Health By Stealth

Health by stealth: behavioural psychology behind seaweed's market adoption.

Here is a fascinating example of psychology and behavioural science applied to the market adoption of seaweed-based ingredients.

Do people want to eat seaweed? 

In the west, not really.

Do people want to eat healthy food? 

Yes, it’s an established trend.

Do they need to be told what makes it healthy? 

Well…

The idea behind health by stealth is that customers are told the benefit of a product, which is what they really care about, not necessarily which ingredients deliver it.

To see how this plays out in the real world, take what BioMara is doing with their Seafibrex product, a functional food ingredient extracted from seaweed, designed to be included in common food products to increase the fibre content.

As Founder and CEO Jay Dignan explained in the clip, changing established habits is very difficult. No one will want to eat “seaweed bread”. But they are going to want a high-fibre bread. You just don’t tell them the fibre comes from seaweed.

Another, perhaps even more extreme and somewhat cheeky, example was mentioned by Steven Hermans in his newsletter this week. He referenced the 2025 F1 Dutch Grand Prix, where 29,000 hybrid burgers (50% meat, 50% seaweed/vegetables) were served without telling anyone. Zero complaints.

In many ways this is nothing new.

The food industry has been using functional ingredients for decades: soy to boost protein content, inulin to boost fibre, and aspartame for sweetness. The front of the package tells you the benefit: "high protein", "source of fibre" or "zero sugar". You only discover how those benefits are delivered if you flip to the ingredients list.

The cosmetics industry operates the same way. It’s not unusual for your shampoo bottle to promise "reduced dandruff" or "softer, shinier hair" without shouting about which chemicals or active ingredients deliver those results.

On one hand, health by stealth is a great way to provide an offtake for regeneratively farmed seaweed. On the other hand, the 29,000 people who ate a half-seaweed burger at the Dutch Grand Prix might feel cheated if they knew.

So is it a great strategy for positive impact or shameless deceit? Or both?