We all live in a world that tracks our desires and needs, thanks to which profitable offers from the Internet literally overwhelm us. Every time we find ourselves in a store, we risk not only spending money but also getting confused in the intricacies of the trading industry, where myths about “usefulness,” “naturalness,” “eco,” and “bio” reign supreme. Corporations increase sales at the expense of our naivety, endowing their products with non-existent miraculous properties through empty words, and we have to flounder in an abundance of shiny packaging and enticing slogans.
The editorial board of The Global Technology magazine invites you to walk through an imaginary supermarket and fill your cart to understand whether you have fallen into the consumer trap or remained a conscious buyer. Because we’re all worth it!

(This is correct, choosing bright jars to your taste. The main thing is to remember that if you want to taste bifidobacteria, do not buy yogurt with a shelf life of more than two weeks. No matter what is written on the packaging, there will be no live culture in the canned product.)

(Certified bifidobacteria simply do not exist; in this case, you will simply overpay for the fantasies of copywriters. Actiregularis is a trade name. In fact, these bacteria are the most ordinary Bifidobacterium bifidum, which are found in all fermented milk products and are representatives of the normal microflora of your intestines.)

(We have bad news for you, you are too easily convinced of the therapeutic benefits of any products. Kefir enriched with bifidobacteria will certainly not harm you. But to normalize the intestinal microflora, you will need several liters of kefir per day for a long time.)

(And here you fell into the hands of cunning marketers-puppeteers. A sugar substitute is no healthier than sugar; it just breaks down more slowly, so there is no sharp spike in blood glucose. A sugar substitute is indispensable for people with diabetes, which is why the bright packaging has the number “0”. A healthy person will feel only a slight difference in taste from regular sugar. And not always.)

(Interesting choice! You can go even further and replace sugar with cotton candy. Judging by the name, it’s just cotton, it doesn’t contain sugar.)

(In terms of price, dark sugar really differs from its white counterpart, but in terms of health benefits, there is no difference between these products. The whole difference between light and dark brown sugar comes down to one simple factor: the amount of molasses. Light brown sugar has less of it – usually about 3.5%, and dark brown sugar – 6.5%.)

(It seems you are too anxious. Relax, in fact, since the 1930s, in order to combat widespread iodine deficiency, which leads to thyroid diseases, all salt in developed countries is iodized. By choosing packaging that separately indicates iodine, you are overpaying for it.)

(Congratulations, your hand reached for the right product. Obviously, you know that all the salt on the market is enriched with iodine by default. Even the one in terribly inconvenient packaging without catchy labels.)

(Just in case, we remind you that you should not get an education in front of the TV, they will not tell you there that table salt is a mineral compound. It is impossible to genetically modify a product that does not have genes.)

(Here you are caught! The sign “without soy” does not mean that the product is made of meat. In addition to soy, there are many options for replacing meat, such as fat emulsion or trans fats. The declared absence of soy is a marketing ploy that distracts you from the presence of other components.)

(Don’t panic! If gluten were harmful to you, doctors would have told you about it long ago. Gluten, which was declared war after the rehabilitation of cholesterol, is the main protein of all cereals from which bread is made. Gluten is dangerous only for people with celiac disease, a hereditary autoimmune disease.)

(We got you! Do you still believe in the prefixes “bio-” and “eco-“? We’ll let you in on a secret: not all European countries have standards for the production of products labeled “Bio”. Any can can be decorated with the inscription “Bio” only for pricing.)

(Well… you skipped biology and chemistry in school for nothing. Cholesterol is found in all animal fats. If the oil has a stamp “Without Cholesterol”, it means that instead of butter, the manufacturer is trying to sell you margarine.)

(This label on the bottle is a lie. No preservatives are added to refined vegetable oil, as the manufacturing technology leaves nothing that could spoil. In the process of making oil, everything is already dead: the raw materials are first poured with hexane (an analogue of gasoline), which is then removed with alkali after the oil appears.)

(They seem to want to confuse you again. At last, remember that vegetable oils cannot contain cholesterol at all, although unscrupulous manufacturers often make its absence a distinctive feature of the brand.)

(It seems that advertising has taught you to take care of your health with the help of advertising clichés. If you do not trust chemistry, just use household soap, which removes fat no worse than any brisk liquid product.)

(We would not want you to become a guinea pig for propaganda. Manufacturers began to indicate mythical nanoparticles on packaging more and more often, and it is understandable! Currently, innovations are in trend, and cunning corporations need to raise production from their knees by any means in conditions of high competition. All these “nanoproducts” have nothing to do with nanotechnology and state corporations.)

(Yes, you are just a godsend for bloodsuckers who create additional value! Dihydrogen monoxide is ordinary water. Parabens are preservatives, thanks to which household chemicals have antibacterial and antifungal properties.)

(Not this! It seems that you can be imposed on any Mexican tusk. Any microparticles in shampoo or deodorant obtained from metals and inorganic minerals are a scam. And, by the way, silver does not have molecules – only atoms or ions.)

(Gotcha! Do you think liquid silk and cashmere will help you feel at the top of the food chain? These expensive-sounding words are what marketers call lanolin for elegance. Lanolin is a wax obtained by washing sheep’s wool in textile production.)

(Bravo! You have the courage not to be deceived by beautiful signs. Lanolin is widely used in care cosmetics not because of its miraculous properties, but because it effectively cleanses the hair. Clean hair, of course, is soft and shiny.)

(You are being successfully fooled. As Sheldon Cooper said, vitamin complexes are just ingredients for quite expensive urine. Multivitamins are designed to make up for the lack of essential trace elements in the body, but there is enough in the body (if it does not have scurvy and has not undergone chemotherapy). And bonus or extra vitamins are not digested.)

(You’re on the right track if you want to experience the mind-blowing placebo effect. On packages and advertising banners of immunomodulators, it is usually written “can help speed up recovery.” The active ingredients of such drugs “have no proven effectiveness.” Such a substance can be, for example, an extract of asparagus or spinach, or any other grass growing on the lawn. Immunomodulators are a superstition.)

(“Special lactobacilli strengthen the immune system,” says the advertisement for jars of quasi medicinal liquid, which for some reason you put at the bottom of a grocery bag, believing the screaming slogan. And tomorrow you will be taught that bacteria control your mind! Despite the exciting names of the subspecies (Casei or Rhamnosus), these are ordinary lactobacilli, which ordinary kefir is full of.)

(Do you really still believe that there is some kind of secret community of scientists from Britain whose task it is to prove various things happening on the planet? If the information guide is really worthwhile, it will always contain a link to the experiment itself and the University where the research was conducted. It’s hard to believe that journalists could forget the name of the author of the experiment. “British scientists have proved” – a marketing ploy to attract attention.)

(Economic instability, toothbrushes that spy on you, currency depreciation, a quantum computer. Is there anything else that can shock you, or do you want to be shocked for some reason?)

(It seems that you were tricked here too. Most likely, the article under this heading will be that the same British scientists conducted research that allowed them to see an increased hydrogen content in water. That dihydrogen monoxide again! It is possible that journalists again used the name of water unfamiliar to the general public and a description of its negative properties for humans, in an attempt to convince the public of the need for careful regulation of this substance.)