Don't Fall For A Bunch Of Advertising Marketing Tricks

by Kathi
(Pennsylvania)

Take a walk down the beverage aisle in a grocery store and if you haven't been in it recently, boy are you in for an eyeful. Shelves upon shelves, all of liquid beverages, all claiming to be low fat, all natural, low sugar, low calorie, low cholesterol and on and on.


Most people fall for all this information they read on the front label. An example, low cholesterol - there is no cholesterol in a liquid drink such as soda or juice so sure it's low - it's actually none.

Then low sugar is another good example. Yes, it might be low in sugar but check the label - how much high fructose corn syrup is in it?

Or another often used scenario, instead of using sugar, break the type of sweeteners up into 3, 4, or 5 different sweeteners in one product and then list them all on the label. But since you don't read the labels, how are you ever going to know they used 3 or 4 other sweeteners instead of just sugar? After all, the only thing printed on the front label is "Low In Sugar".

Here listed below is some other common scenes played out every day in the food manufacturing industry. Watch out for these traps and steer clear by making some other healthier choices.

• Don't end up paying for "alternative juice". How does this happen? Every beverage company knows apple juice and white grape juice are the cheapest kind of juices you can get. So, it is common practice to take one of these lower quality juices, add some flavoring oils and then market it as blueberry, pomegranate, strawberry kiwi etc.
  
  
• Using chemical fertilizers and pesticides has become such common practices in many countries, most fresh fruits and vegetables are already contaminated before they even make it to processing at the factory. Alleviate this, just buy the fruit itself, organic of course, and peel it (if necessary) and eat it right out of the skin itself.
  
  
• Starting to hit the shelves more and more is the claim "with Fiber". Since many people know the best source of fiber is in the unpeeled fruit, the skins of fruit or in the pulp in an orange or grapefruit they assume this means they are getting a minimally processed glass of juice. Check that label again and see just what you are getting. It is called maltodextrin, a man-made carbohydrate which your body is unable to digest thus blood sugar spikes is the undesirable final result.
  
  
• Fruit juice, health drinks, sports drinks, "straight from the field" labels and many like this all have one thing in common. Manufacturing knows people love the taste of sugar - it actually brings you back for more. So many of those healthy for you versions are so high in sugar, if you actually knew how to break those numbers down into the equivalent in your sugar bowl, you'd probably drink nothing but water ever again in your life.
  
  
• Food dyes and chemical colorings might be pretty but what are they made of? How about some crushed beetles (for red) while almost all the other FD&C colorings is a combination cocktail of industrial chemicals and flavorings.
  

So yes, the manufacturing community is often looking out for your interests. Unfortunately, that includes your interest in overspending and over-indulging on products which could never be considered good for anyone's health. Take some time and learn how you can help yourself and the family by making some of your own versions of a healthier for you beverage.