Supermarket shelves are home to a whole lot of health claims. But will the so-called health foods that are making them really help you get in shape?
The answer is all in the label, says David W. Grotto, RDN, LDN, author of The Best Things You Can Eat. Problem is, most guys don’t know exactly what health food labels are—and most importantly, aren’t—saying.
Not anymore. Here’s the secrets hiding behind health-foods labels:
Regulations
While the Food and Drug Administration defines and regulates the use of labels including “whole grain,” “light,” and “no added sugar,” even more labels lay beyond its watchful eyes. Both regulated and unregulated labels can present a problem. Check out the FDA’s full list of regulated food labels and their definitions.
“The term ‘health food’ is not regulated and may be in the eye of the beholder,” says Grotto. The beholder is generally a food manufacturer’s bottom line. Remember, food companies exist to make money. Likewise, labels with low-carb, healthy, energy, or fitness claims aren’t regulated, so manufacturers can pretty much slap them on any food they can, no matter how unhealthy it really is.
But even foods with regulated labels may not be as healthy as one would hope. Case in point: Foods sporting the yellow Whole Grain Stamp, which requires various nutritional requirements and is one of the most widely used industry standards, are higher in sugar and calories than whole grain foods without the label, according to research from Harvard University. To add insult to injury, the foods with the Whole Grain Stamp are also more expensive!
Added Ingredients
When food manufacturers take something out of a food (fat, sugar, calories, etc.), they have to replace it with something. Unfortunately, the replacement is usually a chemical soup of high-taste, low-performing additives. “Guys often assume that the entire product is healthy regardless of the other ingredients contained within,” Grotto says. Remember that just because your cereal contains acai berries or high-fiber grains, the whole thing isn’t necessarily healthy.
Mind Games
A sad truth: Health-food labels trick you into overeating. Recently, when German researchers offered people a trail mix with a fitness label, they noshed on about 50 percent more than when they were given the same mix sans label. When we see fitness-related words—or even photos of athletes or fit celebs—on food packaging, we subconsciously assume the foods will help us reach our goals. “Guys assume that health foods can make their one-pack turn into a six-pack overnight.” Not so. If you don’t control your portions, even the healthiest of foods can cause weight gain and health loss.
The Bottom Line
Read the entire nutritional label—not just the one plastered on the front of the food in bright colors—Grotto advises. Even if what the label touts is true, it’s not indicative of the nutritional value of the food as a whole. The only way to know exactly what’s in your packaged foods is to read that little black and white label on the back. A good rule of thumb is to look for the food with the lowest amount of sugar and sodium per serving as well as the fewest ingredients; fewer ingredients typically mean fewer additives. Even better: Stick with whole foods and leave the processed ones for the chumps.