It’s difficult to always know if you’re eating a good product!  Manufacturers are tricky when it comes to fancy labeling and deceptive claims that take your focus off the goal.   Maybe you just assumed that low fat peanut butter is better than regular fat until you looked at the fine print and noticed that low fat has as many calories as regular fat.  Hmmm.    Did you notice that your “bowl” of cereal is really TWO servings (so twice the calories) as what the box says?  Here are a few other foods to take notice of:

FAT FREE COFFEE-MATE - I know, people love their coffee and its “mate.”   The label says, “cholesterol free” and that it has “O g trans fats.”   It only has 10 calories and no fat so why not add a spoonful to your coffee?   While you’re sipping your creamy java, read the ingredients and you’ll see it consists largely of corn syrup solids and oils ) partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel or hydrogenated soybean.  So how can it have no sugar or fat?   Here’s the tricky part.  The serving size on the label is only one level teaspoon (get out the measuring spoons) so the sugar and fat round down to zero because a teaspoon of Coffee-mate has less than half a gram of each.  (That’s legal according to the FDA).    Do you use a level teaspoon to your cup?  And if you really do only use that much, how many cups do you have?  Let’s say you end up using 2 tablespoons throughout the morning’  you’re getting 50 calories and 1.6 grams of saturated fat.  Two tablespoons of half and half have 40 caloires and 2 grams of fat.   Still think it’s healthy?  If you enjoy your creamy coffee and are OK with that, no problem.  Just know what you’re really getting!

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP - Many articles have been written linking HFCS to the nation’s obesity epidemic.  The facts, according to NUTRITION ACTION health newletter, HFCS is, on average, roughly half fructose and half glucose.   Ordinary table sugar is half fructose and half glucose as well.  So if  anyone wants to say that fructose caused the obesity epidemic, regular sugar (sucrose) deserves just as much blame, as do evaporated cane juice (100% sucrose)  and honey (which also is half fructose), brown rice syrup , agave nectar (84% fructose), barley malt syrup and juice concentrates (60% fructose).    Fructose actually has a low glycem index while glucose has the highest (table sugar and HFCS is in the middle.)  Fructose has been shown to raise harmful triglceride levels more than other sugars do.  Bottom line is, most sweeteners are about half fructose and half glucose, so it’s smart to decrease ALL sugars, not just HFCS.   If a label says, “contains no HFCS, read further; check the grams of sugar and the ingredient list; it still may be high in sugar. 

INCREASE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES - Chef Boyardee promotes “a full serving of vegetables in every bowl” of it’s salt laden white flour pasta.    Many beverages also are touting “3 servings of fruit per bottle” but you may be taking in 300-400 calories per bottle as well.   Once you look at the ingredient list however, you’ll see that many of these beverages are  mostly apple or pear juice from concentrate.   V8 Fusion promotes 1/2 cup veggies and 1/2 cup fruit in an 8 oz serving but a bottle contains 170 calories and 38 grams of sugar.    Want to get the most nutrients from fruits and vegetables?  Buy them whole (fresh or frozen) and not as ingredients in juices, chips, crackers or processed foods.

VITAMIN FOODS - Vitamins are now being added to cereal bars, energy and granola bars, and sugary drinks of adults.  For example, vitamin water.  Without vitamins, the line of nutrient enhanced water bevverages, would just be water.    With most foods being fortified with vitamins, we don’t need any more from non nutritious foods!  And unless you’re opting for the sugar free vitamin waters, you’re getting 130 calories worth of sugar per 20 oz bottle.

NATURAL FOODS - You see “natural” on labels all the time now!   We have been fooled, though, because the FDA and food industry have made new rules for labeling that aren’t always clear.   Natural has never really been defined, unless the word appears on a food that contains meat/poultry.   Then it means that the food’s ingredients are not artificial and are only minimally processed.   When Beachbody was trying to find a way to make the vanilla bean stronger for a new Shakeology flavor,  they were told by manufacturers that “propylene glycol”  could be used to enhance the flavor and the FDA considers propylene glycol a “natural flavoring.”  Beachbody doesn’t consider it “natural”, thus no vanilla shakeology yet!

              *Made With Whole Grain – only some of the grain has to be “whole” though and the majority of grain dosn’t have to be whole.  

             *Made With Real Fruit - made with a little fruit (and it’s probably mostly grape or apple juice anyway)              

             *High Fiber – contains at last 5 grams of fiber per serving.  The fiber can be either the intact kind in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and fruit or the isolated kind (like inulin, polydextrose, maltodextrin, oat fiber or wheat fiber.)  There isn’t much evidence that isolate fiber helps keep you regular or lowers your risk of disease, like the intact fiber in wheat bran can. 

ORGANIC FOODS - Many people automatically assume organic foods have less calories and are healthier.   People can justify buying Organic Newman-O’s when they’d never buy Oreos, Whole foods 365 Organic Cheese Crackers instead of  Cheez-Its, or Nature’s Path Organic Frosted Toaster Pastries but not Pop-Tarts.  An organic food is grown without pesticides, antibiotics, or growth hormones.  But it doesn’t automatically make it a healthy food.

So check the ingredient list and don’t rely on the claim that is in big print on the front of the label!  Stay with whole foods, fruits/vegetables/lean meat/low fat dairy and whole grains as much as possible and decrease the foods you eat that come from a package or a can/jar. 

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