Families rolling their carts around the grocery store will soon be hit with up to six possible nutritional rating labels -- a confusing, processed food mess. And powerhouse nutrition experts share that this eclectic system is one bad joke for your nutritional health. Take a look at how Cheerios score across just three of the labels and you'll see what we mean:

NuVal. Cheerios score a 34 out of 100 with NuVal. Big Food is not behind this label. Rather, it was developed by a panel of nutrition and medical experts to rate foods from 1 to 100 using the Overall Nutritional Quality Index algorithm. Higher nutrients, higher score. Finally, a label that speaks the truth about processed foods -- an orange gets a 100, pretzels an 11. Check out the video, this definitely seems like one of the best labels around. It's currently in use at Meijer Price Chopper and Hy-Vee.

nutrition iQ. Features a color-coded labeling system to identify better choices, Cheerios earns two colors -- dark orange for whole grains and orange for fiber. Jewel-Osco will see this system in the fall -- sounds complicated. Soda, candy, cookies, ice cream, juice and baby food are not rated.

Smart Choices Program. Cheerios is awarded this bold, green check mark. No wonder, Big Food is partially behind this label, which allows 25 percent of calories from added sugars and 480 mg of sodium per serving. Nutrition expert Marion Nestle is critical of the limits, and expert David Katz told the Chicago Tribune that industry meddling is like the "fox guarding the henhouse." At least this label will replace a slew of individual label systems put forth by Kraft, Pepsico, Kellogg's, General Mills and Unilever. But be wary of this one -- how about a big, fat red check mark for Dumb Choices instead?

To mess with your head even more, there's Guiding Stars, Healthy Ideas and the American Heart Association's red check mark, too. As Marion Nestle points out, label health claims aren't helping the consumer, they're marketing junk food.

However, if label-mania will influence your purchases, you need to self-educate. Think about who developed the label and what the ratings are actually measuring. Be skeptical, don't think these labels are an automatic green light. Besides, you can sidestep label confusion by purchasing wholesome, real foods such as fresh veggies, fruits, whole grains, fish and lean cuts of meat.

Fit Family Summer Assignment -- Shop primarily for real foods for one week. If you need a treat, forget the processed junk and try baking a batch of cookies or muffins from a healthier recipe.

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This is what you might find in some of your favorite foods: Maltodextrin, Inulin, Methylcellulose, Xanthan Gum, Carmine and Mono- and Diglycerides. But do you know what these big words mean? FitSugar does, and they decode these ingredients so you can become a more savvy shopper.

Consider this: Xanthan gum is a commonly-used ingredient made by fermenting corn sugar with a bacteria knows as Xanthomonas campestris bacterium -- the same bacteria that causes black spots to form on broccoli or cauliflower. Visit FitSugar to find out what else you're putting in your body.

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Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

Last week, I referenced a popular energy bar that touted net zero carbs, even though the whole concept of net carbs is a fiction invented by marketing departments to sell more product. While we're on the topic, the real question you need to ask is: "Does that tasty 'engineered food' actually contain the 220 calories it claims on the label?" This isn't a question you might necessarily think to ask. Most of us assume that Nutrition Facts labels -- required by law on all processed, packaged food products and relied on by millions to make healthy food choices -- reflect reality.

Turns out, many of them may not. In a test conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services laboratory, 75 percent of diet products tested -- most of them regional brands -- were shown to have erroneous information on their labels. More than 10 percent of all bakery products and candies tested were mislabeled, as were 25 percent of dressings and condiments. Some of the labels were off-the-charts misleading, like a vanilla éclair said to have 2 grams of fat but actually containing 17 grams. An entire line of "sugar-free" baked goods -- more than 20 products -- from a regional company were found to contain sugar, as many as 16 grams per serving. (The baker admitted he added sugar to give the chocolate products more flavor and to enable the cookie dough to brown better. Well, duh.)

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Have you ever heard the phrase "the whole truth and nothing but?" When it comes to many of the foods marketed to kids, the packaging is anything but the whole truth. As a parent, I know how frustrating it is when my son is bombarded with commercials for sugary or unhealthy treats on TV. Even if he never saw a commercial for anything, the packaging that's geared toward kids rarely holds healthy foods inside. Take fruit juice for example -- packaging for sugary, unnatural ingredient-laden juice boxes tends to be very kid oriented. When my son sees boxes with cool looking surfers riding a fruit juice wave, that's what he wants me to buy. But the 100% juice varieties that I do allow in his lunch box tend to be packaged in boxes with pictures of fruit -- not nearly as cool in my pre-teen son's eyes.

Even when a product is packaged to catch a kid's eye, they often have a claim -- such as low-fat or high in calcium -- that aims to make health-conscious parents feel a bit better about the choice. While the actual claim might be true, the whole truth about the product isn't that pretty. University of Calgary researchers found that 62% of kid-aimed food products that boast of nutritional benefits are actually of poor nutritional quality. Time has a list of nine items that have nutritional claims that might mislead parents into thinking the product is healthier than it actually is.

When it comes to buying food for your kids, stick to natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible. When buying packaged items, read the food label -- it's the only way to know the whole truth about the product you're buying.

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