Why ‘Fat-Free’ Food Is Making You Fat

We’ve all seen it.

One commercial after another advertising breakfast cereals to be a healthy way to start your day.

I’m sure you’ve heard this once or twice. You see all these commercials claiming that “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”.

The breakfast cereal packaging is also branded to be low in fat and fortified with vitamins and minerals. It even lists health claims like how it “contains whole grains.”

So magically, people run to the grocery store to to buy this stuff.

We naturally think, “It must be good for you!”

The problem is, the “healthiest” low-fat options out there might not be so good for you after all.

Let’s use breakfast cereals as an example. Half a cup of low-fat granola which is around 49 grams, and most people think this stuff is good for you, contains 14 grams of sugar. This means 29% of the total calories are sugar!

And even when that’s all fine and well, nobody eats just half a cup of cereal! Most of the time, we just open the box, dump this stuff in a bowl and go to town until we finish it.

Here’s another stat.

This research found that many low fat food which are marketed as healthier options contained MORE sugar than their full-fat equivalents.

Again, there’s gotta be a way to make them “fat free”, right? That usually means adding sugar. Lots of it.

This is a very common mistake because many people associate the term “low-fat” as being healthy food.

I mean, low-fat food may seem healthy, but they’re often loaded with sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. These can lead to excessive hunger, weight gain and even disease.

“Low-fat” breakfast cereals also makes an appearance as an on-the-go snack in the form of a granola bar. It’s a very popular snack for busy people because its convenient and easy to consume. 

The thing is, most cereals/granola bars are loaded with sugar, up to 25% by weight. Way more sugar that you should be eating at any given time. You’re basically eating a glorified Snickers bar!

What’s more, it’s not just white table sugar that you should worry about. White sugar, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, which is present in pop and breakfast cereals all contain fructose.

Why is this bad?

Well, excess amounts of fructose have been linked to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and other health problems. 

This is why people that normally consume diet sodas in large amount often gain just as much weight and people are often perplexed by this. Something just can’t be that flavorful without containing hidden calories. There’s no free lunch.

You just don’t want to be consuming this stuff in large amounts. Just because it’s labelled “fat-free” doesn’t mean it’s automatically good for you. Learn to read the Nutrition Facts before you put anything in your mouth. 

Long story short, just don’t be one of those people that substitutes everything for low fat food, or zero calorie drinks.  There’s still no substitute for the real stuff. For real whole foods.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!