The Reality Behind Food Marketing

Score! Consumers rallied together to force Dannon, creator of Activia and DanActive yogurts with their trademarked live cultures (bacteria) "B.L. Regularis" and L.Casei Defensis," to change their labelling and marketing to more accurately represent the validity of their claim of health benefits of these bacteria (not to mention to agree to a settlement to consumers). See details of the story here.

What does this mean? It means that Dannon created strains of health-beneficial bacteria from naturally occurring strains, and trademarked them. They then used marketing to imply that these bacteria provide exceptional health benefits that can't be found anywhere else. In reality, these bacteria are no more powerful than any other pro-biotic. And in fact, what would make a yogurt the most health supportive and beneficial to our intestinal bacteria would be to TAKE OUT THE SUGAR that flavoured yogurts are filled with. Sugar is the food that yeasts thrive on, and when the balance of yeast and bacteria in the gut are out of balance, eating sugar just feeds that imbalance.

I wanted to bring this up today because it's a great example how we as consumers have to really question what marketers are trying to feed us. Foods fortified with this, that and the other thing often make claims, either explicitly or implicitly, that they are wonderful for our health and vitality. Really, if we just ate more whole (unrefined, unprocessed) foods as close to their natural state as possible, we'd go a long way toward experiencing that healthy vitality, energy, and natural weight release we seek. Don't buy the hype!