March 28, 2023 • 13 mins
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Guest: Dr. Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Extension Specialist for Nutrition and Health
Season 5, Episode 30
When we think about topics of mystery and intrigue, nutrition doesn't often come to mind. However, on this episode of Talking FACS, Dr. Heather Norman-Burgdolf pulls back the curtain to reveal some of the most common types of nutrition fraud perpetrated in the US. She provides tips for spotting fraudulent claims as well as where to go to find information that is trustworthy, based on sound evidence.
FCS Extension has just completed a Big Blue Book Club session on this topic. For more information, you can watch the recordings of each session on our YouTube Channel linked below or scan the QR code in the graphic.
Big Blue Book Club - Is Butter A Carb? Playlist
To connect with FCS Extension:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Talking Facts.
What you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
families and communities to improve quality of life.
(00:24):
Hello and welcome to Talking Facts.
This is your host,
Doctor Jennifer Hunter,
assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today.
I'm pleased to be joined by Doctor Heather Norman Berghoff Extension Specialist for Food and Nutrition.
Welcome,
Heather,
glad to be back.
Excellent.
Well,
I am excited to welcome you back and our topic today is going to be protecting yourself against nutrition fraud.
(00:52):
And I think that this is a really interesting topic because often again my background for our listeners is family finance and resource management.
So we talk so often about scams and fraud associated from a financial standpoint.
But today we're gonna actually talk about nutrition fraud and let's just get started by,
(01:14):
I'm talking a little bit about nutrition misinformation and that it seems to be growing and that it's often difficult as a consumer to know what is true or false in the world of nutrition.
And I kind of started seeing this term nutrition fraud out there.
What does it mean?
So the same concept of fraud,
but we're just thinking about it in the context of health and nutrition.
(01:37):
So you might be familiar with the term health fraud,
which is used when products are promoted for profit,
using unsupported or unproven claims.
And unfortunately,
this costs us billions with a b of dollars each year.
Um And nutrition fraud is very similar.
It's probably the most common form of health fraud in our day and age and essentially consumers are being misled to believe that there's a product or an idea.
(02:01):
And in this case of nutrition,
it's gonna be,
you know,
a food,
a food group,
a diet,
a supplement,
something along those lines can provide some specific benefit that makes the item or concept worth purchasing.
So they want you to spend money on it.
And so companies and marketing strate strategies,
they really want us to develop these exaggerated or unsupported beliefs about things.
(02:22):
And with nutrition,
it's usually two different,
it goes two different ways.
So first it's that a certain food diet or supplement is better than others and has the power to,
you know,
cure disease or has some superior health benefit for us.
Or on the other hand,
it's selling the idea that certain foods or food groups need to be eliminated because they are put in air quotes bad or harmful.
(02:45):
And essentially,
it's a,
a form of fear mongering that's created.
As you talk about nutrition fraud.
I think about how similar it is to financial fraud or scams that really and truly,
it's trying to take advantage of individuals that are in a vulnerable situation.
And as consumers,
we often feel vulnerable with our money,
(03:06):
but then also as consumers,
we feel vulnerable when it comes to our health and our nutrition.
And so where is it that we most often see nutrition fraud?
I don't even,
I don't think we realize how often we're seeing this.
Um we may not even realize how much we are exposed to these types of health and nutrition fraud.
So just think about going about your day,
(03:26):
um say you run into the grocery store,
you're standing in line at the checkout,
you have those magazine covers,
you're at home,
you sit down,
you're flipping through the TV channels and you have,
there's a,
a talk show on or there's an infomercial selling something and there's more and more books out there that are being promoted on different topics.
Um And you know,
it may not necessarily be someone who's qualified to talk on that topic.
(03:48):
You might even get advertisements in the mail.
Um I even think about the people I run into every day.
So you come to work and you,
you're hearing coworkers maybe talking about a new diet or a product.
They are trying,
you have family members and friends who are encouraging you to try something new,
um something they saw or heard elsewhere that maybe worked for them.
(04:09):
And we haven't even mentioned the internet,
right?
So you can see how we really can just be bombarded by this.
So the internet is certainly the newest and largest avenue really boiling down to social media.
We have Instagram influencers,
you have Facebook posts and then tiktok videos.
