Food Claims

Do you ever eat cereal in the morning? A cereal e mail for you today.... Kellogg, the largest cereal maker in the United States, is being challenged by critics of its advertising because some object to the swine flu conscious claim on Cocoa Krispies cereal boxes. In bright yellow banner headline fashion the boxes all say: "Now helps support your child's IMMUNITY." It's ridiculous to imply that a sugar cereal with vitamins mixed in can boost one's immune system, much less protect against the flu. But the media has so many fearful of that strain of flu, marketers want to capitalize on it.

With the media here trying to make H1N1 into a crisis those kinds of claims by food makers have become common. Problem is, the government here has not always held them accountable for their advertising as to truthfulness. This has created situations where food of all types is falsely labeled as being superior to others or possessed with some curative or preventive properties. Recently though, the cereal industry's self created "Smart Choices" nutrition labeling program was voluntarily halted after federal regulators expressed concern that such programs may be misleading. It's a good first step to stop mislabeling.

The claims are in fact bold faced lies that gullible consumers have accepted as truisms. It's the same mentality that enables other trendy but empty campaigns (as in ridiculous Global Warming hysteria) to gain credibility with consumers. The food makers sell more and consumers believe that "eating healthy" is beneficial. But the idea that eating Cocoa Krispies will keep a kid from getting swine flu, or from catching a cold, doesn't make sense," Adding more vitamins to food isn't going to protect one from disease.

As bad as it is for sugary kid cereal makers to claim their products are enriching the body and immune system, the claims of the so called "healthy" food products are even worse. Consumers with even a smidgen of education know that the kid cereal claims are false. But when propagandists for food that is labeled as healthy make wild claims of their favorite food's properties consumers are more often fooled and buy and consume those products. Just look at the signs in any grocery store of the fruit and veggie department. One gets the impression that if he or she heavily doses on veggies there will be no aging shown, no illness possible, he or she will have an ideal body weight, have superior intellectual and physical conditions and can become immortal (Ok, the last one is my exaggeration).

All of cereal maker claims, from the "healthy boxes' to the sugary kid cereals have gone over the edge in advertising the benefits of eating their products. they are microcosms of the greater food labeling/claim problems today. Perhaps governments should take food marketers to court more often to make them prove what they say is what we get. As for me, I will eat some of the good and some of the "bad' foods, based on how they taste. The rest is all empty rhetoric, promises unsubstantiated and pointless.

I think I'll have an unhealthy donut to salute the glories of "unhealthy foods".