Food fads: should we do more to protect consumers?
One good example would be the current fad for everything coconut. This is being pushed as a super healthy alternative to fats, dairy, flour and more. But coconut oil is getting more and more media attention for the fact that it contains mostly saturated fats and could, in fact, potentially be very unhealthy.
While it seems that consumers have yet to catch onto this news, it probably won’t take too long to become common knowledge and, at that point, the backlash will be wholesale. Even the ubiquitous coconut waters will be vilified.
Access to the same knowledge
The part that is interesting to us is that the developers behind many of these products would have likely had access to the same knowledge. So, is continued production and development of these products morally wrong, or are you obligated to produce what a consumer wants, regardless?
This is an interesting dilemma and one that is rearing its head more and more as the massive health food trend continues to develop. Ultimately, the perceptions of consumers have always been steered by marketing, but it is the increasing focus on nutrition and health where this could have a more detrimental impact over time.
The saturated fat issue with coconut is a fairly extreme example, and one that has been argued against – driven by another relatively recent wave of research that suggests we are not eating nearly enough fat for a healthy diet. So, it may yet come full circle and we could see people claiming that the coconut oil is a good way to get this saturated fat that we need.
Poorly understood science
A more common example is created by poorly understood science. Take turmeric, for example. The active component curcumin can supposedly do amazing things. However, it is being marketed with half-truths surrounding the amount of turmeric you would actually need to consume in order to get close to an effective dose.
The short answer really seems two-fold. Firstly, food production is a business and the goal is to make money, and secondly, we are ultimately a service industry and we survive by giving consumers what they want.
This leaves us in that uneasy grey area we work within. But should we be doing more to protect consumers from themselves?
