Il Salvagente, Italy’s historic consumer magazine, slips into misinformation with an ‘unusual’ attack on the Enervit Group, Italy’s leader in sports as well as wellness-related foods. (1)
The video ‘service’ – redolent of gross errors and fake news – is made by nutritionist Chiara Manzi who, combination, is a partner in a ‘competing’ company. (2)
1) Market analysis?
Consumer magazines and our own GIFT site are used to offer market analyses where they examine the products on the shelf of different brands, industrial brands and private labels, within a product category or subcategory.
Conversely, the ‘analysis’ under review is focused exclusively on several lines and brands of the Enervit group alone, without even mentioning one from other industries or retailers.
2) Procured alarm and superficiality
Enervit’s protein bars and other products – in the words of the self-styled ‘anti aging’ nutritionist – ‘can actually be harmful.’ A completely unjustified alarm-potentially distorting a market segment where competition is very lively-that Chiara Manzi tries to justify in a superficial reading of labels, amid gross errors and fake news.
Editor-in-chief of Il Salvagente Riccardo Quintili aggravates the situation, in his signature article accompanying the video, with apodictic news:
– ‘between bars, meal replacements and various soft drinks we have very often discovered ultra-processed foods.’ The discovery of hot water, this being a common feature of all products in the above categories. However, Quintili fails to distinguish the nutritional profiles of these products-some of which fell under the category of sports foods, later deregulated, others still subject to special requirements (3,4)-from junk food (HFSS, High in Fats, Sugar and Sodium),
– the products ‘discovered’ by the Salvagente would also be distinguished, according to Riccardo Quintili, by ‘veryloaded with sugar, salt and fat,’ as well as by ‘poor quality, very cheap ingredients that need preservatives, colorings, flavorings and various additives.’ Which products, which ‘very salt laden‘, which ‘poor quality‘, which ‘coloring‘? And on what basis, pray tell?
3) Fake news
The video of ‘The Salvagente’ ventures into a series of gross errors and fake news. With the clear aim of bringing Enervit Group brands into disrepute, engendering consumer fears about the safety – including nutritional safety – of related products.
3.1) ‘Uncontrolled‘ food in pharmacies?
‘The Lifesaver’ introduces the video with a shot, a pharmacy window, lingering on the Enervit poster. And Chiara Manzi immediately states that ‘the food we buy in pharmacies is a growing business but unfortunately it is not enough to just walk into a pharmacy to be confident that what we buy is controlled.’
The nutritionist-owner of a business that claims to be a ‘Leader in Healthy Food‘ (5)-thus fails to inform her large audience (‘a community of 8,000 customers and 200,000 loyal followers‘) about the circumstance that:
– all manufacturers of foods with added vitamins, minerals and certain other substances, in Italy, must be authorized in advance by the Ministry of Health, DGISAN, following inspection and favorable opinion of local health authorities, (6)
– Regulated products (foods for specific groups, foods with added vitamins and minerals, food supplements, foods specifically formulated for celiac disease) are subject to electronic notification to the Ministry of Health, DGISAN, Office IV. (7)
3.2) ‘Junk food‘?
Chiara Manzi – in approaching the pharmacy shelves where Enervit products are displayed – goes on to say that it is ‘junk food‘ that ‘isnot good for you, in fact it is bad for your health.’ The invective continues with a take on products from the successful EnerZona line, with the announcement that ‘With open eyes we look closely at the labels to avoid… doing our health a disservice.’
Junk food, according to established scientific literature, is characterized by excessive contents of fat, saturated fat, sugar and/or salt. They are therefore, in fact, referred to as HFSS(High in Fats, Sugar and Sodium) and have nothing to do with the products denigrated by the Lifesaver, conversely formulated to fulfill balanced diet and nutrition requirements.
Meal replacement products, the nutritionist – who evidently ignores the protocols of caring for obese patients, as well as despising the work of the professional category to which she herself belongs – points out, ‘arenot good for health, do not make one lose weight, and in fact can actually be harmful.’ And the adventure continues with myopic label reading.