Um There's just seems to be something new every day and we honestly can't even keep up with the amount of content information that's being shared,
(04:33):
that is not evidence based on social media platforms that are related to nutrition because there's so much out there.
And again,
just as we compare to financial fraud and scams that this is the same conversation that I would have about um the media messaging and where all of our messages are coming from and how we need to process those messages.
(04:54):
And just as you're talking and giving those examples,
I can think of real life scenarios of just yesterday.
I was at something with one of my kids and parents were,
were standing around talking and um one of the moms said to one of the dads,
hey,
I'm thinking about fad diet nickname,
you know,
(05:14):
that type of thing.
And he's like,
haven't you already done that?
You know,
and just this conversation back and forth and then,
you know,
they started talking about specific supplements and plans and,
and,
and you know,
and it was obvious as they were both talking that they didn't necessarily have the research base associated with it,
but it truly is just surrounding us every,
everywhere we go.
(05:34):
Um,
why is nutrition fraud such a concern?
Well,
I think the first one will ring a bell with you or resonate because really it,
it starts with money.
Right.
So you're thinking about that financial aspect and a lot of times clinging to nutrition,
frauds will undoubtedly lead to money spent,
especially if you're thinking about how you have to purchase,
you know,
highly priced foods or supplements or other products that are out out there.
(05:58):
And so let's just use supplements as an example.
Now we know that certain parts of our population benefit from supplements,
but it's,
you know,
half of adults in the US take supplements as of 2021 spending billions on vitamins and minerals alone.
And some studies have shown that many of these are taken because of health claims that are not supported by science.
(06:19):
So people are taking supplements thinking it's doing something.
But really we don't have the evidence there yet to support that.
The second one may even be more costly because it's it's health,
right?
So we're hoping to have some outcome with unwarranted claims.
So folks who believe that claims that are falsely made about products may not seek the medical care that they need.
(06:42):
You know,
they have this exaggerated belief that a food or a supplement is all that they need and they might not be getting the care that they actually need.
We may see folks implementing nutrition practices that are not backed by science for practices that we know are highly effective.
So they're essentially replacing what they actually need.
And that may be,
you know,
working with health care providers,
clinicians um to address prevent or treat certain diseases.
(07:05):
And can you give us some examples?
Yeah.
So it may seem extreme,
but there are known cases where individuals who are diagnosed with cancer opt to consume certain foods or diets in place of medical treatment under the care of an oncology team.
And so what what sign tells us in this case,
if we're talking about someone with cancer that a balanced nutritious diet focusing on adequate calories is beneficial for not only cancer prevention but treatment and survivorship.
(07:33):
However,
this is not meant to replace any type of medical treatment when it is needed,
right?
And so this is an example where nutrition fraud and and misinformed beliefs are really dangerous and can result in very serious consequences.
So as a consumer and acknowledging that this information is everywhere out there targeting us and that it's often difficult to discern what is good information versus what is misinformation.
(08:00):
How is it that we can protect ourselves from nutrition fraud?
Yes,
we want informed consumers just like we want consumers who are aware of financial scams and fraud.
That's,
that's no different in this case.
So unfortunately,
there's a limited amount of what the government can do um to regulate these unsupported claims made strategically by people who their job is to be a promoter and marketer of products and ideas.
(08:24):
And so we have to observe their basic rights of speed of,
of speech and press.
So that means we as consumers,
we must be informed and skeptical of everything we hear.
It's ok to be skeptical and ask questions.
So the first thing we can learn what helps is that food and food products are not medicine or magic.
It's not going to be a magical cure for all health conditions and diseases.
(08:45):
So if you see something that is promoted as that most likely we don't have the evidence to support that second,
we need to recognize that nutrition is usually talked about in a way that applies for everyone.
So for example,
you know who you said the just last night you heard people standing around talking about some fat diet,
they're probably talking about it,
how it would benefit all of them the exact same way and simply not the case.
(09:08):
Nutrition is much more complex than that.
We do have these broad general recommendations in our dietary guidelines.
But nutrition is so deeply connected to our physical health and everyone has different physical health.
My needs are very different even from yours,
right?
So think about how age,
sex has activity levels,
lifespan,
growth development,
all of that impacts our nutrition.
