"This sounds counterintuitive, but consider: For a product to carry a health claim on it's package, it must first have a package, so right off the bat, its more likely to be a processed rather than a whole food. Then, only the big food manufacturers have the wherewithal to secure FDA-approved health claims for their products and then trumpet them to the world. Generally, it is the products of modern food science that ake th boldest health claims, and these are often founded on incomplete and even bad science. Don't forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim it was more healthful than the traditional food i replaced, turned out to contain trans-fats that give people heart attacks. The healthiest food in the supermarket - the fresh produce - doesn't boast about its healthfulness, because the growers don't have the budget or the packaging. Don't take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing to say about your health." From the book by Michael Pollan: Food Rules.
(BTW, Michael Pollan rules IMHO. He's the one who coined the 7 word mantra to live by: "Eat Real Food, Not too much, mostly vegetables". )
Creating Healthy Lifestyles