Ready-made diet snacks – healthy or a marketing gimmick?

Are all those baked and low-fat snacks really healthy? We ask our diet experts.

By: Kriti Saraswat | | Updated: October 19, 2013 1:54 pm

From baked wafers to healthy biscuits, from diet bhel to low-cal sweets, these days, there are a number of ‘healthy’ products found in supermarkets. While they all claim to be good for your health and better than their fried or sugar-loaded counterparts, we wonder if this really is the case. In our quest to find the truth we ask our expert nutritionists to shed some light on the matter. Here’s what they have to say. Also Read - 5 diabetes-friendly snacks to curb hunger without sending your blood sugar soaring

Also Read - Here's why you should avoid frozen foods

How healthy are the so-called health food products sold in the market? Also Read - 6 good reasons to snack on lotus seeds or makhanas

According to Neha Chandna, most of the foods sold in the health foods section are not necessarily healthy. Very few of them are genuine, rest all of them are loaded with excess fat, salt and preservatives which are not healthy in the real sense. Many manufacturers market their products as healthy, low-fat, diet, etc but don’t really mention the amount of fat or the procedure used by them to make their products healthy. Majority of such foods are a marketing gimmick. The fact remains that to make their products yummy and attractive they use the same amount of fat in the dough and then bake or roast these instead of frying them making you consume the same amount of fat like you would in the fried versions. (Read: Tasty and healthy snacks for the monsoons)

What should one look for in a food label?

These products contain a lot of fat, salt and artificial ingredients, you need to carefully check the amount of fat, sodium, sugar per serving and also for ingredients which you may be allergic to.

How can a layman decide if the said food is good or not?

It’s simple, look into your fitness goals and what you want to achieve out of your body. If you are obese or diabetic, buy products with less fat and sugar, if you are hypertensive, buy products with less sodium.

Which foods should one definitely avoid?

Avoid cream biscuits, high-fibre biscuits with a lot of fat, baked chaklis, roasted khakras and chivdas, bakes puris or any other items which are marketed heavily as baked or roasted.

Can readymade foods ever be healthy? If yes, how to choose the right one?

Ready-made foods can be made healthy if the food manufacturer designs the products keeping the health of the consumers in mind without compromising on the taste. Exceptions exist, so you need to check the food label to pick the genuine ones and judge what you eat by your sense of taste. (Read: Healthy snacks for the office)

In order to make this simpler, Naini Setalvad gives us some pointers to choose the right products off the shelves of supermarkets.

Before you choose a product, check the whole wheat and white flour (maida) ratio. Also, the kind of oil used and the content of fat.

Packaged foods available contain a lot of sodium which is different from salt. They usually mention the sodium content on the label, in order to get the salt content, multiply 2.5 to that figure and see how high it is.

The sugar-free/ low-cal sweets available contain artificial sweetness which can be harmful in the long run. Another problem with sugar-free products is that they contain a lot of white flour as well as fats. The only safe artificial sweetener is sucralose so look for one made of that. Even natural sugar products like honey, dates and granola bars contain a lot of calories and fat.

Many packaged foods contain Omega 6 in excess which destroys Omega 3 which is healthy for your heart so look up the label before you buy. (Read: Omega 3 fatty acids why you need them in your diet)

Here’s a list of products which are relatively healthy:

Skimmed milk
Plain yogurt
Oats
Plain and flavoured almonds, pistachio, cashew
Dry fruits like prunes, figs, apricots, dates, raisins
Puffed rice (kurmara)
Corn kernels
Plain or lightly salted popcorn
Whole grain bread
Lavash
Seeds of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and flax seeds
Hummus
Low-fat paneer
Roasted Bengal gram (chana)
Organic honey
Chikkis made of jaggery (gur)
Potato wafers roasted and preferably made with rock salt and no oil
Dry fruit sweets made with no added sugar and the fat is from nuts and seeds

Now that you know the truth, read the label carefully before choosing a snack and don’t just go by the claims of its marketers. Healthy snacking!

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Published : October 14, 2013 6:13 pm | Updated:October 19, 2013 1:54 pm

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