This is, in some ways, a follow-up to yesterday's post on the manifold ways in which the food industry is smart about where we are dumb. Take antioxidants. On some level, I'm aware that no study has decisively proven that they're on any worth. But I sort of like them anyway. First, their name is awesome. Antioxidants. I mean, hell, I don't want to oxidize. And that "x" in the word just screams efficacy. And these things kill free radicals. If there was ever a group waiting for Magneto to assume leadership and cause everyone cancer, it's the free radicals. So: Antioxidants. I like them. Even if they don't do anything. And so, according to Marion Nestle, does everyone else:Apparently, up to 60% of consumers who see an antioxidant claim on a product label will buy it for that reason. Despite lack of evidence that additional antioxidants make people healthier (and may actually do some harm), these claims are so popular that food companies introduced nearly 300 new antioxidant-labeled products into U.S. supermarkets last year. I’ve been collecting choice examples: breakfast cereals, of course (they are always at the leading edge of nutritional marketing), but also jelly beans. The marketing has become so competitive that unprocessed fruits and vegetables have to get into the act. I’ve seen ads for blueberries, tomatoes, and artichokes advertising their high antioxidant content. Of course they have antioxidants. All fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants.A better way to state my claim from yesterday may be that in the race to promote nutrition through labeling, regulators will always lose out to breakfast cereals. And the more we imbue labels with power, the more effective breakfast cereals will be at subverting them. It's a losing strategy.
