3/25/24: Food Labels & (Undeserved) Health Haloes; Critique of the "Keto Pyramid"; "GLP-1 Friendly" Foods; Gifts from Donut Season; MAHA? Really?
Because EVERYBODY Eats
🎁Last chance to get gifts for your RD, RD2Be friends with the special Build Up Dietitians PROMO code! Check out Donut Season (owned by dietitian Miranda Regan) Use promo code NNMBUD25 or go directly to the Build Up Dietitians affiliate link: https://donutseason.com/?ref=BuildUpDietitians for a 15% discount on all regularly priced items (minus gift cards, clearance, and bundles). (Note: Build Up Dietitians receives a small commission (2%) on items sold and we use these funds for events like our Build Up Meet Ups and Mini Meet Ups and biannual honorariums for moderators for our groups.)
😇Labels and a Health Halo
This article is from 2022, but it isn’t the first time we’ve seen customers fooled by a health halo label like organic or “free range” or “non-GMO” and in this case, “local”.
Consumers Say Beef Labeled as Locally Grown Tastes Better
“Consumers provided with labeling information on ground beef patties believed the beef labeled as "locally sourced" was much better in terms of tenderness, juiciness, flavor, texture and overall liking. And when consumers were told the ground beef was grass-fed and locally produced, it was rated even higher.
It was all a little trick for the sake of research. In reality, all of the ground beef (80% lean and 20% fat) came from the same production lot/day, and it was bought in chubs prior to being made into patties. Each chub went randomly to a consumer panel as patties. Those patties were randomly assigned different label terms including all-natural (AN), animal raised without antibiotics (WA), animal raised without added hormones (WH), fresh never frozen (FNF), grass-fed, locally sourced and organic.”
Have you ever done an experiment like this with a group? Try it! Take some non-organic fruit like apples and tell consumers/subjects it is an organically grown apple and ask them to describe the taste, appearance etc. and then take another of the same fruit and tell them this is a non-organic fruit that has been conventionally grown and ask the same consumers to describe it and see if they describe it differently.
🤔A “Keto” Pyramid?
This image and the accompanying popped up last week and a couple of people reached out about it. (Read it yourself here’s the link.)
Fortunately, a few people, decided to ‘take one for the team’ and look at it more closely.
From Dustin Moore, PhD, RD (and former Build Up Dietitians moderator aka Public Health Dad) did a thorough look at it and his conclusions are worth a read HERE.
The TL;DR conclusions Dustin reached:
1. “…there are numerous claims therein that range from unsupported-by-empirical-literature to downright bizarre. To summarize this paper as a missed opportunity feels akin to labeling the Titanic as a minor boating accident.”
2. “…The pyramid is little more than a classical Potemkin village — an inoperative showcase that simply takes up space in the article…”
3. “…So you have the authors defending ketogenic diets, using a nonrandomized trial, where nobody was confirmed to either be following a ketogenic diet or achieve ketosis…”
Some additional feedback on this Keto Pyramid from:
-Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz (Health Nerd): “An opinion piece published in an MDPI journal is not scientific. Pay to play publication, no real peer review, this might as well be a blog post tbh.”
-Sport Science Researcher Matt Carpenter, PhD: “…how this got beyond peer review is beyond me - they start 'busting myth's' that are firstly, not myths, and secondly, not relevant (aka the overused phrase keto guys are using about 'carbs not being essential', pure clickbait statement you'd expect from a propagandist, not a scientific article.
“…I see no value in this in the scientific literature, and it highlights something I see becoming more and more prominent, the idea of science as clickbait.” Read more from Matt on the Keto Pyramid HERE.
🛒GLP-1’s & Food Innovation
How GLP-1 Drugs Drive Innovation - IFT.org
“We found that there’s a need to offer patients high-protein options to maintain critically important lean muscle mass and stave off nausea, as well as products fortified with micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals, to mitigate against dietary deficits. Additionally, because GLP-1 users eat smaller portions, just the right portion size also emerged as a key purchase driver….some of the top-tier concepts included brownie cubes, chicken strips, a hydrating popsicle, and a veggie and protein snack pack. In the foodservice space, the most popular items included a protein smoothie breakfast bowl, marinated and grilled chicken mini sandwiches, salad wraps, and hydrating slushies. With their focus on protein, hydration, and small servings, these items scored high with our study’s participants….”
Keep an eye out for new (or reformulated old) products at the supermarket like brownie cubes, a hydrating popsicle, a veggies and protein snack pack, quite possibly being marketed as “GLP-1 FRIENDLY”.
😕MAHA: REALLY?
So far, not so impressed by what’s coming out of the MAHA groups. Build Up Dietitians wrote about the tallow fries frenzy HERE, the mixed messages about infant formula HERE and the possible/likely(?) redo of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has been mentioned on our Facebook page but here’s a reference for that. Keep in mind the Dietary Guidelines Scientific Advisory Committee just spent 2 years evaluating research, holding public webinars, allowing the public to comment and responding to those comments and released their report in December, only to learn that RFK Jr. (HHS) and Brook Rollins (USDA) plan a “line by line” review of it before the actual DGA’s are released.
While some dietitians voice optimism that they will have a ‘seat at the table’ in these Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) efforts, so far, those seats have been filled by the likes of social media scary mommy Vani Hari and a group of other “MAHA moms” who seem to share similar anti-science beliefs against vaccinations, fluoride, GMO’s, artificial colors, UPFs etc. Not a lot of science or evidence happening at that table. Rise of the Maha moms: the momfluencers embracing RFK’s push for a ‘healthier’ America | Life and style | The Guardian