False Advertising, Buyer Beware!

November 16th, 2014

Many foods are advertised as being “healthy” but in reality they offer little nutritional benefit and may be filled with calories or fat.  I often have patients say they picked a certain brand of cereal because it was advertised as being “heart healthy”, yet they can’t seem to lose weight.  Most cereals are composed of refined grains, some of which are GMO (genetically modified organism) and a large proportion of corn products.  The next time you are walking in the grocery aisle, try to find a cereal that does not have any corn products (e.g. corn syrup).  It’s a difficult challenge!   I recommend picking a cereal where you can recognize the individual grains (barley, flax seeds, oats) and not overly processed flakes, donut shapes, or multicolored cartoon shapes with marshmallows.

Don’t depend on the government to police the food manufacturers on their incorrect labelling.  The FDA currently has, in my opinion, very loose definitions of what can be considered “healthy” or “organic” or “low fat”.  They also are slow to enforce any violators.  In fact, a popular chocolate-hazelnut spread was reprimanded after over 6 months of a successful TV commercial campaign that said it could be a healthy addition to breakfast.  (BTW, 2 tablespoons of the said chocolate-hazelnut spread has 200 calories, 21 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of fat!)  I can only imagine how much weight was gained by people following this misinformation!

What can you trust?  Make sure you read all nutrition information on all foods that you eat.  Pay close attention to calories per serving, and the number of servings per package.  Some food manufacturers like to use extremely small, unrealistic serving sizes to show that they are “low in calories”.  When was the last time you split a granola bar into 4 pieces and just ate one of them?

Use your common sense.  If something tastes extremely sweet and is not made of artificial sugar, it is likely high in calories.  I used to buy small Greek yogurt cups with 0% fat and fruit.  However, I noticed the “fruit on the bottom” was almost like jam and sickeningly sweet.  Lo and behold, while the yogurt is fat free, the fruit jam was full of sugars.  I replaced them immediately.  Now, I buy plain 0% fat Greek yogurt in a large tub size.  Then I take fresh fruit or unsweetened frozen berries and I place them at the bottom of small reusable containers about the same size of a yogurt cup and add the yogurt on top.  Every Sunday, I create 7 of these “parfaits” for each day of the week and keep them in the fridge.  I also add a teaspoon each of chia seeds, flax seeds and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil as part of the Mediterranean Diet.  When you create your own food, you know what is going into your food and what is NOT going into your food.  Yes, it may take more work, but at the end of the day you will feel healthier.