Fast Food's New Trend: 'Stealth Health'

In the minds of customers, healthy food often means less-tasty food. At the same time, however, many clamor for healthier options. All this puts restaurants and food makers in a bind—and the solution, the Wall Street Journal reports, is "stealth health." This refers to companies secretly improving the healthiness of their offerings without telling the customers, at least not until they've already gotten used to the altered version. "When you tell people something's healthy, they think it doesn't taste good," says an exec at Boston Market.

In the fourth quarter of last year, that restaurant chain reduced sodium in several products; it finally told customers about it in February. Kraft didn't tell anyone when it cut trans fats from Oreos in 2006. And General Mills kept quiet about sodium cuts over six years in Hamburger Helper, using ingredients such as garlic to maintain flavor. "It takes multiple months, if not years, to get the right equation between taste and health," says a company health officer. But it all depends on the product and its audience: Fans of Progresso Soups, also made by General Mills, want to eat more healthily—so when sodium was cut in the soups, the company made sure customers knew. Like it or not, we may be seeing lower salt levels in our food soon: The FDA is readying new sodium guidelines, the AP reports. (More food stories.)