Reading labels is a good habit to get into, but what do those diet terms really mean? Check out the following terms and remember to look at the kcal calorie values before deciding whether or not to buy something, rather than simply relying on these claims.

Reduced Calories
For a product to be reduced calorie, it must have less than three-quarters of the calories of a similar product.
If it’s a food that’s normally sky high in calories, a reduced calorie alternative won’t necessarily help your diet.
The biggest reduction in reduced calorie chocolate bars or other sweet snacks is often the size. They are much smaller than the real thing!

Low Calorie
Any foods marked low calorie must contain less than 40 calories per 100 grams or 100ml. Low-calorie drinks need not contain fewer calories than the equivalent ordinary ones, as long as they meet this requirement. Check that drinks labelled diet, light or reduced sugar actually have fewer calories than their ordinary equivalent.

Diet, Lite or Light
These are common claims made on food and drinks, but there is no legal definition of what they mean. The word diet doesn’t automatically tell you how many calories the product contains. Lite or light could mean light on sugar, fat, calories or simply light in weight or colour! You don’t know for sure without reading the label.

Sugar Free
Means there should be no more than 0.2g of sugar per 100g - but sweet foods will contain artificial sweeteners instead.

Reduced Sugar
Products should have 25% less sugar than comparable ones. This does not necessarily mean the calories will be less, the fat content may be high, as fat has twice the calories of sugar.

Low and Reduced Fat
These foods should contain 25% less fat than similar products.
These claims are often made on high fat foods or on ones that are low in fat, but loaded with sugar which will boost your calorie intake.
Most supermarket own brands which are labelled ‘low fat’ have less than 5g of fat per serving of food.

Virtually no Fat
This is very vague and can mean anything. One brand of virtually fat free yogurt could have much more than another making the same claim. If it’s low in fat, it could be high in sugar. A ‘fat free’ product usually has less than 0.15g of fat per 100g of food.

High Fibre
There’s no legal definition, but most supermarkets label a product “High Fibre” if it has more than 6g of fibre per 100g.