THE FALSE ECONOMY OF ‘LITE’ BITES

Our appetites for healthier foods have made this a boom time for the ‘lite’ snack industry, with products increasingly marketed on the basis of their nutritional value: fat-free, low-calorie. But are they really smart swaps? Not quite, no. Often, you’re just paying for a smaller portion. By this logic, you could label a bag of crisps ‘junk food’ while a handful of crisps would be ‘diet food’. What’s more, a study in The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition found that having a light, carb-based snack when you’re not really hungry – that mindlessly eaten handful of popcorn, say – does nothing to curb calorie intake at your next meal. You’d do just as well picking a snack slightly higher in calories that truly sates your appetite.