sweet Peas (frozen) •  Onions •  Asparagus •  Mango •  Papaya •  Kiwi •  Eggplant •  Grapefruit •  Cantaloupe •  Cauliflower •  Sweet potatoes

Marketing Term:

GMO

natural

Healthy

USDA

Protect agriculture producers

Advise the public about

diet

about $5 million

Advertising costs

Food companies spend $11 billion annually

$627 million $404 million $174 million

$$$ 10 to 50 times

more

Promotion of the food

pyramid

Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

•  Promotes Safety •  ensure food, supplements and drugs are safe and

labeled accurately •  drugs do something “useful” according to

science-based standards

§  Average 10 years of testing for safety and efficacy

§  ≥ $350 million

§  Ongoing & routine inspections and quality control

FDA approved

Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), 1994

1.  Expanded legal definition 2.  No need to prove safety 3.  Assumption of currently safe 4.  Allowed Labeling leniency §  ingredients might alleviate a nutrient deficiency §  improve the structure or function of a part of the

body §  promote general well-being

Common Beliefs: Supplements •  “More is Better” •  “Natural is Safe, Natural is Better” •  “It’s been used for thousand of years, it must

work” •  “It can’t hurt to take supplements with my

medicine” •  “It wouldn’t have been approved it that claim

wasn’t true” or “If it can hurt me, they wouldn’t be allowed to sell it” Drugs are considered unsafe until proven safe. Dietary supplements are considered safe until

proven unsafe.

Tips •  Look for USP or NF on the label •  Understand “natural” •  Name and reputation of manufacturer or distributor •  RED FLAGS ▫  claim to work like prescription drugs ▫  mass emails ▫  marketed in mostly foreign language ▫  promise weight loss, body-building or enhanced sexual

performance ▫  say a legal alternative to anabolic steroids

Supplement Resources

•  informationisbeautiful.net • National center for Complimentary and

Integrative Health at nccih.nih.gov

•  Tisserand and Young’s Essential Oils Safety: A guide for Heathcare Professionals

Tips to Evaluate “studies”

Power: size of study

Bias

Length of follow up

Risk

Confidence Interval

“SUPERFOODS”

Trendy Foods: Acai Berries

Trendy Foods: Wheat Based

Wheat Grass Wheat Germ Seitan

Trendy Foods: Yeast

Trendy Foods: Quinoa

Trendy Foods: Spirulina

Trendy Foods: Seeds & Nuts

• Chia •  Flaxseed • Nuts

Trendy Foods: Soy

Trendy Foods: Coconut