A marketing team claims: 'Our snack is as healthy as whole fruit because it contains added pectin to reach the same fiber grams per serving.' Which evaluative critique best represents the nutrition scientist's response?

• A. Although added pectin can increase total fiber grams and support certain fiber-related claims, the snack lacks the whole-fruit matrix of vitamins, minerals, intact cell structure, and phytochemicals; therefore the products are not nutritionally equivalent even if fiber grams match.
• B. Because extracted pectin is not fermentable, adding it will not affect any physiological outcomes associated with whole fruit consumption; therefore the marketing claim is harmless but misleading only in taste terms.
• C. The snack will always outperform whole fruit metabolically because isolated fibers are more concentrated and therefore more rapidly absorbed and utilized by human tissues compared with fiber contained in whole foods.
• D. If the added pectin equals the fiber grams of the whole fruit, then by definition the snack provides identical health outcomes including all phytochemical and micronutrient benefits because fiber grams fully determine nutritional equivalence between processed and whole foods.

Answer: (A)