‘Healthy’ food labels that are cleverly marketed

I was at the supermarket the other day and as I arrived in the cereal section I noticed a couple of different boxes of “sugar cereals” that had claims on them about being healthy for children. This is quite shocking and I’m not even sure whether it is legal.

One of these ludicrous cereal boxes claimed this on its label: “Improves your kids’ immune system”.

Without mentioning the exact brand and type, this was one of those sugar cereals with all sorts of bright artificial colours. The main ingredient was sugar, and then refined corn or wheat, which is no better for you than sugar.

How can it be legal for these cereal companies to make such health claims?

Are they trying to say that a product which is 70 per cent refined sugar and artificial colours, with some added hydrogenated oils, is good for children’s immune systems? There appears to be a loophole in that if they simply add some antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C and E to the sugar cereal, they can somehow make that claim. But how can they get away with it?

At this supermarket I also strolled through the Healthy Section.

Again I noticed types of foods that have been cleverly marketed as health foods over the years like “whole grain” bread, skimmed milk, soy foods, cereal, protein and energy (aka hidden candy) bars, low-calorie frozen dinners, and many other artificially pro­cessed food.

I’m willing to bet that the label claims on many foods cause people confusion about what’s really healthy and what’s not.