Diet Foods and Drinks That Will Make You Fat
by Susan Burke eDiets.com Chief Nutritionist
Can diet foods make you fat? I realize that this sounds like a contradiction, but the diet industry is like that. You need to come armed with some savvy when it comes to weeding out the hype.
Just look at what happened in the 1980s, when “fat-free” was a fad. “Fat-free” appeared on all types of foods, and consumers (not surprisingly) assumed that fat-free meant calorie-free. Au contraire! For example, fat-free cookies have just as many calories as the original, maybe even more.
Some health experts link the “fat-free” craze to the explosion of obesity in the U.S., and certainly consumers are confused about what’s best -- fat-free, carb-free, high protein, etc.
Bottom line: You need to read the top line on the nutrition facts panel. Calories do count. Read the number of servings in the package or container, and then read calories per serving. When you know what you’re eating, it all adds up.
The Skinny on “Diet Foods”
All foods can fit into a healthy diet in the correct portion size. Even healthy foods can be “fattening” if you eat too much of them. Here’s the skinny on some “diet” foods you’d think would help you with your diet.
Juice:
You’ve seen the ads: “100% pure juice with live enzymes and packed with vitamins and minerals.” Labeled with claims for weight loss, increased energy and better immunity ”, let the buyer beware! To balance the scale in your favor, consider this:
People suffering a low blood glucose reaction are given juice because the fruit sugar (fructose) is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. Juice is not a “diet food” unless you’re on a weight gain diet. It’s one of the quickest ways of getting extra calories that I know.
Juice is extracted from the whole fruit; the beneficial fiber is left behind. Regardless of how “pure” the juice, it contains no inherent properties that will make you healthier or make you lose weight. Peel and eat an orange instead. See below for a tip about juice.
Enhanced waters:
Diet myths abound, displayed on labels of enhanced waters and sports drinks. Drink this for “energy, balance, performance.” I want to paste “Buyer Beware!” signs on the labels.
These waters and flavored teas are certainly fortified... with caffeine and sugar, plus high fructose corn syrup. Before reading the front label and advertising hype, read the ingredient list.
If you’re working out strenuously for more than an hour at a time, then a sports drink is OK, but choose one with less than 8 grams of sugar per serving, or if you prefer, buy an artificially sweetened beverage.
Otherwise, drink water before, during and after exercising. Adding just a quarter-cup of 100% orange or grapefruit juice and a dash of salt to a quart of water makes the perfect sports drink.
Turkey burgers:
When dining out, have you ordered a turkey burger while your friends are all having steak? You may think you’re eating “diet food," but you may be better off with that sirloin.
Turkey breast is an ultra-lean protein, but most restaurants don’t serve ground turkey breast; rather, they serve ground turkey in their burgers, which likely contains the more fatty dark meat and even skin.
Restaurant turkey burgers are also enhanced with mayonnaise and even cheese. If you can’t be certain the turkey burger is made from skinless turkey breast, order a grilled chicken breast sandwich or grilled fish sandwich, sans mayo and cheese.
Breakfast cereals:
Eating breakfast is one of the lifestyle habits that predict weight loss and maintaining that desired weight. I love my cereal in the morning, but exploring the cereal aisle can be a confusing experience, especially for dieters. Don't read the front of the package to get the scoop on cereals. Read the back first, namely the ingredient list and the nutrition facts panel.
Cereals labeled “smart” or “whole grain” or “fruit” are not necessarily smart for your waistline or your health. Often they contain a bit of whole grain, but there is no limit on the other ingredients, including sugar. Here’s a tip: The first ingredient should be whole grain: whole wheat, whole oats, rye or other.
Read the nutrition facts panel and note the serving size. The standard serving size is 3/4 to 1 cup, and you make your decision from there. If one serving contains more than 4 to 8 grams of sugar (1 to 2 teaspoons), then move on. Kashi GoLean, Shredded Wheat, All Bran cereals, Fiber One, unsweetened muesli and granola (fat-free) are good choices. Watch out for “code words” that mean sugar and fat have been added.
