Fat-free Foods, Really?

Most of us, if not all, prefer fat-free or calorie-free foods over the ordinary foods we can buy in the market. We have this notion that less fat means less calories. But are these foods really what they claim to be?

In an effort to join the society in health awareness, many food industries began marketing, processing, and selling fat-free food choices. Indeed, these so-called fat-free foods are an allure for healthier diets. Most of the fat-free foods include fat-free cookies, cakes, ice cream, yogurt, and many more. The main reason for such fad in these foods is that fat-free foods are considered to be a cholesterol lowering diet. However, to our dismay, fat-free foods are not actually free of fat.

The Food and Drug Administration labels food as fat-free if it contains less than 0.5 g of fats (whether it is saturated fat or trans fat) per serving. Hence, some Nutritional Facts label may state that a food is 0g of fat when in fact there is trace amounts of fats present in the food.

It is important to note that eating a lot of servings of these fat-free foods do not really help in your diet. In actuality, these may correspond to many grams of fats and calories. A consumer must know that the reduction of fat in food products requires alteration for the product to maintain the taste and consistency similar to the original product. For this to happen, the fat components are replaced with carbohydrate additives. As such, fat-free foods may contribute to weight gain.

It cannot be denied that the label 'fat-free' provides the unaware consumers the comfort and confidence that eating much of these kinds of foods will not significantly affect their weight. Most of the consumers fail to notice the caloric consequences of the substitutions to make the food "fat-free". As such, with the notion that fat-free diets is better over the natural products, the greater impact of over-consumption of carbohydrates in our diet are unnoticed.

With more people concerned to lose weight, there is no doubt that people are still looking for alternative ways to reduce body weight. For health-conscious people, it helps to check out the food labels for the serving size and number of calories per serving. But most importantly, it is much better to live a healthy life rather than focus your attention to weight loss regimen.

Reference:

Clinics, University of Iowa Hospitals and. Fat-Free Foods. n.d. http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/nutrition/nutr3297.html (accessed October 8, 2010).

Irvine, Dita. Tips to Lose Weight - The Fat Free Myth. n.d. http://ezinearticles.com/?Tips-to-Lose-Weight---The-Fat-Free-Myth&id=3597662 (accessed October 8, 2010).

Top 10 Food Myths and Facts. n.d. http://www.womenfitness.net/top10_foodmyths_facts.htm (accessed October 8, 2010).

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2006. Available at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qatrans2.html.

Accessed 8 October 2010.