(09:29):
So there's no one size fits all approach to nutrition.
So if you're being sold something that says that it's probably not the case.
The,
the next thing that I'll say is just be leery of claims that say FDA approved because there are no regulated claims that include FDA in the actual label itself.
So those are just some buzzwords that are out there that we commonly see those include breakthrough cure miracle.
(09:54):
If you see something that has that just be leery,
ask questions,
be skeptical,
stay curious.
All great recommendations.
And and I think this reminder is of there is no one size fits all approach to nutrition is is key because it just as I was thinking about that conversation from last night,
um the two individuals having it couldn't have been more different,
(10:15):
male versus female,
their body shape size,
everything was completely different age demographics different,
just everything about them is completely different.
But yet they were talking about the same approach for,
for both of them.
Who can we look to for sound and evidence based information about nutrition.
(10:35):
This is a great question to end on,
right.
So who who can we look to?
We wanna look for nutrition experts that are called registered dieticians or licensed dieticians.
These folks will have an R D R D N or L D after their name to show their credentials.
And they are specifically trained to understand how food is related to health and make evidence based recommendations to promote health.
(10:57):
You may hear about people who complete certificates in nutrition or they call themselves just nutritionists.
This is not always trustworthy either because they are not required to have a license or maintain continuing education over time,
which is something registered dieticians are required to do next.
If you,
you're at home and you have a question and you have the internet at your disposal here,
(11:20):
you know,
research and government,
government based sources can also provide reliable information.
So if you're online specifically looking at websites that end in uh dot gov dot E D U and for the most part dot dot org is gonna be reliable.
And then last,
you gave me the opportunity to uh plug for cooperative extension here.
So we're an organization that prides itself on sharing evidence based and reliable information and we have loads of handouts,
(11:46):
fact sheets recipes ultimately to promote a balanced diet that supports and you know,
maintains health over time.
And so just reach out to your local extension office for any information.
Excellent Heather.
Thank you so much for joining us today and bringing awareness to the concept of nutrition fraud and um helping our listeners understand how to be more vient in caring for their help.
(12:11):
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Talking Facts.
We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
health resource management,
family development and civic engagement.
If you enjoyed today's podcast,
have a question or a show topic,
idea.
Leave a like and a comment on Facebook at UK F CS E X T or send us an email at UK F CS E X T at UK Y dot E D U.
(12:40):
Visit us online at F CS dot UK Y dot E D U to learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
We build strong families,
we build Kentucky.
It starts with us.
Welcome to Talking Facts.
What you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
families and communities to improve quality of life.
(00:24):
Hello and welcome to Talking Facts.
This is your host,
Doctor Jennifer Hunter,
assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today.
I'm pleased to be joined by Doctor Heather Norman Berghoff Extension Specialist for Food and Nutrition.
Welcome,
Heather,
glad to be back.
Excellent.
Well,
I am excited to welcome you back and our topic today is going to be protecting yourself against nutrition fraud.
(00:52):
And I think that this is a really interesting topic because often again my background for our listeners is family finance and resource management.
So we talk so often about scams and fraud associated from a financial standpoint.
But today we're gonna actually talk about nutrition fraud and let's just get started by,
(01:14):
I'm talking a little bit about nutrition misinformation and that it seems to be growing and that it's often difficult as a consumer to know what is true or false in the world of nutrition.
And I kind of started seeing this term nutrition fraud out there.
What does it mean?
So the same concept of fraud,
but we're just thinking about it in the context of health and nutrition.
(01:37):
So you might be familiar with the term health fraud,
which is used when products are promoted for profit,
using unsupported or unproven claims.
And unfortunately,
this costs us billions with a b of dollars each year.
Um And nutrition fraud is very similar.
It's probably the most common form of health fraud in our day and age and essentially consumers are being misled to believe that there's a product or an idea.
(02:01):
And in this case of nutrition,
it's gonna be,
you know,
a food,
a food group,
a diet,
a supplement,
something along those lines can provide some specific benefit that makes the item or concept worth purchasing.
So they want you to spend money on it.
And so companies and marketing strate strategies,
they really want us to develop these exaggerated or unsupported beliefs about things.
(02:22):
And with nutrition,
it's usually two different,
it goes two different ways.
