Foods that seem healthy but aren’t: 10 examples with their calories and sugar

Why a food can look healthy when it isn’t

Some products go into the trolley with a clear conscience because the pack talks about fruit, oats, wholegrain or “natural”. The problem isn’t that they’re poison, because they aren’t, but that their image makes us underestimate what they provide and, along the way, eat more. In an experiment at the University of Toronto (Provencher, Polivy and Herman, Appetite, 2009), 99 female students tasted the same oatmeal-raisin cookies: when the cookies were presented as healthy, they ate about 35% more than when they were described as unhealthy. This is the so-called “health halo”: one positive feature (it has oats, it’s plant-based, it’s 100% fruit) colours the impression of the whole product. This article isn’t trying to make you stop buying anything. It’s here so you know what’s really in ten typical healthy-looking products, with calories and sugar per portion checked against the database of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and so you have a simple alternative at hand whenever you want to switch. At the end you’ll see how to spot them yourself on the label in half a minute.

The list: 10 healthy-looking products, with their numbers

Each row compares a realistic portion of the product with a simple alternative that does the same job. The data come from USDA FoodData Central and are generic entries, not a specific brand, so the product in your supermarket may differ somewhat: always compare it with its own label. When a product is very brand-specific, such as digestive biscuits, we use the closest generic entry and say so. Notice that several alternatives have similar calories: the difference lies in free sugar, fibre or protein.

Juices and smoothies: fruit, but in a glass

100% orange juice is the clearest example. It has no added sugar, but a 240 ml glass (248 g) holds the juice of almost three oranges (the USDA puts the yield at about 86 g of juice per fruit) and provides 112 kcal and 20.8 g of sugar with only 0.5 g of fibre. A whole medium orange comes to 62 kcal, 12.2 g of sugar and 3.1 g of fibre. The difference isn’t just in the numbers: for the World Health Organization, the sugar in fruit juices and juice concentrates is “free sugar”, just like table sugar, honey or syrups; the sugar in whole fruit is not. The WHO recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of daily calories and suggests going down to 5% for additional benefits: on 2,000 kcal, less than 50 g and, ideally, about 25 g. That glass of juice already takes up 42% of the first limit. Two studies fit with this. In a trial at Pennsylvania State University (Flood-Obbagy and Rolls, Appetite, 2009), 58 adults had the same amount of apple (125 kcal) before lunch as whole fruit, apple sauce or juice: with the whole apple they ate 15% less in total (187 kcal) than when they had nothing beforehand, and they felt fuller than with the apple sauce or the juice; adding fibre to the juice didn’t fix it. And in three large US cohorts with more than 187,000 people (Muraki and colleagues, BMJ, 2013), eating more whole fruit was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, while drinking more juice was associated with a slightly higher risk. It’s an observational study, so it doesn’t prove cause, but it points in the same direction. The bottled smoothie sits halfway: the generic USDA entry gives 124 kcal and 24.9 g of sugar per 240 ml, with 1.5 g of fibre. It isn’t a bad product, but it’s still fruit you drink, which fills you up less than fruit you chew. The simple alternative is whole fruit, and juice, if you like it, as an occasional thing in a small glass.

Granola, cereal bars and “wholegrain” biscuits

Granola has the best marketing in the breakfast aisle: oats, nuts, honey. The generic USDA entry for granola gives 420 kcal and 22.2 g of sugar per 100 g; in a 45 g portion that’s 189 kcal and 10 g of sugar. The same 45 g of rolled oats provide 171 kcal and 0.4 g of sugar. Note that the calorie difference is small: what changes is the sugar, which doesn’t come from the oats (they have barely 1 g per 100 g) but from honey, syrups, sugar or dried fruit, and how easy it is to overserve, because granola gets eaten by the handful. Pour 60 g instead of 45 and you’re at 252 kcal. Not even homemade granola is light: the USDA’s reference homemade recipe reaches 489 kcal per 100 g because of the oil and nuts. Interestingly, a granola with those generic values (7.4 g of fibre per 100 g) could be labelled “high in fibre” in the EU, because the rule only requires 6 g per 100 g. The claim would be true and at the same time tell only half the story: that’s the health halo at work. Something similar happens with cereal bars. A 25 g crunchy granola bar is 118 kcal and 7.2 g of sugar, with 2.5 g of protein. A 20 g handful of almonds provides practically the same calories (116 kcal), but 0.9 g of sugar, 4.2 g of protein and 2.5 g of fibre. As for digestive biscuits, the USDA has no entry for them, so we use the closest one, the graham cracker, another wheat biscuit with a wholegrain image: 30 g provide 129 kcal and 7.5 g of sugar, while 30 g of unsweetened wholewheat crackers give 128 kcal and 0.4 g. Same calories, different make-up.

