The side effects of weenie water & 5 million Google results

Cycle of Bullying

$28
for a bottle of hot dog water. Found at a festival in Vancouver, Canada, the
water with a floating weenie racked up $1,500 in sales. It was marketed as a
miracle which “can help you look younger, reduce inflammation, and increase
your brain function.” It was also “keto-compatible and gluten-free.”

Really.

Weenie water and psychology

“Hot dog water, in its absurdity, hopes to encourage
critical thinking related to product marketing and the significant role it can
play in our purchasing choices,” said Douglas Bevans, the Hot Dog Water CEO.

It’s an interesting look at the need to critically think
about the food you’re buying—or not buying. Hot dog water, along with its
complementary products of breath spray, lip balm, and body fragrance, was a
study in human behavior

“Global News reported that Bevans is actually
a tour operator and an artist, and he created Hot Dog Water as a commentary on
the “snake oil salesmen” of health and wellness marketing. Psychology Today
cites a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research that
calls this phenomenon affective conditioning, which is a transfer of feelings
from one set of items to another.”

Fear trumps truth in food

This neuromarketing is a subtle bullying technique to
influence our brains’ emotional decisions while making food choices.As a result
of psychological maneuvering like this, the trust around food degrades, and the
conversation often turns highly emotional. “Fear based marketing. Clouded with
confusion. Fear trumps reason. Noisy minority agitates. Amazing technology
misunderstood. Best intentions misconstrued.” These are the typical descriptors
offered by my Twitter community when asked to describe the climate around food.

“Food is safe, nutritious and wholesome,” says Jennifer
Schmidt, a dietitian and farmer in Maryland. “The climate around food is fear
and falsehoods—a food fight.” She’s right. Little did I know when I wrote No
More Food Fights! in 2013 that people would be buying weenie water five
years later. Simply put, the side effects of food bullying are far-reaching,
and the continued growth in food bullying has reached a point of needing
national attention.

An obsession with healthy food

Have you heard of orthorexia? It’s an obsession with
eating foods one considers healthy. A person who suffers from this medical and
psychological condition avoids specific foods in the belief that they are
harmful. Even though people are eating healthy foods, it has detrimental health
effects because of the limited food selection.

Social media posts and photos about meal preparation,
including arrays of fruits and vegetables in colorful presentations, may
increase orthorexia and malnutrition, according to nutrition experts and people
who have experienced the eating disorder. RDN Christy Harrison says these
images may convince people that is the right way to eat, but “we can’t live off
fruits and vegetables alone.”

Negative eating emotions have consequences

What if we enjoyed food instead of guilting others about
eating choices and destroying relationships because of differences of opinion
around nutrition? One of the dietary directives in Japan is to “enjoy your
meals.”

 “There is a slew of
evidence that eating-related pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment are
important components of a healthy diet. At the same time, negative
emotions related to eating like guilt, fear, shame, and judgment have real
consequences for our health and well-being—and not just for social
reasons.”

As I extensively wrote
about in Food Truths from Farm to Table, food should be about
celebration, nourishment, and family tradition. There’s a downside to making
people feel guilty, confused, and fearful of food—it shows up in your
health and well-being. Keep that in mind as you make eating choices – don’t let
food bullying impact your wellness.

The
chaos of 5 million Google results

Google brings up five million results for “understanding
food labels.” How can you sort through that chaos? Look for meaningful and
measurable labels. There is no easy answer, particularly given all the players
involved in food bullying—but I do suggest truth simplifies food.
Confusion, guilt, distrust, higher priced food, malnourishment, a growing
disconnect from the farm, and overall stress are just a few of the side effects
of bullying.

This excerpt
of Food Bullying gives readers an inside look at the side effects of the food
bullying epidemic. This new book releases November 5 – please share www.foodbullying.com with your
community.