Victims of marketing. How do manufacturers of “healthy” products deceive us?

It turns out that the packaging of even the most seemingly useful product can contain anything. You should pay attention not to the appearance of the product, but to its composition. However, it can also deceive.

Yogurts

We are used to the fact that yogurt is a useful product for digestion. This is true if it is natural. But today in stores a huge number of yogurt of different brands, which look like “real”. The key word is look. Have you seen “yogurts” in stores that say “yogurt product”, “yogurt dessert”, “yogurt-based product” and the like? These are all tricks of ingenious manufacturers. Such products most often do not contain anything “alive” because they are heat-treated. Real yogurt should contain beneficial bacteria, not pieces of milk chocolate, cookies or strawberry mousse with cream. Artificial additives add flavor, but can be dangerous for people with individual intolerances. If you’re looking for benefits rather than sugar and preservatives, it’s not the packaging you should be looking at.

How to find real yogurt?

• The name. “Yogurt” and only “yogurt.” Products with a caption like “yogurt smoothie” or “yogurt product” should be avoided. The same goes for the words “strawberry,” “blueberry,” “peach,” and others. There is no benefit in such fruit fillings, because manufacturers often replace natural berries and fruits with dyes and flavorings. Want to eat yogurt with real strawberries – read the composition or add it yourself.
• Composition. Whole milk, cream, whey, natural additives (fruit pieces) and live bacteria (yogurt starter) must necessarily be in the composition. The inscription “made on the basis of live and active yogurt cultures” guarantees the absence of the listed ingredients. If the energy value of the product (without additives) is more than 70 Kcal, it means that it has more sugar than necessary.
• Shelf life. Natural yogurt is stored for no more than two weeks in the refrigerator.

Sugar-free products

Avoid sugar for many reasons. This product is definitely not useful for those who are trying to lose weight or are undergoing treatment for various diseases – both factors require compliance with the diet. Or those who suffer from diabetes mellitus.

However, even in diabetic products (for example, in bars), manufacturers manage to add if not sugar in the literal sense of the word, then no less harmful components. About this in his “instagram” told nutriciologist and nutritionist Anna Berseneva.

Anna: No matter how sad it is to admit it, but many manufacturers use the image of a healthy food product as a marketing tool. And this is very, very bad. Even if the packaging by all the laws of the genre screams “No sugar!”, we check it. And we can find a lot of interesting things in the composition. Unfortunately, in the most negative aspect. Some of the most dangerous ingredients for a “diabetic” bar: glucose syrup and glucose, fructose syrup and fructose, invert syrup.

Cheeses

Under the guise of cheese, cheese-like products are found in stores. In such products, instead of milk fat, vegetable fat is added to save money. For example, palm or coconut fat is one and a half times cheaper than milk fat. Manufacturers of fake cheese often write that their goods are made according to GOST. So the product sells better. But this is not the cheese that we want to see on our table.

How to distinguish between cheese and cheese product?

• Name. On the package should be written “cheese”, and not “combined product”, “cheese product”, “made by cheese technology” and the like. Such names have nothing to do with real cheese.
• Composition. According to GOST, cheese can contain natural milk, cream, bacterial starters and useful enzymes (of animal origin). No vegetable fats, harmful additives, flavorings, colorings and enzyme preparations of microbial origin in it should not be. In general, for any product works the rule: the shorter the composition, the more useful the product.
• Hind. Good cheese is not cheap. According to Roskontrol, the minimum retail price of natural cheese is 420 rubles / kg. This is due to the cost of milk fat. In the store such cheese is more expensive because of the markup, about 600 rubles / kg. To reduce the cost, manufacturers use dried milk (GOST allows you to add whole or skim milk) and milk fat substitutes. Beef fat is among the most dangerous.

Glazed cheesecakes

Glazed cheesecakes are often given to children instead of cottage cheese. It seems to be a healthy, tasty and inexpensive snack. However, in terms of nutritional value, it is closer to confectionery. One cheese has an average of three teaspoons of sugar and 25% fat. Even the signature “made according to GOST” does not guarantee quality.

There is a GOST, but there is no GOST

“Roskontrol” found that in five glazed cheesecakes out of seven yeast more than necessary, and found sorbic acid prohibited by GOST. Trust the labeling is also not worth it, because in the most allegedly “diet” products fat curd mass does not correspond to the declared. In the cheese with the inscription “GOST” found starch, which can not be used for the manufacture of cottage cheese. By the way, it was not specified in the composition.

Not chocolate, but fat glaze

“Curd cheese in milk chocolate” – only the name. To sell the product, you can write anything. Of course, there are bona fide manufacturers who cover glazed cheesecakes with real chocolate. However, they will necessarily indicate this in the composition. More often glazed cheeses are called chocolate, caramel and other “tasty” names, and cover them with confectionery or fat glaze. And it is good if it is spelled out in the composition.

How to choose a cheese?

Buy cheeses without “scary” words on the label and with a fat content of about 10%, and prefer cottage cheese with natural sweeteners.