What’s In My Low-Fat, Sugar Free Food?
We see the advertisements on Instagram, TV, and even in the grocery store. An entire pint of ice cream for 250 calories and 5 grams of sugar! This diet soda now has zero sugar! This yogurt is fat-free!
Ask yourself: if you remove the fat, the sugar, or the salt from the food, why does it still taste so good?
The advertisements and claims we see can easily trick us into thinking that a product is nutritious. However, you should be in the mindset of questioning the claims on your food. Read the nutrition facts and ingredients – you may be very surprised at what you find.
We as humans crave sugar, salt, and fat. All three have a purpose in the body. In the early days of humanity when food wasn’t readily available, humans looked for fat as a long-lasting energy source. Sugar was (and still is) needed as the only energy source that can be used by the brain and other tissues. Sodium is essential to keep many body processes running normally. We still crave these things the way that cavemen did, but it’s become a problem now that food is readily available and processed to have large amounts of sugar, fat, and salt.
“If salt, sugar, or fat is reduced, often one or both of the other two components of this triad are increased.”
– Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
When either salt, sugar, fat are removed, it is common to add more of the other two elements. Food manufacturers want their food to taste good so that you keep buying it. This is why foods like low-fat yogurt, low-fat ice creams, and even Starbucks drinks made with non-fat milk can have loads of added sugar (real or artificial, but stay tuned for another post about that!). The same practice can happen with low-sodium and low-sugar foods, too – removing or decreasing sodium often comes with an increase in fat, and so on.
The message here is not that you can never eat a pint of Halo Top again, or that you have to swear off your favorite sugar-free coffee creamer. Treats or higher fat and sugar foods have their place. What’s important is taking time to think about what you’re buying and eating. Be an educated consumer by reading the nutrition facts panel and ingredients list. And remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
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