Cereals that are labeled “Crunchy,” “Frosted,” “Honey” or “Honey Nut” may have more sugar added. Add your own sugar; don’t let the manufacturer add it for you. For example, a 1-cup serving of Cheerios with a half-cup of nonfat milk has 150 calories. A 3/4-cup serving of Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 170 calories…a smaller serving for more calories. Not a bargain.
Fat-free cookies:
Fat-free doesn’t mean calorie-free. It doesn’t even mean reduced calorie, and fat-free products contain other ingredients, usually sugar, to make up for the texture and flavor lost when the fat is removed. Most fat-free cookies contain as many calories as the original cookie, which doesn’t make them a “diet food.”
Read the label. If you want a cookie, have one. That’s ONE cookie … occasionally. Otherwise, a great “diet” treat is sugar-free, fat-free chocolate or vanilla pudding, which you can count as a serving of dairy.
Diet bread:
Diet breads, diet crackers or other bread products may be the same product, only portioned differently. Bread labeled “25% fewer calories” than the regular version may merely be sliced 25% thinner. Read the label and compare the weight of the serving. “Lite” bread usually refers to the color and does not indicate its fiber content.
Sometimes breads are colored with caramel, molasses or brown sugar. Choose bread made from 100% whole-wheat flour with a minimum of 4 grams of fiber per serving.
Olive oil:
Olive oil has a better nutritional profile than butter and especially margarine, due to the low ratio of saturated fat and because it contains no trans fats. However, olive oil, although a healthy fat, is fat. All fat -- oil, butter, margarine, lard --contains approximately 9 calories per gram, or about 45 calories in one teaspoon. Include olive oil as a part of a healthy diet, but don’t eat more than you need.
Protein bars:
Protein bars, breakfast bars and cereal bars are all convenient, but if you’re trying to lose weight, choose carefully. Most contain too much sugar and hydrogenated fat to be called healthy and more resemble candy bars than breakfast.
I prefer quick and portable breakfasts and snacks of real food, such as stirring a cup of unsweetened cereal into a cup of yogurt, a half-sandwich on whole-grain bread with turkey breast, or a portioned serving of nuts and raisins.
If you’re pressed for time or need something that won’t spoil, read the label and make an educated choice. The first ingredient should either be a whole grain or a protein source (whey or soy protein).
Ignore bars with refined sugar as one of the top listed ingredients (sucrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or any other “syrup”).
If you see hydrogenated fat in the ingredients and more than 1 gram of saturated fat in the nutrition facts panel, forget it. A good meal replacement bar contains about 300 calories, with approximately 25% from protein (approximately 19 grams of protein), nearly zero grams of saturated fat and less than 10 grams of total fat. The higher the fiber, the better -- that means it contains whole grain. Aim for a minimum of 4 grams per serving.
Low-Carb beer: If you think that low-carb beer is a “diet food,” think again. Neither low-carb nor “lite” beers are low in calories. The USDA defines low calorie as a food that has no more than 40 calories per serving. Low-carb and “lite” beers have about 90-100 calories per serving.
A low-carb beer is relatively low in carbohydrates, but calories count. Drink one beer with two water chasers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows the following definitions on food labels:
FAT-FREE -- The product has less than .5 grams of fat per serving.
LOW-FAT -- The product has 3 grams or less of fat per serving.
REDUCED or LESS FAT -- The product has at least 25% less fat per serving than the full-fat version.
LITE or LIGHT --
• The product has fewer calories or half the fat of the non-light version.
• The sodium content of a low-calorie, low-fat food is 50 percent less than the non-light version.
• A food is clearer in color (like light instead of dark corn syrup).
CALORIE-FREE -- The product has less than 5 calories per serving.
LOW-CALORIE -- The product has 40 calories or less per serving.
REDUCED or FEWER CALORIES -- The product has at least 25 percent fewer calories per serving than the non-reduced version…Interesting..hey what?
DRINKS THAT MAKE YOU FAT – OR NOT
New Beverage Guidelines Reject Sugary Drinks, Offer Healthy Choices
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
on Friday, March 10, 2006
Avoid drinking calories, new beverage guidelines stress.
