"Is Candy Evil or Just Misunderstood?"

I came across an interesting article in the Dining section of the New York Times recently, titled “Is Candy Evil or Just Misunderstood?” I thought the topic of candy was quite fitting for Halloween. The author discusses the history of sweets in America and why it has such a bad reputation.

In the article, Samira Kawash, the blogger behind Candy Professor, defines candy as “a processed food, eaten for pleasure, with no particular nutritional benefit.” And yet, she and others in the article point out that we eat all sorts of other, sugar-packed foods — like granola bars, certain cereals and yogurt, and fruit juice under the belief that they are much more nutritious: As the article states, “Nutritionally there is little difference between a gummy bear and a bite of fruit leather.” And yet, “candy carries so much moral and ethical baggage that people view it as fundamentally different — in a bad way — from other kinds of food.” I think this view stems from the health claims and marketing attached to many of these food products.

Many of today’s popular health claims including low fat, no high fructose corn syrup, trans fat free, organic and all natural can lead people to select foods, especially snack items, without paying much attention to whether these foods are truly nutritious choices. This gives certain foods a “health halo” attached to them, making them appear much healthier than they truly are. I am certainly subject to buying some food according to this notion.

At a recent visit to the supermarket, I came across dozens of outrageous nutrition/health claims of various food products ranging from ground beef to soda to crackers. I found a bag of chips which were described on the label in huge letters as “vegetable chips.” A quick look at the ingredients indicated that they are actually made from a variety of potatoes cooked in oil…I saw another claim of pretzels marketed as “Cholesterol Free!” Well, obviously they are…What other outlandish nutrition claims can you think of? Have these claims impacted your purchasing behavior?

What I’ve learned is that we can’t let these “health halos” dominate our decisions about food products. Going back to the candy debate, I think the issue centers on the idea that as our culture becomes more and more health conscious, people have been quick to give candy the evil glare. But maybe instead of arguing that candy is an evil invention, we need to look at our society at large, particularly America’s fixation with sugar and how it was evolved over time.