Key Take Aways
1. Misleading Labels: The term "guilt-free" misleads consumers, as it implies moral judgment on food choices.
2. Individual Impact: Such labeling can lead to guilt, food anxiety, and negative body image by internalizing a distrust in the body's cues.
4. Societal Impact: Promotes fat stigma and prejudice by associating skinny physiques with moral superiority.
5. Consumer Awareness: Encourages consumers to be mindful of misleading health claims and choose foods based on personal well-being rather than marketing labels
Food Morality
The term 'guilt' suggests a crime or offence has been committed, 'guilt-free' the opposite. Guilt is moral term used to describe right and wrong behaviours, and it is an emotional term that delves deep into the psyche of humans. The feeling of guilt comes when a person compromised their own set values or violates moral societal standards.
So when we begin to label food as determining morality, we run into two main issues. The impact on the individual self and the greater societal impact.
The Individual Impact
I don't think it will shock you that I don't agree with blanket labelling food as "good" or "bad" from the point of view of Nutritionism. This is precisely what guilt-free food does. Often found in the health-food aisle, the products also follow some dogma of diet culture, like low-carb, natural, sugar free, fat-free etc.
So to a consumer looking to adhere to a low-carb diet, the labelling of guilt-free products seems rather appealing; problem solved. Eat, enjoy and stay on the path of righteousness. This disregards that a lot of product labelling is difficult to verify and loosely regulated. The consumer will likely trust the claims made on the front of the packaging instead of reading the nutrition label.
What happens to the consumer who buys all the guilt-free products to replace those "bad" foods but inevitably eats something off-plan?... Well, they feel guilt. For the messaging tells us that if we eat the "bad" food we have violated our values.
The internalisation of guilt and distrust in the body is an issue that affects so many people. The lasting result of this distrust in the body causes food anxiety, contributes to negative body image, and disconnect us from ourselves. You see, our bodies always seem to fail us by giving in to 'bad food', then the distrust in ourselves causes further reliance on these food labels, diets and professionals to tell us both "What is good for us" and "how to stick to it".
The Societal Impact
As explored in my previous blog, The Problem with Good Food, the moral association of food often implies that those with a skinny physique are better individuals.
"What the rhetoric here tells us on a greater level is those with a skinny physique, who control their bodily desires more, are "better" individuals."
This comes from the idea that those who do not fit the skinny societal expectations lack willpower, that they mindlessly eat, and those who are skinny are inherently more mindful. The skinny individual can avoid cravings for "bad" foods and therefore are more considerate of health, so they are morally better. This, of course, is not true.
However, labelling food as a moral choice, as guilty or guilt-free, contributes to fat stigma, shaming and prejudice.
Guilt-Free, this seemingly superficial, eye-catching label can have a far more significant impact than you might have ever considered.
What's the solution?
I suggest we are more mindful of the claims we internalise as consumers. To be aware that food products are competing with hundreds of others of the same for our money, not for our health and wellbeing. And to be armed with knowledge in ways gives us the power to choose the foods that feel good to us, to nourish and inhabit our bodies without guilt.
Notes:
Cooke, R. 2022 “The Problem with Good Food,” Ruby Cooke Nutrition. Available at: https://www.rubycooke.com/post/the-problem-with-good-food.
Driver, K. and JH Bloomberg School of Public Health (2016) Food Marketing and labeling, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Available at: https://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-and-nutrition/food-marketing-and-labeling/
Emily J. H. Contois 2015 "Guilt-Free and Sinfully Delicious: A Contemporary Theology of Weight Loss Dieting",Fat Studies,4:2,112-126,DOI: 10.1080/21604851.2015.1015925
Mudry, J. et al. 2014 “Other ways of knowing food” Gastronomica, 14(3), pp. 27–33. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2014.14.3.27.
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