Decode Food Labels: Nutrition Expert Reveals Red Flags to Watch for

• Ultra-processed foods are often marketed with misleading claims to seem healthier, a researcher says.
• Labels like ‘low fat’ and ‘low calorie’ can be a red flag that foods are full of additives.
• Being skeptical of health claims can help you get the most of out grocery shopping for a nutritious diet.

Grocery shopping can be a minefield of faux health foods that are biting into your budget and damaging your long-term health.

That’s why, when Dr. Tim Spector is walking down the food aisle, he keeps his eyes peeled for red flags — things that sound healthy, but are quite the opposite.

Spector, a medical doctor and professor of epidemiology at King’s College London, co-founded the science and nutrition company ZOE, which gives members nutrition advice, among other features.

He took a particular interest in nutrition research after he had a mini-stroke in 2011. He was just 53, and felt pretty healthy, but he began to take a closer look at his eating habits.

“I said, ‘I need to change what I’m doing and do massive research to work out what I should be eating, what I should be doing, health-wise to keep me living longer,'” Spector, co-founder of the science and nutrition company ZOE, told Business Insider.

Now, he has made it his mission to help consumers spot “health halos” — misleading advertising on ultra-processed foods making them seem nutritious when they can be detrimental to your health.

Here are four red flags he looks for that can help you spot dubious claims at the grocery store, and how to stock your kitchen with healthier options instead.

1. ‘Low-fat’ foods have extra additives

Spector said he steers clear of anything labeled “low-fat,” which includes margarine and butter substitutes, yogurts, and other dairy.

Low-fat products have a long history in the fad diet industry. The craze really took off in the 1980s because of concerns that saturated fat could worsen heart health and cholesterol levels. Companies selling low-fat substitutes for popular foods also cashed in on the myth that eating more dietary fat causes you to gain more body fat.

The problem is, trimming the fat from a food has a major catch. Since fat brings flavor and texture to food, swapping it out means adding sugars, starches, and binding agent so the final product is still appetizing.

That’s good news for manufacturers, who saved money by using lower-cost additives, but bad news for consumers, who are now missing out on some heart-healthy fats that naturally occur in foods, and eating more preservatives instead.

The extra refined carbohydrates that are added in place of fats can wreck havoc on our health, raising the risk of heart disease and messing with metabolic health.

“Big food loved it because it was cheaper to have these sort of fat replacements than actually paying for the natural fat got in our diets,” Spector said.

If you’re trying to watch your cholesterol levels, Spector said skip the low-fat products. Instead, he avoids cooking oils and spreads, and uses extra virgin olive oil, which offers a dose of beneficial fatty acids and polyphenols.

He also buys full-fat butter, since emerging research suggests that the fat in dairy products can have a protective effect, potentially reducing risk of illness and promoting healthy aging.

2. ‘Low-calorie’ can be misleading

Labeling products as low in calories is a marketing ploy which often signals a food is ultra-processed and loaded with additives, Spector said.

“It means they’ve tampered with it. They have probably taken out some sugar and added artificial sweeteners to disguise how much sugar is in there,” Spector said.

Many low- or no-calorie artificial sweeteners are no better for your health than sugar, according to a 2022 study.

For example, consuming aspartame, the no-calorie sweetener used in many diet sodas, carries some of the same health risks as excess sugar, like higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. It may also cause you to eat more as the sweet taste prompts your body to expect a boost of energy that never arrives.

Spector has another gripe with the low-calorie label: calories alone aren’t a good indication of whether a food is nutritious, he said. It’s more important to focus on the nutrients in your food than one siloed metric. Plus, research suggests calorie labels can be off by as much as 20%.

“Calories are completely the wrong way to summarize a food. They’re not accurate. They’re not useful, as most people cannot follow a calorie-restricted diet or calorie count reliably,” Spector said.

3. ‘Added vitamins’ tend to be low-quality nutrition

It’s pretty common for food packages to declare “added vitamins” or “added minerals” — from cereals to juice to milk.

However, while getting an extra boost of vitamins and minerals in your food may seem like a bonus, it’s another sneaky way to disguise processing, Spector said.

Ultra-processed foods are designed to have a long shelf life, with a hyper-palatable flavor and texture, tempting you to keep eating. That manufacturing process strips out naturally-occurring nutrients like vitamins and minerals. By law, manufacturers have to add them back in, Spector explained.

That’s why Spector is not so impressed by foods advertised as “fortified” with vitamins and minerals.

Vitamins and minerals are most effective in the form of whole foods, since they’re in larger quantities and in higher-quality form, easier for the body to absorb and use than the manufactured, isolated version.

4. Be wary of claims like ‘immune-boosting’ or ‘gut healthy’

Food manufacturers will often hype up the appeal of their products by adding very small amounts of ingredients with promising nutritional benefits, even if the doses aren’t large enough to do much good. In the supplement world, this is called “fairy dusting.”

“You can claim immune health by adding a microscopic amount of zinc into it; gut health with a bit of manganese… all sorts of nonsense,” Spector said

Misleading health claims also includes labels that advertise added fiber, since you may not be getting an effective dose.

“Big food doesn’t make money out of fiber. There’s no big fiber lobby. It’s just quiet cheap, and it’s healthy. And of course, it fills you up. So you eat less of it,” Spector said.

The easiest way to navigate food labels is to check the actual quantities of ingredients and serving sizes, to make sure you’re getting what you want, Spector said. Not all processed foods are created equal, since certain types of processing can retain the nutrients you want.

Spector’s approach to getting enough nutrients is to aim to eat 30 different plants per week, including things like nuts, seeds, spices, coffee, and even high-quality chocolate.