Why beverage guidelines? Americans consume far too many calories. And at least a fifth of these calories come from things we drink. The worst offenders: sugar-sweetened soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, and sugary tea and coffee drinks.
Now a blue-ribbon panel of six leading U.S. nutrition experts has come up with guidelines for healthy drinking. The panel's chairman is Barry M. Popkin, PhD, professor of nutrition, head of nutrition epidemiology, and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Everybody -- parents, adults, and teenagers -- has to realize what they drink is adding to their weight," Popkin tells WebMD. "We want people to think about their entire portfolio of beverages and change that to make for a much healthier America."
Complex Guidelines
The new guidelines are complicated. Too complicated, says Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, CNS, founder and director of the weight management center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her formula is much simpler indeed.
"When it comes to calories, think before you drink anything," Fernstrom tells WebMD. She was not a member of the beverage guideline panel.
Popkin agrees the new guidelines are complex. But he argues that they're no more complex than the choices that confront us.
"We are being faced with a billion beverages," he says. "Every year, the food industry adds 1,000 new beverage choices."
Water, Water Everywhere
The panel notes that there's no need to get nutrition from beverages if we eat a balanced diet. That means all we really need to drink is water, Popkin and Fernstrom say.
Few of us, however, would be happy with water as our only beverage. Moreover, moderate amounts of other beverages -- tea and alcoholic drinks, for example -- appear to have health benefits.
But there's a problem. When we eat too many calories, we feel stuffed and sated. When we drink too many calories, Popkin says, we don't feel as satisfied. If our bellies won't tell us when to stop, we have to use our brains.
That's where the guidelines come in. They offer recommendations for how to use every conceivable kind of beverage in a healthy way. These guidelines are for adults and adolescents. Young children, obviously, should not drink some of these beverages -- and need a lot more milk.
Healthy Beverage Options
So what should we drink?
• Water. It quenches thirst and still has zero calories. Even with water, however, too much is -- well, too much. "Drinking for thirst is sufficient," Fernstrom says.
• Unsweetened tea and coffee. These beverages contain caffeine. A little caffeine is good for you, Popkin says. But don't consume more than 400 milligrams per day (8 ounces of brewed coffee has 132 milligrams of caffeine; 8 ounces of tea has about 40 milligrams).
• Skim or low-fat milk or soy beverages, up to 16 ounces a day.
• Artificially sweetened beverages, up to 32 ounces a day. If you choose coffee, tea or soda, watch the caffeine. Popkin says there's no proof that artificial sweeteners are bad for you -- but because the data are slim, the panel was "uneasy" about recommending them.
What drinks can we enjoy in strict moderation?•
Alcoholic beverages (adults only). Moderation is the key word here. The guidelines advise no more than one drink per day for women, two for men. A drink is one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5-ounce drink of distilled spirits. And remember, alcoholic drinks are high-calorie drinks.
• Fruit juice. Fruit juice has nothing in it you can't get from whole fruit -- and it has a lot more calories. But if you aren't getting enough whole fruit in your diet, one 4-ounce glass of juice per day is OK.
What drinks should we avoid? The guidelines say we should cut back on these things by at least 75%:
• Whole milk. It's a huge source of saturated fat -- and who needs that?
• Sweetened soft drinks, sweetened sports drinks, and fruit drinks. If you have to have one, limit yourself to an 8-ounce glass.
• Sugar-sweetened tea and coffee drinks.
Fernstrom worries that the guidelines will confuse consumers. She says it may be better simply to stress the fact that many beverages contain calories.
"If you are trying to lose weight, you must be mindful of all the calories you consume, particularly those in beverages -- they all count," she says. "The positive message from the guidelines is you don't have to limit your noncalorie liquids to water. Tea, diet beverages, noncalorie sports drinks, flavored waters -- all are equivalent. That is the way to save calories. There are a lot of options."
Popkin and colleagues were funded by Unilever, which makes Lipton Teas. Popkin says the company had no input on the guidelines and saw them only in their final form. Lipton is using the guidelines to promote its products, but Popkin says this choice was made by the company and not by the panel.
