Last year a study was released that shared Americans think they are healthier than they really are. Many in the study wanted to lose as many as 25 pounds without gastric sleeve, but thought they were healthy.

When asked why this is, psychologists may point to something called illusory superiority, or the idea that lots of Americans think they are above average in many skills. People will often give themselves higher scores for positive traits and rank others lower. Other cultures are less likely to do this, but Americans are notorious for it.

However, I propose a more sociological approach to why Americans think they are healthy despite over 60 percent of the population currently overweight or obese. It’s not just that we think we are doing better than others. Instead, we receive a lot of misinformation about what is healthy and the correct information is mixed in with a lot of incorrect information. For example, when asking the internet health questions, billions of answers are available.

• What is healthy weight? 303,000,000 results
• What is healthy eating? 357,000,000 results
• What is good health? 2,550,000,000 results
• What are good health habits? 205,000,000 results
• What are good health practices? 169,000,000 results

At the very least, that is a lot of information to sort through. At the worst, it is confusing and discouraging. The cultural implication is that no one seems to know what healthy is and so we are each allowed to recognize ourselves as healthy until something happens to indicate the opposite is true, like a heart attack.

For marketers, it creates an opportunity. People want to be healthy, even if healthy starts where they already are. They want information and tools to help them be healthy from groups and brands they trust. How can your brand help people be healthy without contributing to misconceptions and misinformation?