Eating well or being fooled?
What do the big, bold health and ingredient claims on food packages really mean? Sadly not what you might think.
0 (zero) grams trans fats
When you see this on a package, you can bet there are trans fats inside- albeit less than a gram per serving. Look for the words “No Trans Fats”.
sugar free
This label screams “artificial sweeteners added”. Make sure you know which ones. Most artificial sweeteners are chemicals, which are much harder for our bodies to metabolize than processed white sugar.
low carb
Foods that are not normally low in carbohydrates, like bread or candy, are made so by replacing the carbs with anything from fiber to artificial sweeteners to sugar alcohols. All of these ingredients can cause stomach upset.
low fat
This means that the product has less than three grams of fat per serving. When fat is removed from a food, producers use use a substitute to maintain palatability, usually in the form of sugar or refined starches. This is true of other low fat claims such as “light” (50 per cent less fat), “fat free” (less than one gram of fat) and reduced fat (25 per cent less fat). Sometimes the are worse than their higher fat counterparts. Also, just because something is lower in fat does not mean it’s lower in calories.
Did you know?
To be labeled “organic”, processed foods must have more than 95 per cent organic ingredients.
