Label Lies

Author: Alison Johnson

Finding nutritious snacks for your children may be harder than you think

Recently, one of Renee DeGraaf’s friends told her what was supposed to be good news about her toddler’s eating habits: The little boy was downing two or three Nutri-Grain cereal bars a day.

The labeling on the food’s box seemed to back up its healthy-sounding name. Near a picture of five big strawberries were the words “low fat” and “made with whole oats.”

But what the bars mostly are, DeGraaf had to tell her friend, is sugar. Their first ingredient is a “filling” loaded with high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup.

“There’s almost no fiber and not much protein,” said DeGraaf, a registered dietitian at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News. “They are low-fat and they have some vitamins and calcium, but it’s not a health food like it sounds. My friend was totally shocked. It’s like I tell everyone, you’ve got to see past the big type on labels.”

Beyond the fresh fruit and vegetable aisles, finding healthy foods for children can be harder than it seems. On many packaged foods, the labels are so misleading that many well-meaning parents bring home way more sugar, fat and salt than their kids should have.

A basic fact to remember, dietitians say, is that food processors use labels to sell their products. The word “natural” in big type sounds great, but nutritionally it doesn’t mean much (after all, the fat in beef is “natural”). A snack “made with real fruit” might hold the equivalent of a single blueberry. A “multigrain” cereal or waffle often is just refined white flour with a tiny pinch of wheat.

In some cases, labels try to distract buyers from the unhealthy qualities of a food. The front of a box of Lunchables mini-cheeseburgers screams, “An Excellent Source of Calcium!” The nutrition facts on the back, on the other hand, show 410 calories per serving, 110 of them from fat, and loads of salt.

Unfortunately, labels have tended to get even more complicated as parents have pushed for healthier foods in response to rising obesity rates. Many companies claim to have transformed old standbys such as cheese crackers, chocolate, sugary cereals and sodas by adding calcium or whole grain.

Some of the changes are at least slightly for the better; for example, Goldfish crackers made with whole grain have two grams of dietary fiber per serving compared to less than one gram in the regular variety. But many of the new labels are basically window-dressing, said Gale Pearson, a registered dietitian in Newport News.

“Fortified junk food is still junk food,” Pearson said. “The amount of calcium in these products doesn’t mean much. Health claims such as added vitamins, no trans fat, less sugar and multigrain cannot turn a food into a healthy food.”

Here are a few basic tips to help you become a food detective:

Decode the ingredients list. The items that make up the highest percentage of a food will be listed first. So if the first word is “corn syrup” or “hydrogenated” and fruits are way down the list, you’re not looking at a healthy choice.

Know your wheats. Whole-wheat foods are great for kids, but don’t buy them unless the label specifically says “whole-wheat” — not just “wheat” or “multigrain.” Whole-wheat flour also should be the first ingredient listed.

Find the fiber. Look for breads, cereals, pasta, crackers and rice that have at least three grams of fiber per serving.

Check for calcium. If you’re buying something because it’s “calcium-fortified,” be sure it contains at least 20 to 25 percent of the recommended daily value of calcium.

Look for 100 percent juices. Fruit drinks are simply a mixture of water, corn syrup, ascorbic acid and a tiny amount of actual juice. Note: Whole fruit itself is even better than real juice.

Forgo the fat. Any food with fat grams in the double-digits should stay on the shelves, especially products high in saturated fat, DeGraaf said.  

Beware of “enriched” foods. That word usually means lots of processing. “The best foods are usually the least processed — fruits, vegetables, nuts, non-hydrogenated nut butters, milk, cheese, lean meat and poultry,” said Susan Dutt, a registered dietitian at the Riverside Wellness & Fitness Center in Newport News.

Know common pitfalls. Most crackers and prepackaged baked goods are high in unhealthy fats. Yogurt-covered snacks, including raisins and pretzels, are full of sugar and fat. Sugar-free chocolate often is loaded with fat, too.

Watch your portions. Foods that look like a single serving might have two or three servings (check the nutrition facts), which means you need to double the fat, carbohydrates and salt listed. One idea is to buy products that are easier to break into small servings, such as Hershey’s Kisses rather than Hershey’s bars.

Controlling portions and giving kids a variety of foods is much better than cutting out certain foods entirely, dietitians stress. As DeGraaf told her friend, giving her son one of his favorite cereal bars a day is fine if she also offers him fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products and lean proteins, as well as a multivitamin for added insurance.

Making snacks at home also lets parents escape some of the labeling confusion. For example, peanut butter and banana slices on high-fiber graham crackers can substitute for sugary granola or cereal bars. Plain yogurt sweetened with fruit will be lower in sugar than most store brands.

And while sympathizing with parents of picky eaters, dietitians advise serving healthy foods over and over again. Kids often need to see a food 10 to 20 times before they’ll take a bite. Just be sure to look at that fine print at the grocery store first. “This is a big cliché,” DeGraaf said, “but you can’t judge a book by its cover.”