When Is Healthy NOT Healthy?

Question: When is healthy not healthy? 

Answer: When it is deployed by a shrewd marketer nudging you to buy a product. 

Healthy isn’t always healthy. But our Food and Drug Administration has become wise to the misuse and misappropriation of “healthy.”  Today, foods must meet specific criteria to use the nutrient content claim “healthy.” On September 28, 2022, the FDA issued a proposed rule to update the definition of the “healthy” claim, to be consistent with current nutrition science. Additionally, the FDA is conducting research on a symbol that industry can voluntarily apply for labeling food products as “healthy.”  Symbols may be particularly helpful for those with a poor understanding of nutrition. 

A Fog Of Ambiguity

The science of marketing—unlike the science of nutrition—succeeds in a fog of ambiguity.  Simple word substitutes can “nudge” a consumer in one direction or another.  How often is the adjective “NEW” nothing more than a repurposed “old wine, in new bottles.”  

If you’ve been reading my blog consistently, you know that I revere Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein and their provocative book, Nudge.  In their accounts, behavioral economists have shown that they can nudge irrational human beings to be more rational.  By looking at one’s watch, you make others sensitized to time.  By drinking a glass of water, you place hydration in the front of mind.  Or by yawning at the gate you are flying out of, you impose a sleep potion on all those nearby.

‍Swaying MIT Econ 101

In their seminal work, Sway, brothers Ori and Rom Brafman reveal many examples where word choice can make a huge change in influencing outcome.  In one exercise, they had an unannounced substitute professor lead an economics lecture at MIT.  Before class started, students were given a short bio on the unknown teacher.  Half the class learned that he was “very warm,” the other half was informed that he was “rather cold.”  Additionally, the entire class was told that he was a 26-year old Veteran, married, industrious, practical and a graduate student at MIT.  

At the end of the hour, the attending students were asked to complete a simple questionnaire.  The group nudged to think he was “very warm” described him as “good natured, considerate of others, informal, sociable, popular, humorous, and humane.”  The students nudged to perceive him as “rather cold” considered him “self-centered, formal, unsociable, unpopular, irritable, humorless, and ruthless.”  Both groups attended the entire class and heard the same words from the professor.  

‍Healthy Penalties For Misuse

Marketers often use nudging to create an initial impression.  That’s why labeling your product as “healthy” may serve to improve your sales.  If new product choosers haven’t even taken a bite, but are expecting healthy or tasty or sweet, that modest finger on the scale will yield its desired effect.  

In the FDA’s case, however, there is no wink-wink involved in improper word choice.  Instead, criminal penalties may be the end result for firms misappropriating “healthy” to describe their high sodium or ultra-sweet food products.  

‍Healthy Nudges

At Healthrageous, we under-emphasize labels that contain nutritional information.  After all, 9 grams of riboflavin is still Greek to most people.  So all of our meals are good for our consumers living with heart disease or adult-onset diabetes.  However, when it comes to behavioral nudging, we practice it as often as we can.  Our digital platform is constantly messaging on the value of drinking water or adopting good sleep hygiene practices, like getting to sleep at the same time every night in a dark room with no electronics.  As always, one must be vigilant regarding both the message and the messenger.