Monday, April 9, 2012

Food Frauds - Another "Bad Food" Installment

1. Smucker's Simply Fruit 


All varieties of Smucker’s Simply Fruit contain more fruit syrup than actual fruit. And the syrup doesn’t even come from the fruit in the products’ names, but from (cheaper) apple, pineapple, or pear juice concentrate. Next time you are in the jam aisle, look at a jar, any jar. Chances are great, you'll see a variety of fruit juices bolstering the ingredient list of your jam or jelly.

2. Multigrain Tostitos Chips



 A one-ounce (8 chips) serving of Multigrain Tostitos has more sugar (1 gram) than any of its “Four Wholesome Grains.” Grains, by definition - do not contain sugar. Why is sugar added to Tostitos?

3. Kellogg's Special K Fruit & Yogurt Cereal




The company touts that the "cereal combines the crunch of whole grain goodness, the smooth creaminess of yogurt and the sweet taste of berries….” Yet there is more refined rice than whole grain wheat, no berries (just dyed apple pieces), and no yogurt (just yogurt powder that is usually heat treated, killing any beneficial bacteria) in the cereal.

4. Sara Lee Fruits of the Forest Deep Dish Pie 



      Pie is no health food, but Sara Lee’s looks like an exception. With photos of luscious apples, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, the pie seems like a virtual cocktail of vitamin-packed fruits, “simmered in their own juices” to cut down on the added sugar. But Fruits of the Forest has more partially hydrogenated oil and sugar than any fruit except apples. The upshot: Each serving (1/9 of a pie) has 340 calories, 4 -1/2 grams of saturated fat, and 4 grams of trans! That’s half a day’s bad fat.

5. Kellogg's Eggo NutriGrain Waffles



The box boasts that these pancakes are “Made with Whole Wheat and Whole Grain,” but they consist primarily of white flour.

6. Gerber Graduates for Toddlers Juice Treats



The packaging is decorated with pictures of oranges, grapes, cherries, peaches, and pineapples. Yet the leading ingredients are corn syrup and sugar – and the only “fruit” they contain is nutritionally poor white grape juice concentrate. These snacks are more candy than fruit juice!

 7. Enviga



Coca-Cola/Nestle claims that their new drink’s combination of caffeine and an antioxidant extracted from green tea will cause people to burn more calories than the drink provides and help them control their weight. In fact, one in five people drinking Enviga burn fewer, not more, calories and long-term studies on the ingredients show no consistent effect on weight.

8. DanActive "Immunity" Dairy Drink


This Dannon product claims to help “strengthen your body's defenses.” But the only study Dannon did to see if drinking DanActive kept people from getting sick found that it didn’t!