In India today, the word 'healthy' appears on everything—from breakfast cereals and packaged juices to snack bars and instant mixes. Supermarket shelves are lined with products claiming to be natural, zero sugar, multigrain, or no preservatives. Yet, despite this flood of health-forward branding, India continues to face a growing burden of lifestyle disorders.
We are witnessing a dual crisis. On one side, undernutrition persists in vulnerable communities. On the other hand, urban India is battling rising obesity, diabetes, PCOD, thyroid disorders, hypertension, and stress-related illnesses. The contradiction is stark. The label 'healthy' does not claim to be all-natural and beneficial. It is an effect of marketing that has overpowered nutrition.
The misleading claims
The rise of wellness-related knowledge is causing nutrition to be an everyday topic. Social media, influencer-led diets, and celebrity endorsements have made this trend even more visible. With the effect of increasing knowledge, the misleading claims around an individual’s personal health also arose.
Words like natural, immunity-boosting, low-fat, or multigrain are often used strategically. These terms can often be used in advertising without any supporting context. Attractive packaging has a significantly more positive effect on purchasing decisions than providing nutritional facts.
The regulatory gap
Legislation on food safety and standardisation is overseen in India by the FSSAI, which has made nutrition labelling mandatory. However, front-of-pack claims remain loosely interpreted and frequently exaggerated. Because of this, some items provide limited nutritional insights and more unauthenticated health claims.
Ingredients highlighted on the front often distract from the broader nutritional composition. Many people end up buying items that they think have better value than the actual nutritional products. It is due to the misleading front-of-the-pack information.
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This lack of knowledge and confusion leads to an increased burden on the health care system in India for all individuals, especially for those suffering from obesity or diabetes. They attempt to manage an unhealthy and unbalanced diet with products claiming to be healthy but in truth are filled with processed ingredients.
How consumers can look beyond the label
In addition to the regulatory reforms, consumer awareness has a tremendous impact on purchasing decisions. Here are a few actions suggested by the best nutritionists on how consumers can use their consumer awareness:
- Read the ingredient list, not just the front label: When reading ingredient labels, be careful of the ingredients in the largest amounts. If the first three ingredients of a product are sugar, refined flour, or additives, then the product is likely to be unhealthy, regardless of what is written on the package.
- Check total sugar, sodium, and fat content: Just because a product is advertised as being 'no added sugar', it doesn't mean there are not naturally occurring sugars in extremely high amounts. Always check nutrition labels to evaluate the overall nutrition of a product rather than relying on its marketing campaigns.
- Avoid extreme diet trends without medical guidance: Diets that cause dramatic weight reduction or severe food consumption may offer immediate results, but can negatively affect your metabolism and hormones. A research-based approach leads to sustainable changes in the long term.
- Prioritise whole foods over packaged convenience: Nutritional content from fresh fruits, vegetables, lentils, nuts, and foods prepared at home does not contain artificial preservatives. Prefer natural food over packaged food.
Small shifts in awareness can significantly reduce the influence of marketing and restore control over personal health decisions.
A call for authentic change
India needs stronger consumer empowerment. The best way to help consumers know the truth about their food is to create mandatory front-of-pack warning labels and stricter regulations for health claims. In addition, large-scale efforts are made to educate the general public as to how to read labels to understand the quality of the food.
There are no quick fixes to stay healthy. The efficient approach to achieving health is consuming whole foods, evidence-based products, following individualised diet planning, and making lifestyle changes that can be sustained over time.
You cannot create true wellness by advertising; it has to be created by being science-based, having integrity, and being committed for the long haul. It is time we restore the meaning to the word 'healthy'.
( Dr Rohini Patil is a Nutritionist, Founder & CEO of Nutracy Lifestyle)
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
