Don’t Be Fooled By Things With Fruit

Since Chris Powell and Reshape the Nation and most of the best weight loss programs encourage eating fruit, the marketing gurus came up with a neat trick. By incorporating into packaging phrases like “made with real fruit” and “100% real fruit juice,” consumers (you and I) are meant to assume their products are healthy.

I don’t know about you, but on me, those pieces of advertising work. For example, if I have a craving for juice, I’m much more inclined to drink something that claims to be made of 100% juice. But being made of fruit juice, or having fruit, or looking like fruit doesn’t necessarily make the food a healthy food, and we, as healthy eaters, have to be wary.

Two of the biggest “fruit marketing” culprits are fruit juices and dried fruits. Both fruit juices and dried fruits are basically like taking all the unhealthy things about fruit and squeezing them into a more condensed. That’s not to say they aren’t squeezing down the healthy bits too, but the healthy bits don’t outweigh the unhealthy bits. Even worse, because of the concentrated form, you’re liable to have much more. For example, eating a 16 oz package of dried cherries is like eating as many as four pounds of cherries. No healthy diet program is going to suggest you eat four pounds of cherries in a sitting!

In addition to their natural ingredients, fruit-based products are also known for having lots of sugar added to create the sweetness we all enjoy. But that sweetness comes at the cost of extra calories. So again, that seemingly healthy snack becomes a diet buster.

Here’s the best advice Reshape the Nation can give you about fruit products: If you’re craving a fruity taste, have a real piece of fruit. After all, no company can make that delicious fruit taste as well as Mother Nature!

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