Have you succumbed to the mesmerizing effects of the health halo? The health halo is a tendency to eat more of a food that is “low fat” or “gluten free” or “trans fat free” or “organic.” I was recently at Starbucks purchasing a very important cup of coffee on a cold, rainy day when I spotted some sweet potato chips. When I hear sweet potato I think healthy. So the trained dietitian in me immediately flipped the bag to see the nutrition information. The entire bag has 300 calories and 20 grams of fat. Yikes! But the label also spoke of “natural” “organic” and good ‘ol sweet potatoes. Ladies and gentlemen, do not be fooled by health claims. A chip is still a chip. I don’t care if it’s organic, gluten-free, natural, and made by some woman on a farm who grew the sweet potatoes herself…when it’s fried in oil it’s still high calorie and high fat.
In the 1990’s, the health halo occurred with fat free foods. The Snackwell craze even hit my home. I remember my Mom buying Devil’s Food cookies made by Snackwell which were “FAT FREE!” and eating perhaps more than a recommended portion size. We tend to eat more of low fat foods. We think they are healthy so we eat more. The result of the fat free craze of the 90’s was weight gain in our country. Calories are calories. It doesn’t matter if the food is fat free; if you are eating twice as much then you are getting in more calories.
Subway has a wonderful health halo built by a brilliant marketing campaign using Jared, the man who lost weight eating Subway sandwiches. People go to Subway and think they are eating healthy. They will order subs with mayo or even a 12” sub and round out their meal with chips and a cookie, but the health halo surrounding Subway makes them feel that they ate a meal that was good for them and their waistline.
Brian Wansick, a professor from Cornell who wrote the book Marketing Nutrition, explains, “An organic label gives a food a ‘health halo.’ It’s the same basic reason people tend to overeat any food that’s labeled as healthy or low fat. They underestimate the calories and over-reward themselves by eating more.”
How do you stop the Health Halo from sabotaging your healthy eating goals? Remember that the claims on the label do not matter when it comes to your weight: calories do matter. You can still look for foods that are low in fat or organic, but be aware of how much you are eating. Know that when you think a food is healthy the tendency is to eat more. In order to lose weight, you must eat less and move more.