SWEET TRUTH
The low fat foods with up to FIVE TIMES more sugar than regular versions
Companies try to improve tasteless 'healthier' low fat food by adding shocking amounts of sugar
LOW fat foods advertised as healthier alternatives to their original versions contain up to five times more sugar, an investigation into supermarket products has revealed.
Experts say companies add extra sugar to make up for the bland taste after fat is removed.
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The worst offending product among more than a dozen analysed is Morrisons's The Best Thick-Cut Coleslaw, which contains 3.3g of sugar while its "reduced fat" version has 7g.
And there is 2.7g of sugar in Pizza Express House Salad Dressing compared to 4.6g in the "light" dressing.
Dietician Helen West told the newspaper: “Fat adds flavour and texture so when food manufacturers remove it, they need to replace it with something else to make the product palatable.”
Expert Helen Bond added: “Reduced fat doesn’t always mean lower in calories.”
Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tell MPs they want to slap new taxes on milkshakes
Premier Foods, who make Batchelors, said its low-fat noodles had only a third of the calories in a typical sandwich.
Pizza Express said: “We are constantly reviewing the nutritional content of food.”
A Morrisons spokesman said: “Sometimes ingredient changes are needed to make lower fat versions as good as standard counterparts.”
TV chef Jamie Oliver has been battling to reduce sugar in high street products.
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Speaking to MPs last week he brandished a bottle of popular kids’ favourite Yazoo and argued that it should be made more expensive so that parents are put off from buying it.
His suggestion came as lawmakers discussed extending the sugar tax on fizzy drinks.
Sugar in every 100g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Chicken 100g - 1.1g
- Batchelors Low Fat Chicken & Herb noodles, 80g - 1.6g
- Morrisons The Best Thick-Cut Coleslaw, 100g - 3.3g
- Morrisons The Best Reduced Fat Coleslaw, 100g - 7g
- Pizza Express House Salad Dressing 235ml - 2.7g
- Pizza Express House Light Dressing 235ml - 4.6g
- Yeo Valley Natural Yogurt 500g - 5.6g
- Yeo Valley 0% Fat Natural Yogurt 150g - 7.5g
- Philadelphia Original Soft Cheese 180g - 4g
- Philadelphia Lightest Soft Cheese 180g - 5.9g
- ASDA Beef Lasagne - 1g
- ASDA Slimzone Beef Lasagne - 2.5g
- Hellmann’s real mayonnaise, 600g - 1.3g
- Hellmann’s light mayonnaise, 600g - 2.3g
- Iceland sweetened dairy cream - 7.6g
- Iceland lighter sweetened dairy cream, 100g - 9.9g
- Princes Corned Beef 340g - 0.5g
- Princes Lean Corned Beef Reduced Fat 200g - 1.1g
- Waitrose black cherry yogurt, 150g - 19.4g
- Waitrose deliciously chunky black cherry low fat yogurt 150g, per pot - 20.9g
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