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My neighbor pointed out the 'made with real fruit' lie on my cereal box

I was having coffee with my neighbor Linda last week and she saw my cereal on the counter. She said, 'You know that 'made with real fruit' label just means there's a tiny bit of fruit powder, right? It's like 2% of the total weight.' I checked the ingredients and she was totally right, the 'strawberries' were way down the list after three types of sugar. What other labels are basically just marketing tricks?

4 comments

4 Comments

mianelson3mo ago

Yeah I read something like what @kai_webb91 said about "all natural" being totally meaningless, it's just a marketing trick.

foster.jordan1mo ago

Wait, didn't you used to think "natural" meant something real too? I was the same way. I grew up thinking a "natural" label meant the food was somehow healthier or cleaner than the regular stuff. It took me way too long to realize it's basically a sticker companies can slap on anything. Now I just ignore the front of the package and flip it over to read the ingredients. That "all natural" chips thing really got me too. It's wild how much we trusted those words without checking what's actually in the box.

kai_webb914mo ago

Oh man, that "made with real fruit" one got me for years. I felt so healthy eating my rainbow colored cereal. The big one for me is "all natural". That doesn't mean anything official, it's just a feel-good sticker. I bought "all natural" chips once that were just fried in normal oil with a bunch of salt. And "lightly sweetened" is another good trick. It just means they used less sugar than their super sugary version, not that it's actually low in sugar. You gotta check the actual grams on the label.

karenb974mo ago

I always fell for that one too! Reading the ingredients list really opens your eyes.