So first it's that a certain food diet or supplement is better than others and has the power to,
you know,
cure disease or has some superior health benefit for us.
Or on the other hand,
it's selling the idea that certain foods or food groups need to be eliminated because they are put in air quotes bad or harmful.
(02:45):
And essentially,
it's a,
a form of fear mongering that's created.
As you talk about nutrition fraud.
I think about how similar it is to financial fraud or scams that really and truly,
it's trying to take advantage of individuals that are in a vulnerable situation.
And as consumers,
we often feel vulnerable with our money,
(03:06):
but then also as consumers,
we feel vulnerable when it comes to our health and our nutrition.
And so where is it that we most often see nutrition fraud?
I don't even,
I don't think we realize how often we're seeing this.
Um we may not even realize how much we are exposed to these types of health and nutrition fraud.
So just think about going about your day,
(03:26):
um say you run into the grocery store,
you're standing in line at the checkout,
you have those magazine covers,
you're at home,
you sit down,
you're flipping through the TV channels and you have,
there's a,
a talk show on or there's an infomercial selling something and there's more and more books out there that are being promoted on different topics.
Um And you know,
it may not necessarily be someone who's qualified to talk on that topic.
(03:48):
You might even get advertisements in the mail.
Um I even think about the people I run into every day.
So you come to work and you,
you're hearing coworkers maybe talking about a new diet or a product.
They are trying,
you have family members and friends who are encouraging you to try something new,
um something they saw or heard elsewhere that maybe worked for them.
(04:09):
And we haven't even mentioned the internet,
right?
So you can see how we really can just be bombarded by this.
So the internet is certainly the newest and largest avenue really boiling down to social media.
We have Instagram influencers,
you have Facebook posts and then tiktok videos.
Um There's just seems to be something new every day and we honestly can't even keep up with the amount of content information that's being shared,
(04:33):
that is not evidence based on social media platforms that are related to nutrition because there's so much out there.
And again,
just as we compare to financial fraud and scams that this is the same conversation that I would have about um the media messaging and where all of our messages are coming from and how we need to process those messages.
(04:54):
And just as you're talking and giving those examples,
I can think of real life scenarios of just yesterday.
I was at something with one of my kids and parents were,
were standing around talking and um one of the moms said to one of the dads,
hey,
I'm thinking about fad diet nickname,
you know,
(05:14):
that type of thing.
And he's like,
haven't you already done that?
You know,
and just this conversation back and forth and then,
you know,
they started talking about specific supplements and plans and,
and,
and you know,
and it was obvious as they were both talking that they didn't necessarily have the research base associated with it,
but it truly is just surrounding us every,
everywhere we go.
(05:34):
Um,
why is nutrition fraud such a concern?
Well,
I think the first one will ring a bell with you or resonate because really it,
it starts with money.
Right.
So you're thinking about that financial aspect and a lot of times clinging to nutrition,
frauds will undoubtedly lead to money spent,
especially if you're thinking about how you have to purchase,
you know,
highly priced foods or supplements or other products that are out out there.
(05:58):
And so let's just use supplements as an example.
Now we know that certain parts of our population benefit from supplements,
but it's,
you know,
half of adults in the US take supplements as of 2021 spending billions on vitamins and minerals alone.
And some studies have shown that many of these are taken because of health claims that are not supported by science.
(06:19):
So people are taking supplements thinking it's doing something.
But really we don't have the evidence there yet to support that.
The second one may even be more costly because it's it's health,
right?
So we're hoping to have some outcome with unwarranted claims.
So folks who believe that claims that are falsely made about products may not seek the medical care that they need.
(06:42):
You know,
they have this exaggerated belief that a food or a supplement is all that they need and they might not be getting the care that they actually need.
We may see folks implementing nutrition practices that are not backed by science for practices that we know are highly effective.
So they're essentially replacing what they actually need.
And that may be,
you know,
working with health care providers,
clinicians um to address prevent or treat certain diseases.
(07:05):
And can you give us some examples?
Yeah.
So it may seem extreme,
but there are known cases where individuals who are diagnosed with cancer opt to consume certain foods or diets in place of medical treatment under the care of an oncology team.