The guidelines appear in the March 1 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Can diet foods make you fat? I realize that this sounds like a contradiction, but the diet industry is like that. You need to come armed with some savvy when it comes to weeding out the hype.
Just look at what happened in the 1980s, when “fat-free” was a fad. “Fat-free” appeared on all types of foods, and consumers (not surprisingly) assumed that fat-free meant calorie-free. Au contraire! For example, fat-free cookies have just as many calories as the original, maybe even more.
Some health experts link the “fat-free” craze to the explosion of obesity in the U.S., and certainly consumers are confused about what’s best -- fat-free, carb-free, high protein, etc.
Bottom line: You need to read the top line on the nutrition facts panel. Calories do count. Read the number of servings in the package or container, and then read calories per serving. When you know what you’re eating, it all adds up.
The Skinny on “Diet Foods”
All foods can fit into a healthy diet in the correct portion size. Even healthy foods can be “fattening” if you eat too much of them. Here’s the skinny on some “diet” foods you’d think would help you with your diet.
Juice:
You’ve seen the ads: “100% pure juice with live enzymes and packed with vitamins and minerals.” Labeled with claims for weight loss, increased energy and better immunity ”, let the buyer beware! To balance the scale in your favor, consider this:
People suffering a low blood glucose reaction are given juice because the fruit sugar (fructose) is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. Juice is not a “diet food” unless you’re on a weight gain diet. It’s one of the quickest ways of getting extra calories that I know.
Juice is extracted from the whole fruit; the beneficial fiber is left behind. Regardless of how “pure” the juice, it contains no inherent properties that will make you healthier or make you lose weight. Peel and eat an orange instead. See below for a tip about juice.
Enhanced waters:
Diet myths abound, displayed on labels of enhanced waters and sports drinks. Drink this for “energy, balance, performance.” I want to paste “Buyer Beware!” signs on the labels.
These waters and flavored teas are certainly fortified... with caffeine and sugar, plus high fructose corn syrup. Before reading the front label and advertising hype, read the ingredient list.
If you’re working out strenuously for more than an hour at a time, then a sports drink is OK, but choose one with less than 8 grams of sugar per serving, or if you prefer, buy an artificially sweetened beverage.
Otherwise, drink water before, during and after exercising. Adding just a quarter-cup of 100% orange or grapefruit juice and a dash of salt to a quart of water makes the perfect sports drink.
Turkey burgers:
When dining out, have you ordered a turkey burger while your friends are all having steak? You may think you’re eating “diet food," but you may be better off with that sirloin.
Turkey breast is an ultra-lean protein, but most restaurants don’t serve ground turkey breast; rather, they serve ground turkey in their burgers, which likely contains the more fatty dark meat and even skin.
Restaurant turkey burgers are also enhanced with mayonnaise and even cheese. If you can’t be certain the turkey burger is made from skinless turkey breast, order a grilled chicken breast sandwich or grilled fish sandwich, sans mayo and cheese.
Breakfast cereals:
Eating breakfast is one of the lifestyle habits that predict weight loss and maintaining that desired weight. I love my cereal in the morning, but exploring the cereal aisle can be a confusing experience, especially for dieters. Don't read the front of the package to get the scoop on cereals. Read the back first, namely the ingredient list and the nutrition facts panel.
Cereals labeled “smart” or “whole grain” or “fruit” are not necessarily smart for your waistline or your health. Often they contain a bit of whole grain, but there is no limit on the other ingredients, including sugar. Here’s a tip: The first ingredient should be whole grain: whole wheat, whole oats, rye or other.
Read the nutrition facts panel and note the serving size. The standard serving size is 3/4 to 1 cup, and you make your decision from there. If one serving contains more than 4 to 8 grams of sugar (1 to 2 teaspoons), then move on. Kashi GoLean, Shredded Wheat, All Bran cereals, Fiber One, unsweetened muesli and granola (fat-free) are good choices. Watch out for “code words” that mean sugar and fat have been added.
