My father had many aphorisms. One which I use frequently is, “figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” The drug companies are masters at using numbers to mislead; they will make big print statements that are accurate but convey a message not consistent with real value.
You might see “Our new cancer drug lets patients live 50% longer than current treatments.” Only in the small print do you find out that patients receiving their very expensive and very toxic drug live 3 months while those on a much cheaper drug with minimal side effects live 2 months. People might still opt to use the new drug, but they should do so with a real sense of what it does.
The food factory companies have come up with their own way of misleading with true statements. These have been termed “halo effects.” Adding some healthy-sounding ingredients has been found to sway most customers into believing the product is good for you.
Protein is currently in vogue, so many packaged foods are labelled High Protein. What you do not realize without looking more closely at the packet is that the “high protein energy bar” they are peddling is an expensive candy bar loaded with fat and sugar with some extra peanuts or soy added.
Another favorite is Vitamin Enriched. Adding even large doses of vitamins to highly processed foods still leave them as highly processed foods and not healthy.
“No Artificial Sweeteners” sounds good, right? But sugars of all sorts are “natural” while large doses are hardly healthy.
Organic or non-GMO may be inherently better than otherwise, but if the underlying food is not healthy, the fact that it is organic does not change that fact. Fatty meat is not healthy even if the animal was raised on an organic farm.
These tricks are used widely, but particularly for impulse purchases such as snacks.
Don’t let agribusiness manipulate your subconscious! Think and read before you buy.
Edward Hoffer MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard.
What Does The Doctor Say?
By Dr. Edward Hoffer