Choice has described Nestlé's fitness trackers, which are sold along side 450g tins of Milo, as a “dogdy marketing tactic”.
The consumer advocacy group says food companies love to sell the message that you can simply outrun bad eating habits if you exercise enough.
“They also ‘health wash’ poor products by talking about energy instead of sugar,” Choice said.
“At a time when one-in-four children are classified as overweight or obese and an increasingly sedentary population spending more and more time indoors or on devices, we need to call out these dodgy marketing tactics for what they really are," Choice journalist Kate Browne said.
“The juxtaposition of healthy lifestyle messages combined with unhealthy food marketing is an all too common tactic used by junk food companies to sugar-coat products with poor nutritional profiles.
“It seems the industry is reluctant to mention ‘sugar’, preferring the euphemism ‘energy’ which works to creates an impression that you ‘need’ it, like it’s a good thing."
The band is available via the Nestlé Milo website for $39.99 and comes with a 450g tin of Milo – a product that is 46 per cent sugar, Choice noted.
Milo also won a Choice Shonky Award this year relating to its Health Star Rating which is based on consuming the product with skim milk.
