Yet their point is still valid. I recall a doctor talking about how unhealthy yogurt is due to its sugar content. If your a person like myself, who either makes their own yogurt or carefully selects brands of plain yogurt, the broad generalization is nonsensical. If you look at what's available on the store shelves, then over 90% of what they have is based on sugary flavoring. I suspect people buy yogurt since they are usually told that it's healthy, but usually end up reaching for the stuff that this study describes as ultra processes because that's the stuff that industry invests a lot of effort into making desirable (either through its formulation or advertising).
I suspect that there are a number of factors that are contributing to this pseudoscience based health-craze:
- It is easier to demonize food products based upon an overgeneralized label than it is to tell people to check the nutrition labels.
- Most grocery stores dedicate most of their shelves to food with dubious nutritional value, may that be because the food is formulated to sell (which typically has high sodium or sugar content) or longer shelf life.
- Most grocery stores are a poor option for the health conscious because of manipulative sales tactics. This ranges from the store layout, placement of particular products, and over generalized as well as likely misrepresenting of products as healthy.
- A segment of the population feels like they are loosing control over dietary options. Some areas are surrounded by food sold by places convenience/dollar stores and restaurants, yet grocery stores that would support traditional home cooking are more difficult to access.
When some people are faced with something that does not reflect their dietary values, or worse, does not meet their medical needs, is it surprising that they would start adopting extreme viewpoints?