Information is Power

You should practice reading nutrition labels until you feel comfortable with the information. Determine how many fat grams are in your food. What is the composition of the calories? Is it considered low in fat and high in carbohydrates?

Quick Tip #11: Read and understand nutrition labels on foods. What is the composition of your calories - fat, carbohydrates or protein?

Be Careful of Deceptive Labeling

As mentioned above, you must read the nutrition labels to be informed, but be aware, some labels are downright misleading. The FDA has allowed certain guidelines for food manufacturers. These are:

• Fat Free - less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving
• Low Fat - 3 grams of fat or less per serving
• Lean - less than 10 grams of fat per serving
• Light - 1/3 less calories or no more than 1/2 the fat of the higher calorie, higher fat version

Many food manufacturers decrease the serving size to decrease the amount of calories or fat within a single serving. This way the food can qualify as low fat, lean or light. For example, the nutrition label may state that a serving size is two three-ounce cookies, but the old serving size was two four-ounce cookies. If the company had labeled one serving as "two four-ounce cookies," the food may have not been categorized as low fat.

Another deceptive practice (but legal) in nutrition labeling is to reference a brand as "50% less fat that our regular cookies." This fits into the "light" category mentioned above. Again, this is deceptive information because the "reduced fat" cookie may still contain too much fat! Next time you see a "reduced fat" food, stop and read the label for yourself. It's likely to still be high in fat (now that you know how to read a label). Many examples fit in this category. Three Musketeers is advertised as containing 25% less fat than other candy bars. However, when you carefully examine the nutrition label, the candy bar is still high in fat.

Quick Tip #12: Determine for yourself if the food fits your criteria for low fat or light. Don't let the food manufacturers categorize your food as reduced or low fat.