25 Food Labels That Have You Fooled Slideshow

These days, products are trying to outperform each other from any and all angles. The simple task of choosing a breakfast cereal has become marred with a swarm of advertisements and flashy claims about health on the front of products' boxes. Are those chocolate-stuffed squares really a good source of fiber? Are those rice crisps that turn your milk a creamy cocoa really made of healthy whole grains?

Often, these labels are there to fool you into thinking that a product is the healthier choice when in actuality, there's not much that's healthy about it. Marketers are smart. They use buzzwords and promises they know you're looking for and find loopholes in federal regulations to make things sound better than they actually are.

The best way to ensure you're buying a healthy product is to check the nutrition facts and the ingredients — both of which provide valuable information about your health, if you know how to read them right. But sometimes, you don't have the time or energy to scour over the numbers and fine print.

We're here to help you decode those attention-grabbing declarations and crack the code of product marketing. It can become much easier to see through all that misleading information once you know which labels have you fooled.

One grain, two grains, three grains... These breads managed to add in 12! But that doesn't mean that they didn't also add in a ton of other, stuff, too. Many have refined white flour as a main ingredient — perhaps not the healthiest choice.

You can add as many grains in as tiny of a quantity as you want into a loaf of bread and still boast this label. Are the grains whole grains? That remains unspecified. Is there added sugar? Also information that isn't as blatantly relayed. Check the ingredients on your bread and look for varieties with whole grains as the first few ingredients.

What constitutes "good"? Not much. According to the Food and Drug Administration, a food only needs to have 10 percent of your daily recommended intake to qualify. Additionally, the type of fiber remains a mystery. Often, companies use isolated fiber instead of real fiber — which boasts little to no nutritional benefit. Try a natural, whole food with fiber for a more reliable source.

The panic around cholesterol is suspected to be unfounded. According to Deborah Beauvais from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, cholesterol is "essential to human health and cell-building." And regardless of whether or not cholesterol is harmful, "a food claiming to be low in cholesterol or cholesterol free does not mean the food is fat free. Vegetable oils contain no cholesterol, but they are 100 percent fat."

Putting "cholesterol-free" on labels of food that wouldn't, naturally, contain cholesterol is like labeling a gallon of milk "peanut-free." Of course it is — but that shouldn't influence your decision to buy it.

Who are these doctors? Answer: Literally anyone. Additionally, it doesn't say why that doctor recommended the product. The doctor could have just thought the product tasted good and reported that anecdotally.

We are also left to wonder: What kind of doctor? If a podiatrist recommended a candy bar, does that claim still hold the same weight? Most doctors — with the exception, of course, of dieticians — are only required to take one basic nutrition course throughout their education. That podiatrist has little more expertise than anyone else you met on the street.

The industry standard definition for "free range" is allowing birds outdoor access for five minutes per day. Five. Minutes. Additionally, "outdoor access" can mean access through a tiny hole in a cage that doesn't allow even a semblance of full body freedom. The cold, hard truth is that free range is a term tossed around with the most meager standards for animal care.

Says who? Labeling a product "guilt-free" is a warning sign that there wasn't another "healthy" sounding label to tack on. No food really needs to cause any guilt — all foods can be guilt-free. In fact, guilt-free, intuitive eating is the healthiest there is. And it involves any and all foods, in the moderation you desire.

Yes, it's made with real fruit, but what else is it made with? Gummies, for example, often contain trace amounts of fruit for flavoring but are also chock full of added sugars and chemical compounds. Again, let's parallel this with ice cream — it's made with real milk! But that doesn't make it milk.

You're better off eating the fruit itself, rather than a product that's made with it.

Both sea salt and table salt have the same amount of sodium — the notion that sea salt is healthier is a health myth. The sole benefit of using sea salt over table is the difference in texture. If you love the authentic, grainy feel, then opt for sea salt! But if you're doing it for the health cost, save yourself the extra dollar from the marked-up price.

"Natural flavors" can be any number of flavorings — and can, counterintuitively, include unnatural ingredients. Essentially, the Food and Drug Administration's regulations for the term are loose, making the use of the term on labels and ingredients a total lie.

Often, when companies fortify their foods with omega-3s, they're just taking ground flax seeds and sprinkling them all over their product. Flax seeds have a type of omega-3 called ALA, which doesn't result in the same heart-healthy benefits as the other types. Any company can add even the tiniest portion of the less-beneficial ALA to their food and boast this label, making it utterly meaningless for your health. We'd rather get our omega-3 fatty acids from other, more natural sources.

This label is useful only for consumers who are allergic to soy. If you aren't allergic, there's nothing about the ingredient that's unhealthy. Soybeans actually contain a ton of nutrients, including manganese, selenium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, and more.

Here's a news flash: Superfoods are any food that have a good amount of nutritional value. So, anything containing blueberries can boast superfood status. Granola that's fluffed with fat, sugar, and a few dried fruits falls under the umbrella term. So does trail mix. And pies.

Sorry. Your superfood blend doesn't make your dessert a healthy choice.