Don’t be fooled – Watch out for these common food claims

Grocery shopping used to be great in the ‘good old days’ because the range of products available was fairly limited compared to today’s standards:   take milk for example.  Twenty years ago, there were only two types of milk you could buy which was either full cream or skim.  Now we have Trim, Smart Milk, A2, calcium enriched milk, lactose-free, soy, rice, almond…the list is endless.

So with the ‘explosion’ of choice we have in the supermarket today, food companies have had to get very creative in labelling their products so theirs ‘stand-out’ on the shelf.  This can definitely lead to misleading claims about the foods you are buying – all in the name of marketing!  This month, I want to examine two popular food claims and what they REALLY mean in plain English.

‘Baked not fried’.

This claim often appears on snack foods and implies that the food is lower in fat and therefore it’s somehow better for you. For some snacks, like pretzels, this is true as they contain less than 3 per cent fat.  However, for others like biscuits, it means they are generally lower in fat (around 25 per cent less than fried) but that does not mean that they are necessarily low in fat. In fact, ‘baked not fried’ may sound healthier, but the product could still contain as much fat as a fried item (around 25 to 30 per cent fat) so always check the label.

‘No added sugar’

This appears on foods that do not contain added cane sugar such as white or brown sugar but also applies to other types of sugar such as honey, agave, rice malt syrup, glucose, fructose, malt or malt extract.  These ‘alternative’ sugars may sound healthier but are just as high in natural sugars as cane sugar and provide similar carbs and calories.  But please be aware that fruit juice concentrate is not considered an ‘added’ sugar.  This means is often used to sweeten products that carry the ‘no added sugar’ labelling but has as many calories and carbohydrates as ordinary sugar: think of it as juice with the water removed and the sugars made concentrated!

Examples: fruit juices, fruit leathers, canned fruits, sugar-free lollies.

Watch out for the sugar in No Added Sugar products

 

The Natural Way is not just a weight loss program – we educate our clients, while they lose weight, on making healthy choices with food and lifestyle modifications  via our Healthy Living Maintenance program.  So when our clients get to goal, not only have they achieved their weight loss ‘dream’, they know how to keep their weight off – FOR LIFE!  So if you are sick of yo-yo dieting, you need to see us so you can cut the fat once and for all.  Call your nearest clinic on 1300 SLIMMER (1300 754663) and book your FREE appointment to find out more about how our fabulous program can work for you.

Visit our website:  https://thenaturalway.com.au/

 

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