Fat Free, Reduced Fat, and No Fat: What Does it All Mean?

Fat Free, Reduced Fat, and No Fat: What Does it All Mean?Grocery shopping can be confusing, especially when you’re going by what the labels are trying to tell you. Knowing that most people won’t pick up a box and turn to the nutritional information, food companies try to market products as as having “less fat” than others or “reduced fat” compared to their original products, and some are even “fat free”. But are these products healthy?

One trick that food companies employ is to jack up the amount of sugar in an item to improve the taste in a reduced fat variety. Yogurt is a good example of this. It’s not unusual to find a regular variety of yogurt that actually contains less sugar and overall calories than a reduced fat variety. But, consumers would only realize this if they actually read the nutritional information.

In some cases, the original product is so unhealthy to begin with, the reduced fat variety is still unhealthy for you.

For something to be classified as low fat, it needs to have less than 3g of fat per serving. But, for something to be reduced fat, it needs to have 25% less fat than the original. If the original item has 10g of fat per serving, a “reduced fat” variety with 7.5g of fat per serving still wouldn’t qualify as low fat.

On the topic of servings, take a look at the nutritional information of products you buy the next time you’re shopping. Look specifically at what the company classifies a serving as and you might be surprised. Chances are what they would consider a serving to be is a fraction of what the typical person would consume in one sitting. I find this to be especially true of snack foods like chips or crackers where you’re not going to eat just 10 chips or crackers in a sitting.

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? When browsing the aisles of your local supermarket, don’t judge a book by its cover. In some cases, what looks healthy really isn’t. The only way to be sure is to read the nutritional information and make an informed decision based on the ingredients.

Is White Rice Bad for Me?





How to Stay Focused on Your Goals During Thanksgiving







Eat a Balanced Breakfast and Lunch

Don’t Deny Yourself

Eat Slowly

Don’t Get Drunk

Take a Picture


Happy Thanksgiving!

Onnit DigesTech Released!





Trick Yourself Into Eating Healthier

Trick Yourself Into Eating HealthierThe mind is a very cool thing. Sometimes it will make decisions without us even realizing it. These subconscious decisions affect us in many ways, including how we eat. This can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. It all depends on what we see first before we eat.

Brian Wansink, the professor of consumer behavior at Cornell University, found that we make food choices based on trigger foods. If we see healthy foods first, we’re more likely to make healthy food choices. If we see junk food first, we’re more likely to make food choices that skew to the unhealthy side of things.

Brian suggests that people who want to eat healthier apply this within their homes. For example, if you want to make healthier food choices when you’re eating, serve vegetables first before eating a bowl of pasta rather than with the pasta, or not at all. You might be more likely to eat less pasta or pass on the second helping.

It’s also recommended that you stock your cupboards, fridge, and freezer in this way. Everyone needs junk food every now and then, so if you have some in your house, push it to the back and keep the healthier options at the front. You won’t necessarily forget that the junk food is there, but your mind might make the decision for you to reach for the bowl of fruit rather than the cookie jar that’s placed behind it.

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