If you're a label reader, you already know that lots of supermarket foods aren't nearly as good for you as advertised. Every other box on the shelf brags about how it's all natural or organic, fat-free or made with 70 types of grains. How's a savvy shopper to pick the truly healthy choices out of all the junk food with healthy-looking packaging?

Never fear -- the video above will help you navigate the grocery store like a nutrition pro. No more candy bars masquerading as health food for you, my friend! At least, not unless that's what you want.

Monday through Friday, you can find a new Daily Fit Tip on the right-hand side of That's Fit. From nutrition to fitness to weight loss to body image ... the Daily Fit Tip covers it all. I scoured through this year's archives for some of the best tips for securing good health. Take these five tips into the New Year for a healthy, happy and fit 2009.

I just love Honey Crisp apples. Unfortunately, their deliciousness comes with a pretty big price tag. The other day I was checking out at the grocery store and I had a bag full of Honey Crisps. The cashier and I were lamenting over how costly they were. I mentioned that I had heard that apple growers in our state had planted some Honey Crisp trees, so hopefully the cost would go down when those trees were mature and bearing fruit. Then we looked at the label. Fortunately for the environment, but unfortunately for my wallet, the apples in question were from my state. And they were just as expensive as ever. Even though I was disappointed in the price, I was glad to see that my favorite fall treat is now locally grown.

Being able to see where food comes from is important for many reasons. Environmentally speaking, the fewer miles the food has to travel to arrive on your grocery store shelves, the better. Local food also helps to ensure freshness and it supports the local economy. Health-wise, knowing what country your food is from can help you avoid foods that are potentially exposed to unsanitary conditions and/or harmful chemicals.

The new law, which requires country of origin labeling as of September 30, is a bit confusing, however. Certain foods, such as roasted peanuts and bacon, don't have to be labeled. Any food that can be considered processed is exempt from the law.

[via FitSugar]

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While the area I live in may have made my exposure to this fruit a little slower than it was for most people, it's still a relatively new addition to the regular fruits and veggies on grocery store shelves. In a short span of time the bizarre-looking pomegranate has moved from exotic to mainstream.

The world of nutrition has its trends just like anything else, and pomegranates certainly had their day (or couple of years) in the sun. Pomegranates have been linked to health benefits for erectile dysfunction, cancer risk reduction, lung health, and other issues. And they certainly are good for you... not to mention tasty. (Though pomegranate juice can negatively interact with certain medications (such as some blood pressure meds), so check with your doctor.)

But when a food item becomes trendy, there is a bit of a halo effect; anything that has that item listed on the package automatically seems healthier and better for you. Health by association, if you will.

I like to think of myself as a fairly educated shopper when it comes to understanding nutrition labels at the grocery store (because I read so much about it) but I still find myself getting confused or overwhelmed sometimes when trying to keep everything straight. "Make sure there are no trans fats and not too much added sugar or artificial preservatives, go for organic as much as possible, how much fiber is considered enough in a serving? And what does 'low-fat' really mean? ... " The list goes on and the makers of food nutrition labels are looking to capitalize on that mess as best they can. See the gallery below for nine of the most common ways food labels try to mislead and confuse us all.

Which ones are the toughest for you to deal with?

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We talk a lot about reading labels here at That's Fit, like how whole wheat bread isn't always whole wheat, and "natural" and "organic" can mean several things. However, more than just your food is labeled -- so are your cosmetics.

In honor of Earth Day this past Tuesday, I wanted to tell you a bit about how you can find cosmetics and beauty products that are truly cruelty-free. After all, causing pain for an animal just isn't pretty.

Companies use several different types of wording to make the extent of their animal testing ambiguous. For example, if the label says Final product not tested on animals, that means that while that particular lip gloss might not have been put on an animal, the ingredients going into it might have. Or, if it says This brand does not test on animals, it could mean that a supplier or lab that brand works with tests on animals.

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I've learned a lot about diet and nutrition over the past year. Still, I'm sometimes confused by food labels. Drawn to any product slapped with a health claim, I often wonder how good certain foods are for me. How low-fat is a low-fat item, for example? How trans-fat free is a trans-fat free treat? What exactly does it mean if my cereal box comes marked with a red heart and a white check mark?

