Guest contributor: Kavita Jhaveri-Patel

I was getting lunch the other day and I ordered a salad, and the lady behind the counter, making my salad, asked me if I’d like low fat or regular dressing. I sat there for a moment, knowing what low-fat meant, and replied “I will have the real stuff, give me the regular.”

It dawned on me in that moment when I saw 4 other women order the low fat dressing that I had to reveal the truth to you about low fat, low calorie, and non-fat crap.

Have you ever wondered how they make it low fat, low calorie, and non-fat? I mean the reality is, real food has calories and certain fats. The definition of calorie straight from wikipedia (the ultimate source, obviously) is a metric of energy. I left out some of the complicated math stuff. But basically it is a unit of energy.

Of course it is energy—that is why we eat food in the first place!

What companies do to market low calorie and low fat products, to you, is they substitute the fat for corn syrup or sugar and they substitute real sugar with artificial sweeteners to make it low or no calorie. Hence, they add chemicals or sugar, so you feel like you won’t gain weight. But the reality is that it can have the opposite effect because you are now eating something not from nature but man made, so who knows how your body is going to react.

Let’s take ranch dressing as an example, they took out vegetable oil and replaced it with corn syrup and other chemicalized sugars to make the Fat Free version.

So, now your body will experience a blood sugar spike, which by the way is the biggest contributor to weight gain. When your blood sugar levels go up and down, your body thinks it is in emergency mode and stores fat.

Another example is Quaker Oatmeal, which you would think is good for you. However look at the ingredients, what they did to make it Lower Sugar is added sucralose, an artificial sweetener which naturally has no calories because it is totally fake.

I will dedicate an entire post to artificial sweetener, but I have to tell you right now if you eat Equal, Sweet n Low, Splenda, or NutraSweet, stop now! This is not from nature to say the least, and additives like this have proven in studies to cause weight gain.

Also look out for these ingredients in packaged foods, such as aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium.

Okay to sum things up, avoid Fat Free, Low Fat and Low Cal crap. Eat the regular stuff; your weight will thank you for it. You will be more satisfied, and your body will know what to do with the real ingredients that you are consuming.

NOTE: Indicated only the first 10 ingredients.

Regular Ranch Dressing:

Vegetable Oil (Canola Oil and/or Soybean Oil), Egg Yolk, Sugar, Salt, Cultured Nonfat Buttermilk, Natural Flavor, Spices, less than 1% of Garlic (Dried), Onion, Vinegar

Fat Free Ranch Dressing:

Water, Corn Syrup, Maltoexrin Sugar, Modified Food Starch, Buttermilk (Adds A Trivial Amount of Cholesterol), Salt, less than 2% of Vinegar, Garlic Puree, Onion, Garlic (Dried), Green Onion (Dried)

Quaker Instant Oatmeal Lower Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar:

Whole Grain Rolled Oats (With Oat Bran), Sugar, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Guar Gum, Caramel Color, Sucralose (Splenda Brand)

Body confidence expert and health and lifestyle speaker Kavita Jhaveri-Patel. She has been featured in Time Out New York, Healthy Style NY, and has been mentioned on FoxLive News. Receive her free report 7 Mistakes Most Women Make When Trying to Lose Weight and How to Avoid Them by clicking here.