Comments on: Choosing foods: salads, French fries, and supplements

By: occasional fish » Monday various

occasional fish » Monday various — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:40:21 +0000

[...] First, the suggestion that the “health aura” of things like salads, etc., actually encourages us to eat unhealthy foods instead. And second, an optical illusion you can’t help but see — unless, of course, [...]

By: Alice

Alice — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:39:05 +0000

Re fiber; interesting hypothesis, I like it. but regarding apples – they have only a very minimal amount, and it is soluble fiber, not insoluble. Insoluble is the one that helps your intestines, and cereals are a great source. Soluble e.g. from oatmeal, or fruit (small amounts) helps your cholesterol, but not your colon.

By: Neuroworld » Blog Archive » How Fast-Food Salads Make You Fat » A True/Slant Contributor

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:04:49 +0000

[...] idea, basically, as put on the Food Politics blog, is that the salad creates a “health aura” effect, as when food companies add omega-3s [...]

By: Spider

Spider — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:42:48 +0000

Yes, whenever I order a sandwich at any shop of Subway, the clerks invariably ask me “Cheese?” or “What kind of cheese?” even when I’ve clearly physically moved my body away from the cheese/meat section and I am looking at the lettuce/tomato section. Darn it, if I wanted cheese, I would say I want cheese!

By: Matilde

Matilde — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:09:50 +0000

I’ve always wondered if an effect like this might be at work at Subway sandwich shops. Most people appear to order the most caloric items on the menu. You have to insist repeatedly to get no cheese and no mayo on your sandwich (it’s clearly not commonly ordered that way, even though all their nutritional info on their heavily advertised healthy options assumes the sandwich contains neither).

If hardly anyone orders these sandwiches this way, and yet Subway continues to heavily promote them, Subway must believe that their very presence on the menu brings people in the door, even though customers seldom order them. (Indeed the study above suggests that their presence on the menu make customers more likely to indulge than they would otherwise).

By: Matthew Yglesias » The “Health Aura”

Matthew Yglesias » The “Health Aura” — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:01:44 +0000

[...] how this works. But this finding (via Ezra Klein) is truly weird. It seems that the mere presence of a salad on a fast food menu makes people more likely to order french [...]

By: Matilde

Matilde — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:01:07 +0000

As someone who has been on a restricted calorie diet for many years in order to maintain a healthy weight, I can still be amazed at how most people think about food and what they eat. I’ve certainly noticed the ‘healthly halo’ effect – where the presence of even one ‘healthy’ item atones for the rest of the sins on the plate.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:46:47 +0000

I’ve noticed that too. It’s really funny, because fiber doesn’t actually prevent colorectal cancer in and of itself; my hypothesis is that fiber relative to total carbohydrate does because insulin is the primary growth factor in chordates. And there are tastier ways to get fiber than prepackaged cereals. (An apple, for instance.)

By: Asparagus Soup

Asparagus Soup — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:33:43 +0000

I have a rule: don’t eat food that makes health claims. For instance, I used to eat Post Raisin Bran. On the box, in big green letters, even bigger than the words “Raisin Bran”, were the words “Digestive Health”. So I looked in the ingredients. Yeah, sure, wheat bran is high in fiber…but what about HFCS, also in the ingredients? I doubt that is going to do wonders for any kind of health.

By: Iris Daniela Fanatean

Iris Daniela Fanatean — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:35:14 +0000

This reminds me of this study that was done back in 2006 that “In a series of experiments, we demonstrate that remedy messages undermine risk perceptions and increase risky behavioral intentions as consumer problem status rises. Ironically, remedies undermine risk avoidance among those most at risk—a boomerang effect with negative consequences for consumer welfare.”
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/504137
It kind of explains the fries over salad doesnt it?