Cereals that are labeled “Crunchy,” “Frosted,” “Honey” or “Honey Nut” may have more sugar added. Add your own sugar; don’t let the manufacturer add it for you. For example, a 1-cup serving of Cheerios with a half-cup of nonfat milk has 150 calories. A 3/4-cup serving of Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 170 calories…a smaller serving for more calories. Not a bargain.
Fat-free cookies:
Fat-free doesn’t mean calorie-free. It doesn’t even mean reduced calorie, and fat-free products contain other ingredients, usually sugar, to make up for the texture and flavor lost when the fat is removed. Most fat-free cookies contain as many calories as the original cookie, which doesn’t make them a “diet food.”
Read the label. If you want a cookie, have one. That’s ONE cookie … occasionally. Otherwise, a great “diet” treat is sugar-free, fat-free chocolate or vanilla pudding, which you can count as a serving of dairy.
Diet bread:
Diet breads, diet crackers or other bread products may be the same product, only portioned differently. Bread labeled “25% fewer calories” than the regular version may merely be sliced 25% thinner. Read the label and compare the weight of the serving. “Lite” bread usually refers to the color and does not indicate its fiber content.
Sometimes breads are colored with caramel, molasses or brown sugar. Choose bread made from 100% whole-wheat flour with a minimum of 4 grams of fiber per serving.
Olive oil:
Olive oil has a better nutritional profile than butter and especially margarine, due to the low ratio of saturated fat and because it contains no trans fats. However, olive oil, although a healthy fat, is fat. All fat -- oil, butter, margarine, lard --contains approximately 9 calories per gram, or about 45 calories in one teaspoon. Include olive oil as a part of a healthy diet, but don’t eat more than you need.
Protein bars:
Protein bars, breakfast bars and cereal bars are all convenient, but if you’re trying to lose weight, choose carefully. Most contain too much sugar and hydrogenated fat to be called healthy and more resemble candy bars than breakfast.
I prefer quick and portable breakfasts and snacks of real food, such as stirring a cup of unsweetened cereal into a cup of yogurt, a half-sandwich on whole-grain bread with turkey breast, or a portioned serving of nuts and raisins.
If you’re pressed for time or need something that won’t spoil, read the label and make an educated choice. The first ingredient should either be a whole grain or a protein source (whey or soy protein).
Ignore bars with refined sugar as one of the top listed ingredients (sucrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or any other “syrup”).
If you see hydrogenated fat in the ingredients and more than 1 gram of saturated fat in the nutrition facts panel, forget it. A good meal replacement bar contains about 300 calories, with approximately 25% from protein (approximately 19 grams of protein), nearly zero grams of saturated fat and less than 10 grams of total fat. The higher the fiber, the better -- that means it contains whole grain. Aim for a minimum of 4 grams per serving.
Low-Carb beer: If you think that low-carb beer is a “diet food,” think again. Neither low-carb nor “lite” beers are low in calories. The USDA defines low calorie as a food that has no more than 40 calories per serving. Low-carb and “lite” beers have about 90-100 calories per serving.
A low-carb beer is relatively low in carbohydrates, but calories count. Drink one beer with two water chasers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows the following definitions on food labels:
FAT-FREE -- The product has less than .5 grams of fat per serving.
LOW-FAT -- The product has 3 grams or less of fat per serving.
REDUCED or LESS FAT -- The product has at least 25% less fat per serving than the full-fat version.
LITE or LIGHT --
• The product has fewer calories or half the fat of the non-light version.
• The sodium content of a low-calorie, low-fat food is 50 percent less than the non-light version.
• A food is clearer in color (like light instead of dark corn syrup).
CALORIE-FREE -- The product has less than 5 calories per serving.
LOW-CALORIE -- The product has 40 calories or less per serving.
REDUCED or FEWER CALORIES -- The product has at least 25 percent fewer calories per serving than the non-reduced version…Interesting..hey what?
DRINKS THAT MAKE YOU FAT – OR NOT
New Beverage Guidelines Reject Sugary Drinks, Offer Healthy Choices
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
on Friday, March 10, 2006
Avoid drinking calories, new beverage guidelines stress.
Why beverage guidelines? Americans consume far too many calories. And at least a fifth of these calories come from things we drink. The worst offenders: sugar-sweetened soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, and sugary tea and coffee drinks.