And so what what sign tells us in this case,
if we're talking about someone with cancer that a balanced nutritious diet focusing on adequate calories is beneficial for not only cancer prevention but treatment and survivorship.
(07:33):
However,
this is not meant to replace any type of medical treatment when it is needed,
right?
And so this is an example where nutrition fraud and and misinformed beliefs are really dangerous and can result in very serious consequences.
So as a consumer and acknowledging that this information is everywhere out there targeting us and that it's often difficult to discern what is good information versus what is misinformation.
(08:00):
How is it that we can protect ourselves from nutrition fraud?
Yes,
we want informed consumers just like we want consumers who are aware of financial scams and fraud.
That's,
that's no different in this case.
So unfortunately,
there's a limited amount of what the government can do um to regulate these unsupported claims made strategically by people who their job is to be a promoter and marketer of products and ideas.
(08:24):
And so we have to observe their basic rights of speed of,
of speech and press.
So that means we as consumers,
we must be informed and skeptical of everything we hear.
It's ok to be skeptical and ask questions.
So the first thing we can learn what helps is that food and food products are not medicine or magic.
It's not going to be a magical cure for all health conditions and diseases.
(08:45):
So if you see something that is promoted as that most likely we don't have the evidence to support that second,
we need to recognize that nutrition is usually talked about in a way that applies for everyone.
So for example,
you know who you said the just last night you heard people standing around talking about some fat diet,
they're probably talking about it,
how it would benefit all of them the exact same way and simply not the case.
(09:08):
Nutrition is much more complex than that.
We do have these broad general recommendations in our dietary guidelines.
But nutrition is so deeply connected to our physical health and everyone has different physical health.
My needs are very different even from yours,
right?
So think about how age,
sex has activity levels,
lifespan,
growth development,
all of that impacts our nutrition.
(09:29):
So there's no one size fits all approach to nutrition.
So if you're being sold something that says that it's probably not the case.
The,
the next thing that I'll say is just be leery of claims that say FDA approved because there are no regulated claims that include FDA in the actual label itself.
So those are just some buzzwords that are out there that we commonly see those include breakthrough cure miracle.
(09:54):
If you see something that has that just be leery,
ask questions,
be skeptical,
stay curious.
All great recommendations.
And and I think this reminder is of there is no one size fits all approach to nutrition is is key because it just as I was thinking about that conversation from last night,
um the two individuals having it couldn't have been more different,
(10:15):
male versus female,
their body shape size,
everything was completely different age demographics different,
just everything about them is completely different.
But yet they were talking about the same approach for,
for both of them.
Who can we look to for sound and evidence based information about nutrition.
(10:35):
This is a great question to end on,
right.
So who who can we look to?
We wanna look for nutrition experts that are called registered dieticians or licensed dieticians.
These folks will have an R D R D N or L D after their name to show their credentials.
And they are specifically trained to understand how food is related to health and make evidence based recommendations to promote health.
(10:57):
You may hear about people who complete certificates in nutrition or they call themselves just nutritionists.
This is not always trustworthy either because they are not required to have a license or maintain continuing education over time,
which is something registered dieticians are required to do next.
If you,
you're at home and you have a question and you have the internet at your disposal here,
(11:20):
you know,
research and government,
government based sources can also provide reliable information.
So if you're online specifically looking at websites that end in uh dot gov dot E D U and for the most part dot dot org is gonna be reliable.
And then last,
you gave me the opportunity to uh plug for cooperative extension here.
So we're an organization that prides itself on sharing evidence based and reliable information and we have loads of handouts,
(11:46):
fact sheets recipes ultimately to promote a balanced diet that supports and you know,
maintains health over time.
And so just reach out to your local extension office for any information.
Excellent Heather.
Thank you so much for joining us today and bringing awareness to the concept of nutrition fraud and um helping our listeners understand how to be more vient in caring for their help.
(12:11):
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Talking Facts.
We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
health resource management,
family development and civic engagement.
If you enjoyed today's podcast,
have a question or a show topic,
idea.
Leave a like and a comment on Facebook at UK F CS E X T or send us an email at UK F CS E X T at UK Y dot E D U.
(12:40):
Visit us online at F CS dot UK Y dot E D U to learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
We build strong families,
we build Kentucky.
It starts with us.
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