Woman's Day magazine recently published a chart to help me decode label lingo. See if this helps you too.

"May reduce the risk of heart disease" or "Helps lower cholesterol"
The FDA says if eaten regularly as part of an overall healthy diet, this food may help prevent heart disease and/or lower LDL cholesterol. This labeling is usually found on produce and foods rich in whole grains, soluble fiber, soy protein, and/or plant sterols or stanols.

A red heart with a white check mark
The American Heart Association certifies that this item is low in cholesterol, total fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. It has less than 480 mg of sodium and naturally contains at least 10 percent of the daily value for vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, protein, or fiber.

A yellow and black "whole grain" icon that looks like a postage stamp
The Whole Grains Council verifies that this product has at least eight g of whole grains in 1/2 serving. If the stamp reads "100 percent whole grain," then it has at least 16 g of whole grains in one full serving. Three daily servings of whole grains are recommended.

"Low Sodium"
Low sodium foods have fewer than 140 mg per serving.

"Low Fat"
This one has less than three g of fat per serving.

"Low Saturated Fat"
Items touted as low in saturated fat have fewer than one g and less than 15 percent of calories from saturated fat per serving

"Low Cholesterol"
Fewer than 20 mg of cholesterol per serving.

"Trans Fat Free"
Fewer than 0.5 g trans fat per serving.

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You've heard it before and you'll hear it again: Read the labels at the supermarket. But unless you're well-versed in all things healthy, it can be hard to know what to look for. So next time you're shopping around, take a quick glance and look for these five things:

1. Bad fats. If it has any trans fat or over a few grams of saturated fat per serving, skip it.
   
2. Sugar. Has it got more than 10 g of sugar per serving? If the answer's yes, skip it.
   
3. Fiber. Fiber is good for curbing hunger, among many other things. Particularly when choosing breads and cereals, look for items that are high in fiber -- think 4 g or more.
   
4. Ingredients. Does it have a list of ingredients as big as the dictionary?Are most of them unpronounceable? Think: Do you want to put all those chemicals in your body? Yeah, didn't think so.
   
5. Servings size. Pay attention to just what constitutes a serving. For instance, you might think 5 g of sugar isn't that bad, but if there's 5g of sugar in a two tablespoon serving? That's a lot.
   

Health is hip these days, and almost every company out there is trying to capitalize on this by claiming their products are healthy. But unfortunately, many of these so-called 'healthy' items aren't necessarily good for you. Be wary of foods with these labels on them:

• All Natural. Sure, it might not be heavily processed, but it still may be high in calories, fat or both.
  
• Cholesterol-free. This doesn't mean fat free. In fact, many cholesterol-free foods are high in saturated fat
• Low fat or fat-free. This doesn't mean calorie-free so watch out.
  
• Trans fat-free. Just because there's no trans fat, doesn't mean there's no fat. There are probably some dangerous saturated fats in there.
  
• Low sodium. It's a good idea to reduce your sodium but look into what they've replaced it with. It might be sugar.
  
• Good source of ... Many unhealthy food items claim their healthy by emphasizing one nutrient. For example? Macaroni and cheese packages claim it to be a good source of calcium (it is) but they don't mention that it's very high in fat, sodium and calories.
  
• Multi grain. Multi grains aren't necessarily whole grains, so check the label.
• Baked. Backed chips are a better choice than fried ones, but they're often high in calories and sodium
• Organic. There's no doubt that organic food is better than regular stuff, but just because it's organic, doesn't mean it's healthy. It can still be high in organic fat and organic calories.

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Food labels are confusing. I know this. Even though I understand how to understand them, it's hard to balance the good and bad I find listed on food products. I might find a certain something to be low in sugar and then learn the same item is high in fat. How do I know if something is a good bet with so much competing information?

Here's some direction, thanks to the American Dietetic Association. Call it the rule of 5 and 20.

