EAT THIS NOT THAT

Food manufacturers think you're. In fact, their marketing strategies rely on it. For instance, candy makers hope you'll equate "fat free" with "healthy" or "nonfattening" and forget about the load of sugars stuffed into their products. stupid

Supermarket Lies Revealed Organic Junk Food Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese The Claim: "USDA organic" The Truth: It's organic so it must be healthy, right? Not so much. For an extra 60 cents per box, consumers save 20 calories and 1 gram of fat. They also gain 2 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 50 milligrams of sodium and they lose 6 percent of their daily iron

Supermarket Lies Revealed 100 Percent Misleading Tropicana Pure 100% Juice Pomegranate Blueberry The Claim: "100% juice pomegranate blueberry" The Truth: Drinks may be labeled 100 percent pure juice, but that doesn't mean they're made exclusively with the advertised juice. Pomegranate and blueberry get top billing here, even though the ingredient list reveals that par, apple, and grape juices are among the first four ingredients.

Got Milk? Yoo-Hoo The Claim: "Chocolate drink" The Truth: Ever notice the conspicuous absence of milk in the title of this popular drink? The first ingredient in this kid-favorite is water, the second high-fructose corn syrup; in fact, nonfat dry milk does not appear until the ninth ingredient,

All-Natural Disaster 7UP The Claim: "All Natural Flavors" The Truth: The FDA doesn't have a definition for this claim. Case in point: 7UP now boasts that it's made with 100 percent natural ingredients. That's because they've switched from carbonated water to filtered water, from citric acid to natural citric acid, and from calcium disodium EDT to natural potassium citrate.

The "Health" Food That Isn't Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken The Claim: "Healthy Choice" The Truth: A company can call itself whatever it wants, but that doesn't give credence to the name. Healthy Choice even provides a handful of nutritional stats-430 calories, 9 grams fat, 600 milligrams sodium-to back up the name, but they neglect to mention the 29 grams of added sugars used in this dish. Calories: 430 kJ Fat: 9 g Sodium: 600 mg Sugar: 29 g Calories: 540 kJ Fat: 29 g Sodium: 1020 mg Sugar: 9 g

(Kind of) "Real" Food Kid Cuisine All Star Chicken Nuggets The Claims: "Made with real chicken"; "made with real cheese" The Truth: Yes, there is actual chicken in these "nugget-shaped patties," but it shares space with 17 other ingredients, including textured soy protein and modified food starch. The mac with "real cheese" does have cheddar, but it also has 34 other ingredients, including the carb filler maltodextrin. Rule of thumb: If a product makes claims about its realness on the package, be skeptical. Link:

The Unnatural Fruit Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bar The Claim: "Naturally and artificially flavored" The Truth: While the FDA requires manufacturers to disclose the use of artificial flavoring on the front of the box, the requirements for what is considered "natural" and "real" are not strict: Even trace amounts of the essence or extract of fruit counts as natural. So yes, there is fruit in this bar, but it falls third in the ingredients list, behind HFCS and corn syrup.

The Hidden Trans Fats Cheetos Crunchy The Claim: "Zero gram trans fats" The Truth: FDA allows manufacturers to make this claim when their products contain less than 0.5 gram of trans fats per serving. It may seem insignificant, but 0.49 gram of this nefarious fat can add up quickly.

Nutrition Facts: How to Search

Rubric 3210 Content x 3 X 3/9 Text/3 Layout/3 Evaluation/3 Writing Mechanics /3 /21