How do US restaurants distort the concept of “healthy food”

Eating in the US distorts the notion of “healthy food.”
Photo: depositphotos.com

The US Food and Drug Administration announced the beginning of a process to define the concept of “healthy food” so that similar labeling on product packaging can carry specific information to consumers.

The lack of a clear definition gives manufacturers and restaurants the opportunity to approach this labeling in different ways, writes Business Insider.

At the moment, most of them focus on the naturalness of the ingredients, trying not to attract the attention of the buyer to the number of calories and fats in their products.

Subway and McDonald's reduce the amount of preservatives and remove artificial ingredients from the menu. Pizzerias also refuse artificial baking powder and dough blanks.

And it works. For example, General Mills noted an increase in sales of 6% after removing artificial colors and flavors from its flakes.

The idea of ​​natural food really makes sense because it avoids some of the pitfalls that the idea of ​​“improving” natural products hides in itself.

For example, low-fat foods were the norm in the US in the 80s and 90s. Food manufacturers have worked to reduce the level of fat in their products by replacing it with another ingredient: sugar. As a result, the “light” yogurt contained large amounts of sugar, which further research showed to be a cause of obesity.

But at the same time, the underlining of naturalness leads to the fact that manufacturers customize the concept of healthy food high-calorie and fatty foods that are not healthy at all.

For example, KFC emphasizes the naturalness of their chicken, which is never frozen and comes from locally raised chickens. But their product is fried chicken, which is in no way healthy or good for your figure.

And this problem is not only fast food, the rejection of preservatives, dyes and flavors, which are now trying to remove from most products, will make, for example, bacon more natural, but does not make it healthy and healthy food.

Therefore, the emphasis on naturalness, which is now being done by manufacturers and restaurants, is only partially beneficial to the consumer, because he erases for the consumer the line between healthy food and natural, but unhealthy, like the same bacon or potato chips.

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