Flavoured yogurts and sweetened plant drinks

Plain yogurt is a good food. Low-fat fruit yogurt is something else: the generic USDA entry gives 128 kcal and 23.8 g of sugar per 125 g. A 125 g whole-milk plain yogurt has 5.8 g of sugar, which is lactose from the milk itself; subtract that and you’re left with about 18 g that come from added sugar and fruit preparation. Being low in fat doesn’t make it any lighter in sugar: taking out the fat doesn’t take out the sweetness. The entry is American and many European yogurts contain somewhat less, so check the “sugars” line on your own label. The alternative: whole-milk plain yogurt with 50 g of chopped strawberries comes to 92 kcal and 8.3 g of sugar, all of it from the milk and the fruit. Plant-based drinks follow the same pattern. A sweetened vanilla almond drink provides 91 kcal and 15 g of sugar per 240 ml glass; the unsweetened version, 36 kcal and 1.9 g. Neither has much protein (about 1 g per glass, according to the USDA), which is worth knowing if you use it instead of milk. On the pack, look for “no added sugars” and, in the table, 2.5 g of sugars per 100 ml or less, which is the EU’s legal threshold for a “low sugar” claim on drinks.

Wraps, vegetable crisps and banana chips

It isn’t all about sugar. A wrap looks like the light option next to a sandwich, but a wheat tortilla about 25 cm across (72 g) provides 220 kcal, compared with 161 kcal for two slices of wholemeal bread (64 g), plus about 530 mg of sodium. Large tortillas, about 30 cm across, weigh 117 g and climb to 358 kcal before any filling goes in. If you like wraps, choose smaller tortillas or compare the weight per unit on the pack. “Vegetable” crisps are, essentially, crisps: 30 g provide 142 kcal, against 160 kcal for the same amount of regular potato crisps, with a bit less fat (7 g versus 10 g). And banana chips are the most striking case: 30 g add up to 156 kcal and 10.1 g of fat, whereas a whole medium banana (118 g) has 105 kcal and less than half a gram of fat. That fat doesn’t come from the fruit but from the oil added during processing. A whole banana gives you more volume, more water and more fullness for fewer calories.

Sauces and “natural” sweeteners

Sauces are the sugar you don’t see. Ketchup has 21.3 g of sugar per 100 g: two tablespoons (34 g) come to 34 kcal and 7.2 g of sugar. Barbecue sauce is sweeter still, with 33.2 g per 100 g: two tablespoons add up to 59 kcal and 11.3 g of sugar. That isn’t many calories, but it is a lot of free sugar for such a small amount. Fresh grated tomato (60 g, 11 kcal and 1.6 g of sugar) with salt and spices often does the same job. “Natural” sweeteners deserve a separate mention. Agave syrup has 310 kcal per 100 g and honey 304. A teaspoon of agave (6.9 g) is 21 kcal and 4.7 g of sugar, compared with 16 kcal and 4.2 g for a teaspoon of white sugar (4.2 g), and a tablespoon of honey (21 g) reaches 64 kcal and 17.2 g of sugar. For the WHO, honey and syrups are free sugar, just like table sugar. You may prefer them, but they aren’t “sugar-free”. To see how it all adds up, take an ordinary day: a glass of orange juice (20.8 g), a fruit yogurt (about 18 g of added sugar) and two tablespoons of barbecue sauce (11.3 g) give you about 50 g of free sugar, the WHO limit for 2,000 kcal, without a single dessert. Your own figure depends on your calories: with the calorie calculator you can estimate yours and work out your 10%.

How to spot them on the label in 30 seconds

You don’t need to memorise lists: the label is enough. These six steps are based on what the EU food information rules (Regulation 1169/2011) and the nutrition claims rules (Regulation 1924/2006) require. If you want the detail of every line, see our guide to reading nutrition labels.

• Look at sugars per 100 g, not just per portion. In the EU the per-100 g or per-100 ml table is mandatory, while the portion is chosen by the manufacturer. A useful benchmark: “low sugar” can only be claimed with 5 g or less per 100 g (2.5 g per 100 ml for drinks).
• Remember that “sugars” includes all of them. The EU label adds up all mono- and disaccharides, added or not: in a plain yogurt it’s lactose; in a granola it’s mostly added sugar. To tell them apart, go to the ingredients.
• Read the first ingredients. They’re listed in descending order of weight. Look for sugar under its other names: glucose syrup, dextrose, honey, agave or rice syrup, concentrated fruit juice. Several sweeteners split up each appear lower down the list than they would as a single one.
• Compare the stated portion with the one you actually serve. If the box is calculated on 30 g of cereal and you pour 60, everything doubles.
• Read the claims carefully. “No added sugars” doesn’t mean sugar-free (if sugars are naturally present, the pack must say so); “light” or “reduced” means at least 30% less than a similar product, not that the food is light; and “source of fibre” only requires 3 g per 100 g.
• Don’t mistake the label’s 90 g for a target. The “reference intake” percentage for sugars is calculated on 90 g of total sugars a day; the WHO recommendation for free sugars is lower: less than 50 g on 2,000 kcal.

What this list doesn’t say

None of these products makes you gain weight on its own, and you don’t need to strike them off your shopping list. What moves your weight is your energy balance over the day and the week, and a fruit yogurt or a cereal bar now and then fits in without any problem. The risk lies in having them every day in the belief that they’re “the healthy option” and therefore don’t count: three of them a day easily add up to 50 g of free sugar and some calories you weren’t expecting. Three ideas to take away: choose whole fruit over fruit you drink; look at sugars per 100 g and the first ingredients before the front of the pack; and compare the portion on the label with the one you really serve yourself. If you want to look up more foods, there’s our food calorie table. And whenever you’re unsure about a product, rather than asking whether it’s “healthy”, ask how much, how often and instead of what.