Thursday, December 17, 2015

Badvertising: For God's Sake, Just Frickin' Eat Butter!

While I'll be taking a break from blogging for the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of my favourites from back in 2012.
Yet another example of why national Food Guides matter.

Here's an advertisement from Becel for its Becel Buttery Taste Margarine which they flog as,
"having 80% less saturated fat than butter and with a delicious buttery taste"
They also make sure to note,
"A healthy diet low in saturated and trans fat may reduce the risk of heart disease"
Yet saturated fat has been exonerated as being a dramatic independent risk factor of disease....probably something worth telling the general public, but of course Health Canada can't possibly respond to a changing evidence base by actually changing recommendations. I mean come on, that would mean changing the Food Guide more frequently than every 10-15 years.  That's just crazy talk.

You know what else has a "delicious buttery taste"? Frickin' BUTTER! And it has the same number of calories as the margarine you're buying because you like the taste of butter but are scared of it because your government told you to be.  Well guess what?  using butter as a condiment isn't likely to hurt you and guaranteed, it'll be far more delicious than your "buttery",
"Canola and sunflower oils 74%, water, modified palm and palm kernel oils 6%, salt 1.5%, buttermilk powder 1%, soy lecithin 0.2%, natural & artificial flavor, potassium sorbate, vegetable monoglycerides, citric acid, alpha-tocopherol acetate, calcium disodium EDTA, vitamin A palmitate, beta-carotene, vitamin D3."
Just frickin' eat butter!

Sigh.