3.3) False product classification
‘The meal replacement theypropose is 282 calories, a truly starvation meal replacement,’ Chiara Manzi continues, misrepresenting the label she pretends to read. Indeed:
– ‘Food ration substitutes for weight control’ are distinguished by their legal namesake and must be formulated in compliance with a daily ration defined by a European regulation. (4) The products thus classified and easy to distinguish, based on the doses and indications provided on the label approved by the Ministry of Health, have an energy value ranging in the 200-250 Kcal range,
– You only have to read the label to see that it is instead a ‘Magnesium-enriched instant milk shake made from whey protein and fructose. Preservative- and dye-free‘
– the product in Chiara Manzi’s sights, EnerZona Instant Meal strawberry flavor, is not a ‘meal replacement‘ but rather expresses three building blocks of the Zone diet, in line with the protein-carbohydrate-fat balance developed by Barry Sears (creator of the famous and undisputed diet).
3.4) Ingredients and buffaloes
Chiara Manzi’s hoaxes-perhaps lacking in the basics of food technology and scientific research-then indulge on the nature and characteristics of ingredients:
– Whole milk powder, ‘an ultra-processed milk’? False. One only has to read the work of Professor Carlos Monteiro, creator of the NOVA system of food classification, to see how milk is instead a minimally processed food, as it undergoes only heat treatment (pasteurization or sterilization) and physical treatment (with possible filtration and spray-drying, for the change of form from liquid to powder), without the addition of other ingredients or additives,
– Fructose, ‘a sugar processed from sucrose, the table sugar‘? Hoax. Fructose, in modern times, is produced from starch through enzymatic processes, with far greater simplicity than extraction from other sources,
– freeze-dried strawberries. ‘Strawberries have lost any kind of vitamin because they have been freeze-dried’? False! Lyophilization(freeze-drying) is the most conservative, as well as the most expensive, vegetable dehydration technique designed precisely to preserve the nutritional integrity of thermolabile components as much as possible. Such as precisely the vitamins. (9)
3.5) Glycemic index
Confusion reigns when the nutritionist states that ‘sugars are very high on the glycemic index because they lack fiber.’ It is noted in this regard that:
–Glycaemic Index (GI) of sucrose is 100, but
– In contrast, fructose has a glycemic index < 25, one of the lowest among sweeteners,
– The list of ingredients, compiled ex lege in descending order by weight, shows that fructose is the main sugar contained in the EnerZona product. Not surprisingly, since controlling the glycemic index was Barry Sears’ first insight, in developing the Zone diet,
– Dietary fiber is not lacking at all. The nutrition claim shown in the video indicates 1.8 g / 100 g, which is 60% of the value required to use an appropriate nutrition claim.
3.6) ‘Preservatives?” False.
Perhaps the most resounding fake news – uttered by those encouraging people to ‘read labels carefully‘ – concerns the alleged presence of preservatives in the product before them. False.
Preservatives can be recognized on the label, like any other additive, because their name must come preceded by an indication of the category to which they belong (e.g., preservative: potassium sorbate).
How is it possible for the self-styled expert to read a statement not on the label of a product that contains no preservatives, and indeed boasts its absence?
3.7) Chicory fiber
‘When you hydrolyze chicoryfiber you get sugar, especially fructose which is the most harmful sugar,’ says Chiara Manzi. Misleading news, considering that:
– hydrolysis of chicory fiber generates a dominant share (about 85%) of prebiotic fiber, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), and a minority share of sugar (about 15%),
– fructo oligosaccharides are prebiotics known for beneficial characteristics. In fact, the Ministry of Health authorizes the use of the health claim ‘Promotes the balance of intestinal flora‘ on foods that contain them, if the conditions set out in its ‘Guidelines on probiotics and prebiotics’ are met. (10)
3.8) Maltitol and cunning.
