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The “Halo Effect” of Health Foods

 There’s currently a rising popularity in healthy foods, but obesity rates are going up at the same time.

 Researchers at Cornell University set out to determine why we are eating healthier foods and still gaining weight.

 They’ve found that it is most likely due to “health halo effect”, meaning when consumers hear that there is a fast food restaurant that has low calorie foods, they over generalize that all or most of the foods in the restaurant are healthy. And that is just not the case.

 In fact, consumers estimated that sandwiches from healthier fast food restaurants contain 35% fewer calories than they actually had. And not only that, as a result of their underestimation, consumers then felt it was ok to load up on beverages, side dishes and desserts containing up to 130% more calories then when the main course they ordered was advertised as healthy, as compared to when it was not.

 Also in their study, the researchers found the sandwiches positioned as healthy already contained 50% more calories than the unhealthy sandwiches.

 A few things you can do include, examining whether low calorie claims by restaurants apply to the particular food you plan on ordering, and learn to think of food in terms of calories rather than if it is a good food or a bad food.

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