Misleading Commericals

by Brooke on November 27, 2012

Commercials can be very misleading!  They can make you think you are helping a good cause, going to lose weight if you buy a specific product, or can help your child meet their nutritional needs without practicing eating balanced meals.  Most of the food and dietary supplement commercials we see on TV are selling products we don’t actually need.

New Pink Lemonade 5-hour ENERGY®

http://youtu.be/ocUaGhw5Gb4

If you really want more energy just workout and eat balanced meals!

If you really want to support breast cancer check out these links instead:

Mega-T (Green Tea Dietary Supplement)

What is annoying about this commercial:

1)  Did they have to use the term “muffin top?”  I think that it may have grabbed the attention of a few viewers, but using this term to make people feel bad about their bodies and buy the product seems inappropriate to me.

2)  Don’t you just love that the statement during the commercial, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnosis, treat, cure, or prevent any disease” is in really small print?  The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 defines a dietary supplement as, “a product taken by mouth that contains a ‘dietary ingredient’ intended to supplement the diet.”  The FDA doesn’t have the resources to analyze dietary supplements; therefore, they are not approved as safe or effective before hitting the retail selves.

3)  This product did not undergo any scientific research studies proving its effectiveness.

4)  The commercial mentions that this product is effective in combination with a healthy diet and exercise routine.  Save yourself some money….just workout and eat healthy!

PediaSure

PediaSure often gets the positive reputation as being a band-aid for poor eating habits or diet.  It is not.

If your child is under the 5th percentile for weight-for-age, then maybe I would recommend this product.  BUT the average healthy child just needs to practice eating their vegetables.  It is repeat exposure to healthy snacks and meals that help these picky eaters get use to new flavors and textures.

Another thing that is misleading about this commercial is that the food pyramid that they used as an example of a balanced diet is outdated.  The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) replaced the MyPyramid guide on June 2, 2011 with the MyPlate.

 

Think before you buy and when in doubt ask your Registered Dietitian!

 

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Dagny November 27, 2012 at 3:51 pm

My pet peeve commercial is for Great Grains cereal. A series of very thin women claim they “know” a cereal is “better nutrition” because it looks like it is. I suppose Post has found a statement they can get away with saying “You can’t argue with nutrition you can see” and people will draw conclusions that Great Grains is some kind of nutritionally-superior product. Each variety of this cereal contains sugar and corn syrup.

http://youtu.be/W2fmJDiWGDA

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