Do you feel like you are doing all the right things with your diet, but still not losing weight? Are you trying to buy all the right foods, but still struggling to see results? Maybe you are being tricked by the Healthy Food Frauds.

Last week we appeared in a segment on Today Tonight Adelaide featuring Healthy Food Frauds. You can see the segment

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Healthy Food Frauds are foods or drinks that sound healthy, but contain hidden fats and sugars. Food marketing is big business and food packaging is premium marketing space. Those packages need to convince you a product is going to be appealing – whether that is in the way it makes you feel, or how it nourishes your body. Think of words like natural, whole, earth, vitamin and baked - they all make a product sound as if it is going to be good for you. Unfortunately this is not always the case!

As you will see in the segment, we poured a decent serve of muesli and showed it contained 10 teaspoons of sugar and four teaspoons of fat! This bowl held about one and a half cups of muesli. Whilst this may be greater than many of you would even contemplate after weight loss surgery, the sugar and fat hiding in there is surprising nonetheless. What may surprise you even more is that eating this bowl of muesli would be like sitting down and eating nine slices of bread!

In researching this segment we investigated a lot more foods than were actually shown.

Here are some other common Healthy Food Frauds we like to expose:

- Fruit juice may contain up to 13 teaspoons of sugar in a 600ml bottle you grab at the service station or deli, including the “no added sugar” varieties.

- Muesli bars may contain two teaspoons of sugar and two teaspoons of fat in a small bar.

- Low fat yoghurt may contain up to 6 teaspoons of sugar per 175g tub.

- Juice bar smoothies: can easily contain six teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of fat.

- A bottle of vitamin water can contain 7 teaspoons of sugar.

- A small, 250 ml coconut water contains 3 teaspoons of sugar.

- A small box of dried fruit, easy to throw in the kid’s lunchbox can contain up to six teaspoons of sugar.

Check out the segment to see more Healthy Food Frauds exposed, it only takes a few minutes.

Making small changes to our daily food and drink choices can make a big difference - the difference between gaining weight and losing weight. By reducing five teaspoons of fat per day, or 10 teaspoons of sugar per day (or a combination of both), you can lose about one kilogram per month. Whilst you may think this seems small, over a year that is 12 kilograms! It really adds up!

I have never read and investigated labels on food products as much as I do now. Some grocery shopping trips take me twice as long as they used to. One example of something I've noticed on a product I buy frequently is with Swiss Miss Hot chocolate Mix.... I add a Tsp into my coffee to make a Mocha Coffee. The Swiss Miss "No Sugar Added" is 60 calories a packet with 7 grams of sugar VERSUS the Swiss Miss "Diet," which has 26 calories a packet and 2.1 grams of sugar. Coffee Mate has A Creamy Chocolate sugar free powder that has 15 calories per tsp. I have to say that even though the DIET version of the above products has less calories, the SUGAR FREE versions taste better, in my opinion.

I am such a label reader, but recently I fell into the sugar trap through the most unlikely purchases. One was a berry flavored aloe vera juice. The aloe I usually use (1/2 cup mixed into my bottle of Water along with a splash of cranberry) is 6 calories. This one is 55 and 13 grams of sugar. Crystalline Fructose. So sweet I can barely drink it.

The other item that shocked me is a liquid Omega-3 fish oil concoction. 60 calories for a tablespoon and that tablespoon is disgustingly sweet because it turns out this product has xylitol in it! I am not into artificial sweeteners at all and can't believe it's in my fish oil for crying out loud!

Recently I saw Steevia at the supermarket and thought to myself, "oh good, people will catch on to this sugar alternative -- it's going mainstream." But then I looked at the ingredients. This particular one is loaded with Maltodextrin. What a nightmare! It's not a sugar but it has an incredibly high glycemic index. So all those diabetics and people trying to deal with their health issues by switching to Steevia are getting Maltodextrin at the same time. Look for the 100% pure Steevia, people!

Oh dear, I'm on a soapbox. Maybe because it's Easter and I just can't believe what people feed their kids.

Good article and advice. Thanks! Reading food labels is just another of the things we need to do to be our own health advocates!

liked your post a lot..

i have found (in meeting people) some are eating low fat or fat free things or even sugar free and just eating to their hearts content.....all the while the 3500 calories is a pound ate or drank remains a fact to gain (or lose weight)...i see it as some foods are just better choices than others..and we CAN make those choices.....and by doing that, it is not depriving or doing without...its common sense

since i can only now eat just so much

i now eat GREAT.....and that is the pricer cuts of lean Protein

and you know what, i deserve it......as we all do..

eating to live......not living to eat