Health foods claim all kinds of things, and people are starting to question just how valid these claims are.
For example, in 2006, a European regulation demanded that health food companies come up with the scientific evidence to back their labeling and advertising.
Member states were asked to submit health claims from manufacturers who had to wait for the approval of the European Food Safety Authority. Most of the time, EFSA rejects companies' claims due to the lack of scientific evidence.
The yogurt Activa by Dannon has been advertised as a health food, and it's gotten blowback from that. The company withdrew its health claims about Activa in Europe after negative feedback.
In the United States, the FDA pressed charges for false advertising around 2010. In that year, the Dannon Company settled and agreed to stop advertising that Activa improves motility unless it specifies that you need to eat three servings per day. Dannon therefore removed the words "clinically" and "scientifically proven" from Activia products.
