Food confusion caused by information stress

Food confusion caused by information stress

The love for sustainable, healthier products is growing. The report "Monitor Duurzaam Voedsel 2014" ( Sustainable Food Monitor 201 4) states that the number of people who prefer sustainable, responsible, and fresh products has risen for the fifth year in a row. This is a development that has most likely not gone unnoticed. That people with gluten intolerance, celiac disease, cannot eat chocolate, pasta, and bread is no longer the norm. Supermarket shelves are now full of organic, sustainable, and gluten-free products.

For people with Celiac disease, the increasing supply of gluten-free products is a godsend, but to what extent are such products healthier for those not diagnosed with a gluten allergy? When dining out with friends or family these days, nine times out of ten there is someone who "won't be eating gluten for the next few months.

There is so much information about what is healthy and unhealthy for you that we can no longer see the forest for the trees. We try everything to boost our health. We call this food confusion due to information overload. We buy into stories about superfoods, cut out carbohydrates, and eat gluten-free because (in most cases) we are told that this is the way to live healthier. But what should we believe when every health report claims something different?

Fear is a poor counsellor

Food confusion as bad counselor

Due to the enormous amount of information available about nutrition, we tend to look for explanations for health complaints at the slightest provocation. More than 40% believe that most foods are less healthy than they were twenty years ago, even though fruit and vegetables have actually become healthier in recent years. Professor of psychology Winfried Rief claims that negative reporting causes people to become overly concerned, which in turn reinforces complaints and anxiety. As a result, bloating after a plate of pasta or a glass of milk is now immediately linked to celiac disease, even though that may not be the cause.

"Then we can't eat anything at all?"

We are losing track. "Can we no longer eat anything at all?" is a thought that occurs to many people when a new report is published about the negative effect of food on our health. A good example is the report already published by the World Health Organization on health risks in processed meat. A clear, scientifically substantiated answer to the question of the extent to which these hazardous substances pose health risks would remove a great deal of uncertainty and ignorance.

Back to basics

Frans believes that if you eat enough vegetables, fruits, fiber, vegetable oil, dairy, fish and nuts and in moderation red meat, (un)saturated fat, salt, sugar and alcohol you can continue to eat anything. Unless you are really allergic to it of course. "Boring, yeah right," he says, "but that advice works. Actually, we should all go back to basics: what is healthy food? Because people think they know what healthy eating is, but research shows that often we just don't know. If we build a diet from the Guidelines good nutrition 2015, drawn up by the Health Council, then we would have both feet back on the ground.

Stay close to yourself

The media plays an important role in today's understanding of nutrition. With the news about the healthy effects of superfoods, sustainable and responsible products, we have started to eliminate carbohydrates and gluten from our diet en masse. We are inundated with information about nutrition, leaving us ignorant of what is healthy. This ignorance creates confusion. We need to understand the extent to which nutrition protects our bodies or actually increases the risk of health risks. We need to get back to the basics of what is healthy nutrition? We need a healthy diet consistent with our behaviors that will actually make everyone live healthier lives.