What Should I Be Looking Out For When A Food Is Labeled 'Low-Fat'?

February 1, 2009 -- Question: What should I be looking out for when a food is labeled "low-fat"?

Answer: When food is labeled 'low-fat,' people tend to think that it also is low calorie. That may not necessarily be true. You have to look at the food label to see how many calories are in a portion. It may very well be that when they substituted the fat they had to add extra calories as carbohydrates, for example, in order to make it taste good. Also you want to make sure that if you have a disease for which high carbohydrate is not good like diabetes that the carbohydrate content of that food is not too high.