The Torch-Bearers of Healthy Food
5 Ways truly healthy brands are using Nutrition as an honest marketing tool
If you’ve been a regular reader of FITSHIT, you’d know that I have, in my own small way, declared war against Health Marketing : the fraudulent act of labelling unhealthy, sugary, preservative laden junk as ‘FAT-FREE’, ‘100% Real’ and ‘No Nasties’.
So two weeks ago, I started by attacking the fundamentals of this trickery. I shared with you my 4-step process to decoding Nutrition Labels.
With those basics sorted, last week I made the attack a lot more direct — naming and shaming Top Brands that deliberately obfuscate nutritional info to make their products seem healthy.
Today, with this post, I make my final move.
Now that you know how they trick you, and how some top tricksters operate, I want to tell you that all is not lost. That there are some good guys out there, showing us how Health-Marketing should be done. How good food, sold truthfully, can be a powerful marketing tool. How nutritional info can be more than just a black and white patch that you hide in some corner. How it can be a powerful claim that you should proudly display up front.
But before I get to it, some disclaimers are in order:
- This series is not an exhaustive list of products that I consider Healthy or otherwise. I’m just using these brands as examples. To equip you with the tools you need to examine other brands that claim they’re ‘Healthy’.
- Most examples you’ll see here are brands not found widely in India (where many of my readers are located). I’m sorry — but I couldn’t find any great examples from our country. Maybe they exist, but I couldn’t, in the limited time I had, find them.
- But these are still relevant, because more than the brand-names, what matters is how these brands use nutritional info as a force for good. Just as you must know the tricksters technique, you must know the good samaritans method.
Ok, with that settled, let’s get to it.
There are many truly ‘Healthy’ brands out there who’re fighting the good fight. And here are the Top 5 Ways in which they simplify nutritional info, showcase it, and use it as a great marketing weapon:
1. ‘Per Piece’ Nutrition
How tough is this to do?
I eat one cookie, one bread piece, one shortbread at a time. Why can’t brands just calculate nutrition ‘per piece’ and share it with me. Why make me walk around with a calculator in hand!
Check out the rye-bread brand above. Clean ingredients called out up front. Per Slice nutritional info calculated at back. And almost NIL sugar.
Go on, use this as your tea time snack. Guilt free.
2. Correct ‘Serving Size’
What’s the point of telling me calories ‘per 100ml’ on a 300ml can of Coke? When was the last time you drank a third of a can and kept the rest for later?
While researching for this post, I fell in love with Jamie Oliver’s food brand. Clear, accurate serving sizes are called out on every pack (I’d never realised that we use up 1/3rd of a Jar while making one batch of pasta!).
He uses good quality, fresh ingredients. He tells you how much to use right up front. And, above all…next point.
3. Nutrition Table Up FRONT
Isn’t this the simplest, boldest statement to make about the confidence you have in your product?
Just put the entire damn nutrition table up front. Like this brand above does. No Need to turn to back of pack and get frustrated trying to read the microscopic fine print. Infact, take it a step further. Color code it, beautify it.
Like Jamie Oliver does! 💖 💖💖
4. Simple Ingredients
Look a the rice cake brand above. Just 4 simple ingredients. Once you read that ingredient list, you don’t even need to look at the nutrition table. You know this can’t be bad.
Now compare it to the Health Bar below. I rest my case.
5. Proudly declare ‘Who You Are’
As a final point, let me demonstrate how even ‘indulgence’ can be done right, if done with the right intention.
Look at the cookie brand below.
130 Kcal per cookie! Pure Sin!!
But there is so much to appreciate here.
They’ve saved you the trouble of calculating ‘per cookie’ information. They’ve put it right up front. They put it in bold letters in a clear table. They’ve done everything a proud, truthful brand should do.
So what if it’s an indulgence. All us us cheat once in a while.
Infact, precisely because it’s an indulgence, we need to know the nutritional information clearly. So we know exactly how much we’re cheating. Remember, we’re cheating our diet plan, not ourselves.
My point is…oh hell. These brilliant marketeers said it better than I could:
If you’re going to have a cookie, have a cookie
Not shit.
There you have it. My list of ‘Healthy Food’ done right.
I’m sure there are a lot more brands out there who make food with the same intention. I hope all of them would use the techniques these torch-bearers are showing us.
Having run a food company, I know how tough it is to keep food honest. So if you’re putting in the effort, then let me, your consumer, see it.
Because once I see it, I will reward you with my money and my trust and my words.
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