Fats - avoid 'reduced fat'
Over the last 10 years the obesity epidemic has gotten worse and worse, and there are some signs that it is starting to improve, some other signs, not so much. What is happening however is with the advancement of social media and information freedom, the facts on what is actually good for you is slowly coming to the fore - albeit there is probably another 10-15 years before it is common knowledge - this is why I am doing this, to help you understand!
Back when the obesity crisis started the government did a 'study' to find out the cause. A simple conclusion was that FAT was making people fat.
-- seems logical right?
so they set about making rules for foods to have X amount of fats in them and reduced fats so that people had 'healthier' options.
-- again logical right?
WRONG.
As I have mentioned previously, the dangerous effects of SUGAR and low fibre within your diet are what can attribute to you gaining lots of weight.
And the companies who make food who then had to make 'reduced' versions of their products, found out that taste and consistency was compromised when you reduce something
-- logical right?
So to combat this, they had to ADD something else, and well, you guessed, SUGAR. But not just any sugar, artificial and simple sugars that kept the taste and consistency, kept the 'fat down' but overall nutritional value decreased.
Now looking at a nutritional table on the back of the pack will give you the sense of 'yes this is healthier' as all the numbers are down in comparison, it is however the ingredients list that VASTLY changes.
The nutritional information is based on:
Calories - how many there are
total fat - then broken down into saturated
carbs - and then broken down in sugar - which is a simple sugar, nothing else
fibre - soluble fibre that is good for you
protein - again good info to know
salt - irrelevant unless in MASS quantities
so as you can see although the information is there (by law they can not lie!) but the classification of sugar is such that it almost tricks average Joe/Jo (gotta keep it P.C!) into thinking there is no sugar is 'reduced' products.
The way to read the food label is:
Look at total fat, take that number - this is generally ok fats for products within the UK.
Look at saturated fats - you want that as low as possible as then that will mean the rest of the fat will generally be good for you!
Similar story with 'zero calorie' or 'no calorie' diet drinks
tastes a tad different but not overly much so, but the artificial sugar contained within these is sky high - might as well drink a normal version!
What you would be better doing is looking for 'no ADDED sugar' this means that the natural sugars found in whatever product it is, is there, but nothing else. Generally these products are ok.
Take home message ......
"if you see reduced/lowered or any other adjective to draw you in, think CHEMICAL SHIT STORM' and take the normal version"
