How the Word “Organic” Tricks You

The “certified organic” label means more than pesticide-free produce: It may make you underestimate the calories in that food, a new Cornell University study finds.
In the study, subjects were asked to guess the calories in two sets of cookies, yogurt, and chips—one labeled organic, the other as regular. Although all the products were actually organic, participants estimated that the “organic” cookie contained an average of 161 calories versus 216 calories in the “non-organic” cookie. They also rated the organic cookie as more nutritious.
“There seems to be a widespread perception that the term organic is closely associated with the term healthy—despite the fact that the term organic refers to a method of production rather than the actual nutritional content of the food,” says Jenny Wan-chen Lee, a Cornell University graduate student who completed the study as part of her master’s thesis research. (Related from MensHealth.com: The State of the Organic Union.)
The finding shows that organic foods fall under a “health halo”—a phenomenon  where the “presence of a supposedly healthy food within a meal leads people to misjudge their entire meal as being healthier,” Lee says. Clouded by this health halo, you’ll be more likely to underestimate calories consumed, overeat, and derail the 6-pack abs you’ve been working on.
For example, if you order a Subway sandwich—which is thought of as healthier than a McDonald’s Big Mac—you may be more inclined to order chips or a cookie. Ultimately, you’ll eat more calories than you would have done had you merely ordered the Big Mac without any sides, Lee explains.
In a previous series of four studies on the health halo effect, people estimated sandwiches and burgers contained up to 35 percent fewer calories when they came from restaurants claiming to be healthy compared to when they came from restaurants not making this claim, found Pierre Chandon, Ph.D., a professor at INSEAD business school, and Brian Wansink Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. In fact, one of the studies found that when shown sandwiches with the same number of calories from McDonald’s and Subway, people guessed the McDonald’s sandwich had an extra 151 calories.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go organic. (Here’s how eating organic can boost your metabolism). Rather, it’s a caution not to overindulge—“organic” doesn’t mean low-calorie. “The first step to avoiding the health halo is just knowing it exists. Realize that you might underestimate the calories in healthy foods, so always check the nutrition label for the real facts,” Lee says.
If you’re looking to lose weight, cutting calories is only part of the equation. Read these other 9 Weight-Loss Rules that Work.
—Bari Lieberman