Nutrition memes forget that there is no such thing as a ‘healthy food’

Shareable online graphics give easy to understand breakdowns of the nutritional content of food, but they may be misleading, says James Wong

Health

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5 August 2020

By James Wong

Science Photo Library/Alamy

LET’S face it, nutritional data isn’t the most fascinating, so it can be really helpful when food writers delve through the dry tables of stats to translate them into easy-to-understand messages. One of the most popular formats are eye-catching memes based on simple two food comparisons. These appear on my social media timelines at least half a dozen times a week. Are they accurate?

“Do you really need meat to get protein?” asks one image that recently crossed my social media feed. It shows two forks, one holding a piece of lean steak and the other an equal-sized piece of broccoli. …