How to Be a Conscious Eater

Health halos: A “health halo” is a psychological phenomenon in

which we perceive a product overall as being healthier and

lower in calories when it has one or more labels indicating

that something we perceive as bad has been removed—

classic examples are “low-fat” and “gluten-free.” In reality,

those products are typically about the same calorically and

the same or worse nutritionally (depending on the replace-

ment ingredients, which are often higher amounts of salt and

sugar). As a result, most of us will unwittingly eat more of prod-

ucts like these than we would have of the original product.

Product imagery can have a similar health halo effect.

Because most of us are naturally drawn to convenience and

novel food products that skew less healthy than their whole-

foods ancestors, much effort goes into making foods that

aren’t too good for us seem good for us. Ever see the product

veggie sticks or veggie straws? It’s a classic health halo exam-

ple. On the front you’ll

see beautiful portraits

of spinach and tomatoes,

but the first ingredient is

actually potato flour. Then

farther down the list you’ll

see some spinach powder or

tomato powder. Tricksters! I

fell for this myself recently

with beet crackers. There

was a photo on the front of

a racy red beet. Only once I

got home did I notice that

the first ingredient was

actually potato flour. Sure,

“beet powder” was sec-

ond on the list, but it

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