When it comes to filling your grocery cart with the healthiest foods, careful label reading is critical. Yet even the savviest shoppers can be fooled by some of the claims found on the front of food packages. And that is intentional. “If the marketing is done well, it slips through the radar of critical thinking,” says Marion Nestle, PhD, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. “It’s designed to make you think emotionally, and before you know it, you’ve picked up a box of junk masquerading as health food.”
Some of the terms on the front of food packages aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees nutrition and health labels and claims. “Manufacturers use colorful images, product names, and claims that give the food a ‘health halo,’” says Amy Keating, RD, a Consumer Reports nutritionist. “In some cases, the claims are factually true, but still can be quite misleading.” Here are some claims to ignore.
In this article
- Misleading labels: No Cholestrol Made With Real Vegetables or Fruit Lightly Sweet Keto Gluten Free Uncured
No Cholesterol
Cholesterol is found only in animal products. Seeing “no cholesterol” on a plant-based food (like peanut butter or vegetable oil, which would never contain cholesterol) is stating the obvious, but it’s there to make you think it’s healthier than a similar product that doesn’t proclaim it.
Made With Real Vegetables or Fruit
The ingredients listed below the Nutrition Facts panel are in order of weight, says Nestle. “The first few are the only ones that really count, and if the ingredient is below the first five, there’s probably not much of it in the product.”
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For example, in the case of Simply Lay’s Veggie Poppables (which proclaim “made with real veggies” on the package), the only “vegetables” in them are spinach and tomato powders—listed 10th and 11th in the ingredients list. Welch’s Fruit Snacks correctly state that “fruit is our 1st ingredient,” but second and third in line are corn syrup and sugar, effectively negating any real benefits from the fruit.
Lightly Sweet
This suggests that a product would have very little sugar, but that’s not always the case. For example, a cup of Morning Summit cereal, labeled “lightly sweetened,” has 14 grams of added sugars. And “slightly sweet” Gold Peak iced tea has 16 grams of added sugars in 12 ounces. The terms that the FDA has definitions for are: “sugar free” (contains less than 0.5 gram sugars), “reduced sugar” (contains at least 25 percent less sugar than a comparable product), and “no added sugars” (no sugar or sugar-containing ingredient is added to the food).
Keto
Ketogenic foods contain little or no carbs or added sugars, but that doesn’t automatically make them healthy. “Cereals, bars, or cookies that say ’keto’ on the package are often ultraprocessed, a category of foods that are made with industrial ingredients,” says Nestle, such as isolated proteins and sugar alcohols. The latter don’t have calories or raise blood sugar, but “they are manufactured sweeteners, and questions have been raised about how safe they are,” she says.
Gluten Free
Unless you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, there’s no health reason to avoid gluten. In fact, some gluten-free versions of breads, pasta, and tortillas can be a less healthy choice. They may be lower in fiber than whole-grain products (Toufayan Bakeries Gluten Free Tortilla Wraps, for example, have zero grams of fiber), and can contain gums and other additives that push them into the ultraprocessed food category.
Uncured
Cured deli meats and hot dogs are preserved with synthetic nitrates and nitrites, which may raise the risk of some cancers. But all “uncured” means is that the meat is preserved with celery seed powder or another natural source of nitrates and nitrites. “Uncured meats aren’t better for you,” Keating says, “because synthetic and natural nitrates and nitrites have the same effects on the body.”
Editor’s Note:A version of this article also appeared in the February 2024 issue ofConsumer Reports On Health.
Sally Wadyka
Sally Wadyka is a freelance writer who contributes to Consumer Reports, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, and the Food Network on topics such as health, nutrition, and wellness.
