What “healthy” really means

The FDA wants to change their definition of the word “healthy”. But what does healthy even mean anymore?

The FDA first decided which foods were “healthy” back in the 1990s. But since then, nutritional science has greatly evolved. And so has our food.

Problem is many folk (and families) rely on the word “healthy” to help them navigate the infinite number of food choices at the supermarket. Something marketers have cottoned on to…

So, is it time to redefine the term?

What’s the current FDA definition?

Currently, food can only be labeled as “healthy” if it’s below a certain percentage in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Sugar is unsurprisingly absent (while there is now wealth of evidence contributing excess added sugar to major health problems, the science was focused on fat, not sugar back in the 1980s and 1990s).

Which means that foods like Pop-Tarts and cereals (which are heavily processed with sugar and additives) have an easier time achieving the title of “healthy” than a one-ingredient and high-fat food like salmon. Bonkers, right?

This is why the FDA now wants the public’s help to make sure they get the definition right. But here’s the kicker. In addition to the public’s and experts’ definition of the word… they also want to hear from food companies that market and make food.

What healthy means to Big Food.

Big Food companies like to use a little marketing technique called “clean labelling”. It’s a food manufacturer’s ability to give seemingly innocent names to chemical ingredients in our food and groceries. They’ve been getting away with it for a long time.

But these new changes to the definition of healthy could greatly impact how food can be marketed to customers. Which is when Big Food starts to get very, very sneaky. From changing serving sizes, skewing science and spending millions of dollars just to advertise a single sugary pastry… we’re on guard to crack down on the kind of punches Big Food will try to throw next.

What healthy means to us.

The best way to avoid all this? Just eat real food. That’s it.

It’s one of the added benefits of cutting the sweet stuff. When you quit sugar you’re naturally quitting processed food. And all the marketing guff Big Food throws at you.

At the end of the day, we’re happy to hear that the FDA is finally deciding to revisit the definition of the word “healthy”. But we still think everyone should just focus on keeping it real.

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