What is 'healthy'?

Foods and drinks are regularly labelled as ‘healthy’. This isn’t because the manufacturer wants consumers to eat a better diet — it is to increase sales of the product.

I don’t have a problem with this — after all consumers aren’t idiots and can well judge what they want to purchase. I do believe in honesty in labelling so that when I read a label I can be sure that I know what I am purchasing. But if the packaging is splashed with ‘healthy’ what does this mean?

The Macquarie dictionary has three meanings:

• Possessing or enjoying health
• Relating to or characteristic of health
• Conducive to health, or healthful

Well — this doesn’t progress my quest to find out what healthy is when it’s on my food pack. So what does Macquarie say about ‘health’?

• Soundness of body; freedom from disease or ailment
• The general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigour
• A polite or complimentary wish for a person’s health, happiness etc

Getting over the problem that in bullet three the definition of health includes health, the semantics don’t explain why putting the word healthy on a label will induce me to buy a product. I guess it all gets back to warm and fuzzy feelings — if it says healthy it must be good for me and better than any products that don’t say healthy.

Last May the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) expressed concern that labelling an individual food as healthy can be misleading for consumers and submitted a definition of healthy to the FDA.

IFT recommended the following:

• A hybrid approach to defining the term healthy. IFT suggested a food-based definition of the word healthy which combines nutrient limits and a statement describing how the food helps achieve dietary recommendations.
• The definition for healthy food should align with the three eating patterns recommended by the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Foods which exceed the recommended limits for sodium, added sugars and saturated fat should be excluded from being labelled as healthy.
• Foods fortified with essential nutrients should not be excluded from healthy labelling if the fortification is consistent with the FDA’s fortification policies and the food contributes to an overall healthy eating pattern.
• Consumer education on changes in labelling is essential to build and maintain consumer trust.

The IFT also recommended that if food and beverage products bear the term healthy, it should be used in the context of overall diet to help promote healthy eating patterns. Diets should comprised diverse foods and beverages across various food categories, as noted in the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Further, consumers should be mindful of the amount and frequency of each of the foods and beverages they consume, in context of the overall diet.

In Australia the state and territory health departments are responsible for enforcing food laws and both the Food Regulations and the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act — administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) — prohibit false and misleading information.

The Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code regulates the use of specific health and nutrient content claims:

• General level health claims refer to a nutrient or substance in a food and its effect on a health function. They must not refer to a serious disease or to a biomarker of a serious disease.
• High level health claims refer to a nutrient or substance in a food and its relationship to a serious disease or to a biomarker of a serious disease.

But ‘healthy’ in isolation has no legal or formal meaning and the Food Standards Code neither regulates nor defines these loose terms.

I think I’ll pop out for a healthy gin and tonic!

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/fortyforks