Studies show that most people believe that foods labeled “low-fat”, “lite”and so on have about 40% fewer calories than their regular counterparts. Unfortunately, this is far from true – one of the reasons why “low-fat” foods will not help you lose weight.

To illustrate, here is a calorie comparison of some popular regular and low-fat products. These are not “worst case” examples. Next time you are grocery shopping, take a look at the nutrition labels. You will see that these negligible differences are very much the norm. In other words, that low-fat food products are just as fattening.

Fig Newtons – 1 cookie
Regular: 56 calories
Low fat: 51 calories
Difference: 5 calories (9% less calories)

Peanut butter – 2 tbs.
Regular: 191 calories
Low fat: 187 calories
Difference: 4 calories (2% less calories)

Frozen yogurt – 1 cup
Regular: 104 calories
Low fat: 100 calories
Difference: 4 calories (4% less calories)

Granola – 1 serving
Regular: 196 calories
Low fat: 173 calories
Difference: 23 calories (12% less calories)

Chicken soup – 1 cup
Regular: 140 calories
Low fat: 120 calories
Difference: 20 calories (14% less calories)

Quaker Chewy Granola Bar – 24g bar
Regular (Chocolate Chip): 100 calories
Low fat (Chocolate Chunk): 90 calories
Difference: 10 calories (10% less calories)

Oreo cookies – 3 cookies (34g)
Regular: 160 calories
Reduced Fat: 150 calories
Difference: 10 calories (6% less calories)

This is an original article, exclusive to this site
Copyright © 2010 Caroline Mackenzie