By Rina Raphael
You can’t browse a supermarket or pharmacy without being subject to labels that promote health benefits. In the beverage aisle you might find “prebiotic” sodas that supposedly support “gut health”. In the beauty department, you’ll see “medical-grade” serums, “probiotic” facial creams and “skin detoxing” treatments. Go to the supplements section for promises of “immunity support”, “hormone balance” and “energy enhancement”.
Shoppers should be wary of vague terms promising positive health outcomes when buying wellness products.Credit: iStock
Marketers have been using scientific-sounding buzzwords to sell products for centuries. But it’s becoming more common, says Timothy Caulfield, a research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta. Caulfield coined the term “scienceploitation” to describe how brands borrow language from emerging areas of science to market unproven products.
Scienceploitation crops up in far more places today than ever before, including in search results, on social media platforms and from influencers, Caulfield says.
Consumers are often inundated with confusing options as more companies position themselves as healthy. Buyers are prioritising scientific evidence, says Sienna Piccioni, an analyst and head of beauty at WSGN, a trend forecasting company. But they can’t always separate fact from fiction: a 2021 study suggested that people who trust science were more likely to share false claims that contained scientific references than claims that didn’t.
But you can still arm yourself. Here are some marketing tactics to be aware of.
Jam-packed ingredient lists
Companies often try to cash in on fads such as adaptogens and activated charcoal, which you can find listed on items including cookie packaging and toothpaste tubes. Even ingredients that are known to be effective can be manipulated: beauty and skin-care brands, for instance, might use 0.2 per cent of vitamin C in a moisturiser even though evidence shows the amount would need to be higher to have any effect, says Michelle Wong, a cosmetic chemist who runs the blog Lab Muffin Beauty Science and helped popularise the term “science washing” in beauty circles.
This is why it isn’t necessarily helpful to scour a scientific-looking list of ingredients, she says. Most don’t say much about the quality or quantity of each ingredient, nor how it interacts with other ingredients or its stability – all of which affects efficacy.
Vague terms such as ‘boosts’
Manufacturers use words without clear and specific definitions, such as “aids,” “promotes,” “supports,” “stimulates,” “boosts” and “optimises” to suggest positive health outcomes. There’s no quantifiable way to measure an ambiguous word such as “support” says Jonathan Jarry, a scientist and science communicator with McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.
Supplement companies frequently rely on the terms used above. But there’s often a small disclaimer on the bottle that says the product “is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease”.
“They’re implying the product works, and then on the same label, much less visible, is the fact that there’s no evidence that it works,” says Josh Bloom, director of chemical and pharmaceutical science at the American Council on Science and Health. Still, he says, people see a word such as “supports” and might assume the product will treat their symptoms.
Other phrases – including “clinically tested,” “research backed,” “doctor recommended” and “evidence based” – show up in the beauty or personal-care aisle and often lack the context they’d need to be verified, Wong says. With such terms, you should ask: what were the results of the tests? What was the quality of the research? Who conducted it? Was the researcher or endorser a legitimate authority in that field?
Questionable studies
Wellness brands might pad their websites with links to studies. But some are simply summaries of the emerging data without any mention of the product in question. Many companies include research unrelated to the claim. Evidence cited by a company “could be one poorly designed study,” says Nick Tiller, a senior researcher in exercise physiology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre. “It could be cherry-picked.”
“What you want to see are the results of actual rigorous studies of the product itself, showing that it works,” Jarry says. “But that’s almost never the case.”
Assessing claims
If you’re trying to get a feel for the legitimacy of a product, it can be helpful to conduct a search for the name of the product online, plus the words “review,” “complaint” or “scam.”
You can also visit websites like Trust it or Trash it and The CRAAP Test, which can help you uncover the validity of health claims.
If a herbal supplement claims to address high blood pressure, you might search the Heart Foundation website, as these organisations like this often have articles on them, says Dr Danielle Belardo, a cardiologist who hosts the podcastWellness: Fact vs. Fiction.
When considering a buzzy ingredient or product, remember that “one exciting study” doesn’t mean much, Caulfield says. Kombucha bottles often say they have “microbiome-friendly” benefits even though microbiome research is still in its infancy. Before shelling out money, give more credence to sources that include a larger body of evidence on a topic, he says.
And keep in mind no single ingredient can change your health overnight. If a product was indeed a cure-all, every medical organisation would be rushing to endorse it, Klatt says. “Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably too good to be true,” he adds.
The New York Times
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