Consider The Source, or Part of This Complete Breakfast?

In today’s world of mass media absolutely everywhere, a huge amount of the messages we’re getting are marketing messages. People trying to sell us something. Sometimes we take what we hear and believe it is fact. It makes sense to us.

Do research. Please.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

For eggxample (pun always intended), eggs are a popular food. You can find them in a lot of foods, or as the main part of your omelette. From our culture and education, we have certain assumptions. The one in this case is “fat/cholesterol is bad.” So someone one day says “what if I can give someone an egg without the fat or cholesterol?” Tada, Egg Beaters is born. Consumers say “I like eggs, I don’t like fat or cholesterol. BUY!” I don’t know that egg beaters as a brand are as popular in foods anymore, but there are tons of restaurants that offer “healthy” versions of their breakfasts by using only egg-whites.

It makes sense, right? Eggs = good. Cholesterol + Fat = bad. Egg whites = eggs – (cholesterol + fat)

The point here is that the consumer never stopped and considered that people have been eating eggs for thousands of years and doing just fine. Does the man with all the money in his pockets really know better than nature? Turns out whole eggs are better for you!

So now there are a lot of people going around thinking they’re eating healthier because they’ve bought into the message of a smart marketer.

The food industry is full of these. Sugary cereals are “part of this complete breakfast.” I heard that every day as a kid from ads. Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch… but I just ate them because they tasted good. Lots of sugar, minimal nutrients. A healthy complete breakfast is probably more along the lines of a whole-egg and vegetable omelette, and some real fruit.

“Milk, it does a body good.”

Does it? I’ll let you look that one up.

If you’re brain isn’t too fried… what are other messages out there that you see people buy into as fact?