An item is considered a poor source of a nutrient if it contains five percent daily value or less of that nutrient -- based on a 2,000-calorie diet. It's an excellent source if it contains 20 percent daily value or more. Depending on whether these figures refer to sugar or say, fiber, you'll want to adjust your intake accordingly.

That helps. Doesn't it?

For more on food labels and how to interpret them, stop by this site. Click on Get Smart -- Get the Facts on Food Labels and you'll land at an enlightening PDF nutrition fact sheet.

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Target wants to install new warning labels on meat products in its stores, according to requests from the retailer this week.

The country's second-largest discounter wants to inform customers that much of the packaged red meat in the grocery sections of its stores in fact do use the poisonous chemical carbon monoxide to keep that meat looking red and fresh.

Just like to toxic chemical sodium nitrite, carbon monoxide should be banned from all meat products sold anywhere in the U.S. But, the uninformed consumer would rather see that red meat rather than what is really is, which is dead, gray-colored meat. At least Target is making an effort here to educate its own customers. Kudos.

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Confused about how many trans fats your body needs? Let me help. Zero.

Trans fats -- abundant in cookies, candies, pastries, fried food, and margarine -- are not necessary in any way, shape, or form. There's no need to eat them at any level, especially because they seriously up the risk of heart disease.

Make it your project, starting today, to buy only foods with zero trans fats. Nutrition labels now make it easy to identify trans fat-free foods, and there are more of these products on the shelves than ever before. Head to the outside aisles of your grocery store for fresh fruits, veggies, fish, and whole grains -- OK and maybe small amounts of healthy oils like olive and canola. This way, you'll be sure to stay out of trans fat trouble.

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It's quite enlightening to hear than a 10 year-old in the U.S. reads food labeling when shopper with her mom, but that is just what Marie Grandguillotte does every time she goes shopping at the local grocer. Marie says that reading food labels was "a little bit confusing, but after a while I got used to it."

That is the sign of a well-informed person, and I'll venture a guess that little Marie does what most U.S. adults do not. If even one percent of the kids did this in the U.S. and knew how to make nutritional choices based on that information, we'd see massive health benefits from it.

So far, flashy colors and goofy kid-targeted marketing are winning, as they always have been. The worst are the free prizes in sugary breakfast cereals, most of which easily fall into the junk food category. It never hurts to pop out one of those boxes and explain to your fifth-grader what all that nutrition information means.

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You can bet that when our parents and grandparents were growing up, the grocery store wasn't full of low-fat, omega-3-enriched, antioxidant-infused foods. In those days, 100-calorie packs would be seen for what they are -- a rip-off. Things were what they were, without flashy labels and empty promises. And yet, with all the low-fat food in our grocery stores, the population as a whole is much heavier than we were even a few decades ago. These so-called health foods aren't doing much for our health, it appears. Which brings up a very interesting question: Are they what's making us fat?

A new study shows that if you view an item as healthy, you tend to overeat said item. So while it might not be the item itself that's making you fat, it's your perception of it. This is understandable -- when I have butter in the fridge, I don't use it nearly as liberally as I would olive oil, even though the two items probably have roughly the same amount of calories.

So here are some things to keep in mind: Fat-free doesn't mean calorie-free. Healthy fats are better for you, but they have just as many calories as unhealthy fats. And just because the commercial says it's a healthy choice, chances are it's not. Be your own diet detective.

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Would you pay attention if health symbols -- kind of a like a traffic light system -- were posted on your food labels? A green light would mean an item is low in fat, salt, and sugar, a yellow light would indicate medium levels of these additives, and a red light would signal high portions of these goodies. Some food companies in Britain use a system like this, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering a similar practice.

The FDA is gathering input from food companies, trade groups, watchdog organizations, medical experts, and overseas counterparts about this topic. While action would still be years away, it's the thought that counts. Thinking is the first step. Implementation might be in the near future.

Until you see the traffic-light system in full swing, pay attention to the foods you purchase. Some already come bearing their own symbols. PepsiCo, for example, uses the "Smart Spot" symbol on Diet Pepsi, Baked Lay's chips, and a few other products. And Hannaford Bros., a New England supermarket chain, uses a zero-to-three star system to rate more than 25,000 products.

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