Junk food disguised as a nutritious option

by michelle.sundvick | August 4, 2008 at 09:54 am

2042 views | 4 Recommendations | 19 comments

People like to believe they are making healthy choices when it comes to their diet, so when food packaging displays the words 'Low-fat', 'Fat-free', or 'No sugar added', it is assumed to be a safe and nutritional choice. Unfortunately, it is not enough to only look at one element of a snack option, as many of these low-fat products make up for lost flavour by doubling or tripling the amount of sugar. Research published by the Australia's NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity shows that more than 50 percent of t.v. ads that focus on positive nutritional claims are actually promoting junk food. So label readers beware and check out the complete nutritional information on the package, as well as the ingredients which are listed by weight.

The unhealthy foods most advertised for nutritional value were high-sugar, low-fibre breakfast cereals, battered meat, high-fat frozen meals, cakes, muffins, biscuits, pies and snacks such as chips, popcorn and sugar-coated nuts, the researchers found.

Misleading claims that exaggerate a food's nutritional qualities, such as lollies and yoghurts advertised as low-fat while ignoring their high sugar content, were found to be common. "If you say something is fat free, full stop, and do not talk about the high content of sugar, people are only getting half the story," said Lesley King, the centre's executive officer and a senior lecturer in public health at Sydney University.

Nutrition claims were made in more than one in five TV food ads and high-sugar, low-fibre breakfast cereals particularly stood out because their fibre content was advertised as a quality.

The main nutritional claims advertised for cakes and biscuits were their reduced fat content. Low sugar, reduced fat and reduced energy content were the most common nutritional claims for chocolate and confectionery.

The centre's findings follow a Herald investigation that revealed an internet multi-level marketing operation based in Reno, Nevada, has been recruiting Australian distributors for Xocai, advertised as "healthy chocolate" with claims that it is low in sugar and contains beneficial fibre from acai berries.

"You can see why people might promote a healthy chocolate or low-fat chocolate. It is the ideal consumer product, if only it existed. It's really based on a fairly interesting understanding of consumer behaviour," Ms King said.

Marketers should be required to disclose a food's full contents so that nutritional claims matched product labels, she said. Now they can take advantage of consumer desires and quick purchasing decisions.

Be careful when reading claims on food packaging – they can be misleading. ‘Diet’, ‘light’ or ‘lower fat’ foods can have less fat than a similar product but they can still be high in calories, fat and sugar.

For example, low fat sausages, spreads and crisps are still high in fat compared to other foods. Reduced fat biscuits can still be high in sugar and calories even though the fat content has been reduced. And remember that foods claiming to be 80% fat-free still have a 20% fat content – that’s still quite high!

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pekoe

at 14:47 on August 4th, 2008

pekoe has contributed a photo to this story.

designed27

at 15:14 on August 4th, 2008

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sweet east pearl

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:35 on August 4th, 2008

michelle.sundvick, I like this story. Thanks for posting this.

ZEKG

at 16:53 on August 4th, 2008

Thanks for talking about this. It should get out into the open more.

kmiller

at 17:00 on August 4th, 2008

This photo was taken while I was on vacation last week. I never drink Jamba Juice but I decided "Hey! Why not! It's a healthy snack" Then I took this picture. Not a very exciting story :)

-KM

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angieboo

at 20:11 on August 4th, 2008

I know we all love Jamba Juice, and all of its amazing fruits, but who knew it was so bad? It's fruit!

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shieken

at 23:38 on August 4th, 2008

Like my mom said to me when I was a kid:

If it taste good in your mouth (candies), it's bad for you
If it taste bad in your mouth (medicine), it's good for you

Of course this is generalization but fairly true in most "non-essential" dietary food. Any over or under consumption is dangerous.

Who really know what's in the food we eat? I generally ignore most of the dietary messages, such as low fat, no sugar, etc. It's how & how much you eat food, that matters more than what you eat.

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barnezydotcom

at 03:38 on August 5th, 2008

Interestingly enough, diet sodas are linked with Metabolic Syndrome. A large majority of people who drink diet sodas are overweight. Diet Dr. Pepper is one of the most popular diet sodas offering 0 calories. It also offers little to none nutritional value. Got Milk?

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barnezydotcom

at 03:41 on August 5th, 2008

Great article, the high level of refined sugar is undoubtably a contributing factor to Obesity and Diabeties in the United States

RyBread

at 03:58 on August 5th, 2008

This photo was taken by me as I am an avid diet soda drinker. I may think twice about this now...

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catherinehoule_rocks

at 06:38 on August 5th, 2008

We were on a trip in New York and it was so hot outside and feelin for smoothie so when we saw Jamba Juice, we couldn't resist !

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elfredo77

at 06:55 on August 5th, 2008

Me and my Jamba Juice :-)

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Socali210

at 11:12 on August 5th, 2008

I love Jamba juice and I think its much more healthy then other options we have out there for junk food

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sourjayne

at 11:49 on August 5th, 2008

Full-fat yogurt (I like Brown Cow Vanilla cream top), organic granola, blueberries. Eating fat helps slow the digestion of sugar, avoiding that sugar rush and crash that can lead to more snacking. Fat is satisfying, so you can easily end up eating fewer calories and feeling full. Eating low-fat foods can actually be counter-productive if you're trying to eat healthy/lose weight.

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Milieunet

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 22:11 on August 5th, 2008

michelle.sundvick, I like this story. It's good stuff.

icedcoffee411

at 12:43 on August 6th, 2008

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RiRi Trautmann

at 12:11 on August 9th, 2008

Some things are named to mislead you into thinking they're healthy - if there's a fruit in the name, it makes you think it might be more healthy.. you know, because there's fruit in it.

Unless you see that Nutrition Facts table, you really don't know what you're getting yourself into a lot of the time.

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