Selling Food as ‘The Great Inconvenience’ in Your Life
Confused about what to eat? Good, you can be sold to now
We live in a world where food is abundant, and vast amounts of nutrition information are available at the touch of a screen, yet most people are entirely confused about what to eat.
Rapidly evolving nutrition science, coupled with conflicting information from governments, nutritionists, and food companies, has given the public whiplash.
As a Nutritionist, I often find myself in conversations with clients who, due to this conflicting information, are genuinely lost about how to fuel their bodies.
I believe this food-confusion has become a valuable asset for those selling products, keeping consumers at the mercy of ever-fluctuating nutrition advice. More recently, I’ve noticed a growing trend toward marketing food as a burden, an inconvenience.
This messaging leads me to wonder — if we start accepting what we eat is a thought best outsourced, will it only drive greater consumer reliance on companies? Is labelling food as “The Great Inconvenience” really the best path forward for the eater?
How did we get here?
The 20th century marked the acceleration of the industrialised diet. Advancing nutrition science, coupled with widespread technological advances, carved out a new way of eating - the Processed Diet.
Convenience, born out of necessity, was designed to serve both men at war and newly time-poor housewives who were drafted into the workforce.
Entering the post-war landscape of the 1960s saw radical social, economical and political shifts. Largely driven by that of the feminist movement, where progressive women of the time openly embraced technological advancements and new nutrition science.
Dieting, while somewhat popular pre-wars, became a re-birthed beast brandished by companies who learned middle to upper-class women of the time were the perfect consumers.
Alongside technological innovation for processed food, the mid-20th century saw the development of increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies for such food.
No wonder you’re confused about what to eat
The publication of new nutrition information, often based off studies which findings would alter be dispelled, led to movements for and against certain foods.
With a finger pointed towards saturated fat as the cause of obesity and disease, the low-fat craze became the idealised diet. Along with it an abundance of new ‘healthier’ products; low-fat cheese, yogurt and ready-made meals to name a few.
This of course, fell out of popularity as the low-carb diet promised to solve our problems and even ushered in the re-popularisation of fats with diets like the Mediterranean Diet. (Not the diet of the Mediterranean including people and cultures from Europe to the Middle East and Africa, but the white-washed one made palatable for Western consumers.)
We have seen a constant reinterpretation of nutrition information, resulting in the praise and demonisation of nearly every macro or micronutrient over the last 60 years.
Myself, my mother, and my grandmother have all lived in a world where nutrition information has been presented like this:
Don’t eat carbs and don’t eat fat. Do eat carbs but don’t eat fat. Eat protein but not too much… What is too much? Oh, that changes too. Make sure you eat your fruits and vegetables for your micronutrients, actually don’t because of the sugar — but no need to worry, buy this sugar-free greens powder for your vitamin needs.
When all real food is demonised, what is left to eat?
An observant consumer walking through the grocery store will watch the pendulum swing, marked by new packaging sporting loud labels that tell us why we should buy one product over another. All in the name of health… of course.
A recent example I have seen of this, was the rebranding of Mini Babybel Cheeses in Australia. The pale blue packeted ‘Light’ cheese has morphed into ‘High Protein’ cheese in a sleek black wrapper.
A quick glance at the nutrition panel or ingredients list reveals that nothing about the product has changed except for the packaging, which now features a term more appealing terminology to the contemporary health-conscious eater.
Keeping you confused and guilty makes money
Food marketing thrives on creating anxiety, confusion, and guilt. Advertisements bombard us with conflicting messages about what constitutes a healthy diet, pushing processed and packaged foods as convenient and superior options.
At the same time, these strategies induce guilt, suggesting that without these products, we’re failing to provide adequately for ourselves and our families.
For those responsible for feeding the family, often women, the burden of shame falls on their shoulders if the wrong choice is made.
Companies that spend exorbitant amounts of money on addicting us to their food products shirk responsibility when our health suffers and obesity rates soar, simply saying, “You should have made a better choice.”
Food as the great inconvenience in your life
Growing awareness of the negative health impacts of highly processed diets has created a unique gap in the market for seemingly healthy options that meet our limited time and budget constraints.
Thus, we welcome the age of Meal Kits.
Superficially, they are a great solution to the problem. They offer affordable and accessible meal options which are a healthier alternative to other convenience foods.
The meal kit is more appealing than traditional meal prep companies that might cook all your food to reheat, often coming with a hefty price tag. They also get people cooking again, which has become somewhat of a lost sill.
However, I can’t help but feel that underneath, they are another bandaid for our broken systems, which keep people removed from anything in life other than servitude to work.
That the delivery of prepackaged and portioned ingredients to our doorsteps only drives further removal of the individual from our food system and choice.
It fuels the problem of not knowing where our food comes from and making it easier to turn a blind eye to larger issues like resource degradation, dwindling food biodiversity, factory farming and modern day slavery in our globalised food chain.
This is on top of an internalisation that what we feed our body is merely a bothersome part of your day. A thought best outsourced to a company and trusting them to do right by our health.
My millennial beef
I fall right into the target audience for these companies — a woman who is right on 30, working a full-time job, who cares about my health and thus, my nutrition.
YouTube is a primary source of media for me, placing me right in line with meal box campaigns. As the companies selling them heavily invest in content creator sponsorships to promote their products.
While I don’t dislike the product, the messaging that is used to market it has become somewhat of a thorn in my side. Here is an excerpt from a Hello Fresh YouTube sponsorship I recently watched:
“Hello Fresh makes everything more simple and takes away the hassle with meals ready to go.
Each box just make everything so much easier and frees up my time to focus more on making content for you guys, enjoying life in general, enjoying my summer.
It’s summer time, no one is trying to spend all day in the grocery store or slaving away in the kitchen.
You can just let Hello Fresh take care of it and not stress so much over something as simple as feeding yourself.”
As young professionals and mums are the demographic targeted in these campaigns, I have seen other sponsored creators go on to highlight how the kits have:
allowed me to spend so much more time to playing with my children.
A sentence which I am sure would create guilt in any other mother as it really says:
you are a bad mum if you are spending time at the grocery store and cooking for your family instead of playing with your children.
The marketing of confusion and guilt persists in a contemporary package that is coming from the mouths creators whose voice trust.
Why care?
The narrative of food as “The Great Inconvenience” only serves to further separate us from our food systems and place our money in the hands of companies dictating what we should eat.
This drives us away from individual choice, trapping us in the echo chamber of Western social and cultural ideals.
To simply discourage you from buying these products would only add to the confusion. Your time constraints, mental overwhelm, and the current cost of living crisis cannot be solved by telling you to source all your food independently.
Our world exists in shades of grey, and food itself is incredibly nuanced. These meal kits might be a good option for you.
What’s important is recognising and understanding the messaging around these products. By increasing awareness of how food is marketed, I aim to provide you with education and empowerment, handing you back some control over what — and why — you eat.
This story was brought to you by Rooted, a publication dedicated to deep dives through food and drink culture. They are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered as nutritional or health advice.
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