Healthy snacks: The good, the bad, and the fluff

Much like the "friendly bacteria" trend, there's a growing fare of healthy snacks claiming to provide as much nutritional benefits as their fruit and vegetable counterparts. But don't play the unwitting consumer! There isn't a perfect substitute for good 'ol fashioned apples or carrots or other produce.

Ever seen the label for Jell-O Fruit Passions? According to this article, it claims to have a full serving a fruit per cup. I've seen similar claims on other products as well. But don't be fooled: manufacturers have had to condense the fruits and veggies into powdered form, which doesn't qualify it to be what it originally was anymore! Sure, some products actually put fruit, for example, in the product (like yogurt).

But how gullible do they think we are to blindly accept chips with a hint of apple as a proper substitute? Now, these products are not all smoke and mirrors. Given the other chips on the market (for example), I'll take veggie-infused baked alternatives any day. In fact, they are a very good snack to cure the munchies! But anyone health-conscious should be consuming produce in its raw form daily -- not a snack version of broccoli in a bag.