Will It Work Outside Of Whole Foods?

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

The produce industry has little to complain about regarding the Whole Foods “Health Starts Here” program — it probably has helped boost produce consumption, specifically, consumption of healthy greens. Alas, man does not live by mustard, turnip and collard greens alone, and so the Nutrient Density Index is not really all that useful.

An item can be chock full of particular nutrients and people will drop dead if that is all they eat. Nutritional diversity — getting needed fats, protein, various vitamins, and minerals, etc. — is much more important than nutrient density.

Besides, there is a real question about the wisdom of a retailer hanging its hat on a program with so little evidence of effectiveness. Yes, there is a peer-reviewed study that does show a loss of 53 lbs. over a two-year period. It is worth noting, however, that this statistic only applies to 19 — yes, 19, count ‘em — people! In fact, the study started out with 56 people, and only 19 showed up for their two-year weigh in. We don’t know, but it seems reasonable to surmise that the other folks were not as proud of their weight loss accomplishments.

The truth is, the whole study is not really projectable to the general population. The 56 people who started in the study were people motivated enough about weight loss to go visit a doctor for the specific purpose of getting weight loss counseling. So the study is dealing with highly motivated people with the means to access medical care — and, even so, almost two-thirds of the people dropped out before the two-year mark.

This is one of the great dilemmas of public health. If we tell people they should eat only fruits, vegetables, whole grains and a little fish, we might be giving them good advice. But if nobody will follow that advice, how helpful are we really being?

The Whole Foods customer is very atypical — with higher incomes, higher educational levels, and greater interest in health and wellness — than the general population. Perhaps this program, with a need for highly motivated consumers, will be useful to those Whole Foods shoppers and thus to the chain and its suppliers. Yet it seems unlikely to appeal significantly to the Wal-Mart shopper.

Whatever its impact on specific shopper groups, the whole issue of marketing based on health and nutritional content begs the question of whether such pleas actually motivate consumers. There is a kind of Aristotelian certainty in thinking that if people know something is good for them, then they will do that thing. But the evidence that this is true is scanty.

Due to family illness, I’ve had a lot of time recently to interact with doctors. Many doctors are obese. If doctors working in direct contact with the effects of obesity and with access to information and education far beyond that of the general public are not motivated to change their own habits, it seems highly unlikely that signage in stores or produce industry marketing efforts are going to prompt such behavioral change.

We do have indications that as education and income increase, better dietary habits become more common. It is not 100 percent clear what to make of this, however. After all, it could be that those with better dietary habits are healthier, and thus, better able to complete school and work productively. It is also possible that the traits that lead one to do well in school and at work — an ability and willingness to absorb information and act on the implications of that information — also lead individuals to understand and act upon dietary advice.

Note that none of this seems to indicate that nutritional education is likely to change the behavior of the great majority of people. This is especially true if the change is likely to be unpleasant. In other words, we may be able to switch people from one sweet fruit to another based on the idea that one is more healthful than another. We have zero evidence that the reason people buy Haagen-Dazs rather than Mustard Greens is that they don’t realize the ice cream is more likely to promote obesity.

What the industry could actually use is some controlled trials that test what actually motivates consumers to buy fruits and vegetables. Let us assume our goal is to sell more berries. Which would be a more effective commercial: one that features a group of doctors detailing the beneficial attributes of berries, or one that shows beautiful berries bouncing onto mounds of ice cream and being enjoyed by beautiful young children at a family picnic celebrating Grandma’s 80th birthday?

We don’t really know the answer to that question because, to my knowledge, the test has either not been done, or if done, the results were not released to the public. But this author’s money is going down on the side that says that selling delicious flavor and an emotional connection to friends, family and good times will beat out the doctors every time.

Perhaps this approach will work for Whole Foods, but the chain has atypical customers and its interests are more about repositioning the chain from a place that sells pricey food to a place that sells good food. That is a different task than simply selling more produce to the general public. We should do a lot more research before endorsing such a medicinal approach.