Label Lies - Don't Trust Diet Foods

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Dec 20th 2008 10:00AM

Think switching to low fat foods on January 1st will help undo all the diet sins of the holidays? Think again. An investigation out of the UK done by consumer watchdog Which? found that the only part of you that would slim down if you switched to diet foods is your wallet.

As an example, they point to two notable breakfast items: Special K, a cereal marketed as good for your waistline, and Corn Flakes, a regular one. Both have the same calories.

"Just because foods are labeled as light or advertised as diet brands, it doesn't mean they're the lowest calorie option, says researcher Nikki Ratcliff. "Look at other similar products on the shelf – you might find some that don't brand themselves as light actually have fewer calories or less fat or less sugar, so you'd be better off buying them instead." Read the rest of the findings here.

Sounds like sound advice to me.

12 "healthy" foods that really aren't(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Source

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 12-20-2008 @ 6:17PM

For around the same number of calories, Special K has almost three times the protein as Corn Flakes per same-sized serving. I don't know how they managed to stuff more protein and more fat into Special K without significantly adding calories, but label claims they somehow did it. Some scientific studies claim that the composition of the calories determines where the weight goes, even if a calorie is a calorie and doesn't change overall weight or BMI. If Special K's increased fat and protein directs the weight to the hips, arms, or legs instead of the waist, for example, the advertising of being good for the waistline can be true without reducing overall weight.

The words often do mean something, but they might not mean what people hope they mean.

Also, in the US, the term "light" is regulated by the FDA. The "light" variety has to have one-third fewer calories or half the fat of some reference food. Here, Pringles had to rename its "Light Crisps" to "Right Crisps" because they were only 33% less fat and therefore not sufficiently reduced to qualify as "light".