There’s a great article at diet-blog.com called “7 Ways The Food Companies Fool You”. According to the article, most people take only 4 seconds to read and digest the information on food product packaging.

What can you read and comprehend in 4 seconds? Not much - and that’s what food manufacturers are counting on.

The article lists 7 ways these slick marketers are pulling the wool over your eyes:

1. Put something wholesome and natural on the front (of the packaging)

2. Buzzword of the month - “whole grain” or “omega 3″

3. Big wrappers (or packaging)

4. Keep changing the product design

5. Ticks and bullet point lists (taking your attention away from other, less desireable ingredients)

6. Bite-sized. Mini-sized. Snack-sized.

7. It’s organic (and taking your attention away from less desireable ingredients like sugar)

I especially enjoyed the comments people left on this post. They really seem to understand that the foods we should be eating are “whole” foods - foods that have not been processed and sold to us in a cardboard box or metal can.

You can read the entire article here:

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2007/02/28/7_ways_the_food_companies_fool_you.php