When you pick up a tempting food, scan the nutrition label, and think, "Wow, cool" — because it's surprisingly lite or low-cal or free of trans fat — you expect those claims to be bona fide, right? Hah. Food packagers can be sneaky. Watch out for these 4 typical traps.
- When it comes to comfort food, has it got to be Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese? Look twice. Like many boxed food mixes, the confusing label lists two sets of nutrition stats — and the first one is for the dry mix only. Unless you plan on eating your mac-cheese mix straight from the box, the prepared version (made with margarine and 2% milk) adds an extra 15 grams fat and 150 calories per serving to the figures on the label.
- Just downed a tall (23.5-ounce) can of AriZona Mucho Mango juice blend? Brace yourself. The sugar hit is 75 grams, not 25, as a glance at the label suggests. And the calorie hit is 360, not 120. That's ?cause one serving is only 8 ounces — you're supposed to save the remaining two-thirds of the can for two more drinks.
- Snacking on one of those smallish 3-ounce bags of multigrain Sun Chips? Smart, but note the itty-bitty serving size — only 1/3 of that bag! Scarf down more and you might as well be enjoying Oreos.
- Sometimes you really need a cookie, right? Happily, the nutrition label on your fave brand says 0 grams of both, fat and trans fat. That's good enough that you can deal with the sugar guilt tomorrow, right? Sorry, but 0 doesn't mean zero. It means less than 0.5 gram per serving. Sure, that's not much — unless a serving is, say, two Snackwells Chocolate Mint cookies and by midnight you've finished the whole box. (Who, you?)
Shady labels like these give a whole new meaning to buyer's remorse. And wising up to nutrition tricks won't just keep you trim. Avoiding foods that list saturated and trans fats, simple sugars, or processed grains among their first five ingredients can make your RealAge 3.6 years younger. Sweet.
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