In our recent, cautionary Fooled By Food Labels feature, we warned you about all the weasel-words "Big Food" manufacturers use intentionally to obfuscate the nutritional value of the products they sell, like natural, healthy, calorie counts and lightly sweetened.

Using those words creates a halo effect, a phenomena in which a descriptor, like 0 grams of trans fats, creates the false impression there are no trans fats to be found in that package of cookies you bought at the grocery store, although federal regs allow manufacturers to label food products that way even if they contain a half-gram or less.

Unfortunately, that halo effect/Jedi mind trick also applies to foods marked with organic labels, based on a double-blind, controlled trial conducted by a Cornell University grad student who asked 144 mall shoppers to select which groups of potato chips, plain yogurt and cookies were organic or conventionally produced, then to rate each food according to 10 attributes (among them cost, taste and fat content).

No surprise, participants preferred food products marked as organic in terms of taste characteristics and nutritional value (fat, fiber and caloric content), necessitating a higher price, than those marked as regular. The kicker: All food samples used in the study were organic.

By the way, just because a food comes with an organic label -- meaning healthier ingredients and few if any pesticides -- doesn't imply that it's not fattening.

Even organic Oreos have to be eaten in moderation, no matter what…

Sources:

ScienceDaily April 11, 2011

healthfinder.gov April 10, 2011

Los Angeles Times/Booster Shots April 10, 2011