Maltitol is referred to, in the Salvagente video, as ‘a clever way of putting sugar into products.’ Yet another misleading news story:
– Maltitol belongs to the polyol family, derived from starches. They are known as ‘bulk sweeteners’ because, like sugar, they allow consistency to be imparted to doughs where they are used. Their sweetening power is variously lower than sugar, the energy value is lower (2.5 instead of 4 kcal/g),
– polyols differ markedly from sugar because of their extremely low glycemic index and the possibility of consumption by diabetic patients, as noted. (11) In fact, the European Commission has authorized a special health claim
– ‘the intake of beverage foods containing [nome dei polioli] instead of sugar induces a smaller rise in blood glucose after their intake compared to beverage foods containing sugar.’ (12)
The real ‘cleverness’ about polyols can perhaps be glimpsed, rather, in the sachets of erythritol that Chiara Manzi’s enterprise presents as ‘natural polyol’ and sells online from the enterprise at the modest sum of €59/kg, ‘
also in installments without interest
‘. (13)
4) Interim Conclusions
The Salvagente’s anti-spot with Chiara Manzi can mislead the general public, and that is the goal of the tele-nutritionist. However, this artfully constructed soup of fake news-some of which were not even recalled, in the previous paragraph, due to indigestion upon listening-is bound to boomerang.
ConsumAtors, less naïve than one might believe, are well able to recognize the value of the products of those who (not surprisingly) have been the market leader for decades. Pharmacists are equally sensitive to those who paint them as merchants of harmful foods. Everyone will know how to evaluate the credibility and correctness of the author and editor of this video.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Riccardo Quintili. “Eyes Wide Open” video investigation of dietetics sold in pharmacies. https://ilsalvagente.it/2023/09/05/la-video-inchiesta-di-occhi-aperti-sui-dietetici-venduti-in-farmacia/ The Lifesaver. 5.9.23
(2) Antiaging Italian Food Srl, Via Alfredo Testoni 10, 40123 Bologna. VAT number 03738681208. V. CrowdfundMe https://tinyurl.com/yx6adxw3
(3) Regulation (EU) No. 609/2013 on food intended for infants and young children, food for special medical purposes, and total diet replacement for weight control-in repealing Directive 1989/398/EEC, excluded both sports foods and gluten-free foods from its scope of application (then reserving the regulation of foods specifically formulated for celiacs to the subsequent EU Reg. 828/14)
(4) ‘Substitutes for the whole daily food ration for weight control’ are subject to specific composition requirements regarding energy value (kcal), protein, choline, linoleic acid, alpha-linoleic acid, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals. ‘The energy provided by substitutes for the whole daily food ration for weight control shall not be less than 600 kcal and shall not exceed 1 200 kcal for the whole daily ration’ (Annex I to EU Reg 2017/1798, supplementing Regulation EU 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to specific composition and information requirements for substitutes for the whole daily food ration for weight control)
(5) CrowdfundMe, Antiaging Italian Food https://tinyurl.com/5n7cz7s6 Misinformation to investors about a crowdfunding campaign? To be verified
(6) Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006, on the addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to foods
(7) Notification of regulated foods must include data on: authorized manufacturing establishment; composition, form of presentation/format/flavor and daily dose, where applicable; ingredient list; quantity of ingredients, where prescribed; legal name of the food; any nutrition and health claims; copy of the label conforming to that used for marketing, in pdf format
(8) Marta Strinati. Identikit of ultra-processed foods, critical nutrient excess, and ‘cosmetic’ additives. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 2.9.23
(9) Sagar Bhatta, Tatjana Stevanovic Janezic,
Cristina Ratti. Freeze-Drying of Plant-Based Foods. Foods. 2020 Jan; 9(1): 87. doi: 10.3390/foods9010087
(10) Ministry of Health, DGISAN, Office 4. Guidelines on prebiotics and prebiotics. Revised March 2018 https://tinyurl.com/2tkdpy7h
(11) Marta Strinati. Sorbitol and other polyols, the bulk sweeteners. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 4.4.18
(12) Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 establishing a list of permitted health claims made on foods, other than those referring to the reduction of disease risk and to children’s development and health
(13) The self-styled ‘Europe’s top expert in Culinary Nutrition and Antiaging Cooking’ is offering installment sales on all its products, including the modest ‘Kit to Start Cooking with the Scientific Method Cucina Evolution (with 250g Enjoyment and a Free Video Course)’ on ‘offer’ at 89.90 euros
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