Now a blue-ribbon panel of six leading U.S. nutrition experts has come up with guidelines for healthy drinking. The panel's chairman is Barry M. Popkin, PhD, professor of nutrition, head of nutrition epidemiology, and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Everybody -- parents, adults, and teenagers -- has to realize what they drink is adding to their weight," Popkin tells WebMD. "We want people to think about their entire portfolio of beverages and change that to make for a much healthier America."
Complex Guidelines
The new guidelines are complicated. Too complicated, says Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, CNS, founder and director of the weight management center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her formula is much simpler indeed.
"When it comes to calories, think before you drink anything," Fernstrom tells WebMD. She was not a member of the beverage guideline panel.
Popkin agrees the new guidelines are complex. But he argues that they're no more complex than the choices that confront us.
"We are being faced with a billion beverages," he says. "Every year, the food industry adds 1,000 new beverage choices."
Water, Water Everywhere
The panel notes that there's no need to get nutrition from beverages if we eat a balanced diet. That means all we really need to drink is water, Popkin and Fernstrom say.
Few of us, however, would be happy with water as our only beverage. Moreover, moderate amounts of other beverages -- tea and alcoholic drinks, for example -- appear to have health benefits.
But there's a problem. When we eat too many calories, we feel stuffed and sated. When we drink too many calories, Popkin says, we don't feel as satisfied. If our bellies won't tell us when to stop, we have to use our brains.
That's where the guidelines come in. They offer recommendations for how to use every conceivable kind of beverage in a healthy way. These guidelines are for adults and adolescents. Young children, obviously, should not drink some of these beverages -- and need a lot more milk.
Healthy Beverage Options
So what should we drink?
• Water. It quenches thirst and still has zero calories. Even with water, however, too much is -- well, too much. "Drinking for thirst is sufficient," Fernstrom says.
• Unsweetened tea and coffee. These beverages contain caffeine. A little caffeine is good for you, Popkin says. But don't consume more than 400 milligrams per day (8 ounces of brewed coffee has 132 milligrams of caffeine; 8 ounces of tea has about 40 milligrams).
• Skim or low-fat milk or soy beverages, up to 16 ounces a day.
• Artificially sweetened beverages, up to 32 ounces a day. If you choose coffee, tea or soda, watch the caffeine. Popkin says there's no proof that artificial sweeteners are bad for you -- but because the data are slim, the panel was "uneasy" about recommending them.
What drinks can we enjoy in strict moderation?•
Alcoholic beverages (adults only). Moderation is the key word here. The guidelines advise no more than one drink per day for women, two for men. A drink is one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5-ounce drink of distilled spirits. And remember, alcoholic drinks are high-calorie drinks.
• Fruit juice. Fruit juice has nothing in it you can't get from whole fruit -- and it has a lot more calories. But if you aren't getting enough whole fruit in your diet, one 4-ounce glass of juice per day is OK.
What drinks should we avoid? The guidelines say we should cut back on these things by at least 75%:
• Whole milk. It's a huge source of saturated fat -- and who needs that?
• Sweetened soft drinks, sweetened sports drinks, and fruit drinks. If you have to have one, limit yourself to an 8-ounce glass.
• Sugar-sweetened tea and coffee drinks.
Fernstrom worries that the guidelines will confuse consumers. She says it may be better simply to stress the fact that many beverages contain calories.
"If you are trying to lose weight, you must be mindful of all the calories you consume, particularly those in beverages -- they all count," she says. "The positive message from the guidelines is you don't have to limit your noncalorie liquids to water. Tea, diet beverages, noncalorie sports drinks, flavored waters -- all are equivalent. That is the way to save calories. There are a lot of options."
Popkin and colleagues were funded by Unilever, which makes Lipton Teas. Popkin says the company had no input on the guidelines and saw them only in their final form. Lipton is using the guidelines to promote its products, but Popkin says this choice was made by the company and not by the panel.
The guidelines appear in the March 1 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
posted by Jacques Girard, Ph.D. at 12:34 PM
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