Health & Fitness: Real Food Stages a Comeback

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Moreover, nutritionists increasingly recognize that artificial foods, which were supposed to supplant "real" products, are not quite as palatable and problem free as once thought. Imitation meats, for example, are marketed as low in cholesterol and calories, but they tend to be extravagantly high in salt. Many nondairy creamers are touted as cholesterol free, though they contain coconut oil, a highly saturated fat.

! Still, many experts find the glut of health-oriented advertisements for real food difficult to swallow. Declares Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer-advocacy group in Washington: "Some of the ads may be honest, but you need a Ph.D. to tell the difference."

Pitches for fresh produce, like those for apples and potatoes, draw few quibbles. But most of the promotions, nutritionists contend, are misleading. For instance, there is little evidence, as some sugar ads say, that the sweetener causes heart disease, cancer and diabetes. But "it is not 'perfectly safe,' " emphasizes Dr. William Connor of the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. "It's a major cause of tooth decay." Besides, he adds, sugar is hardly nutritious since it contains "no fiber, vitamins, minerals or proteins. You get only calories." Liebman takes issue with the National Dairy Board's campaign for its emphasis on whole milk and cheeses, despite their being good sources of calcium. Consumers should be urged instead to drink low-fat milk and eat smaller portions of cheese, she says. Indeed, dairy products today are Americans' second highest source of saturated fat.

The major source of fat consumed by Americans is still red meat, another fact the current barrage of ads ignores. "Beef is not one of the high- cholesterol foods," observes Dr. Connor. However, "it has a great deal of saturated fat. Chicken has a lot less." The public gets a bum steer as well from the industry's use of a 3-oz. serving as the basis for nutritional information. The average portion is 4.7 oz. for a hamburger and 5.7 oz. for a steak.

Nutritionists deride the pork commercials as hogwash. The meat may be close in color to poultry, but the average serving of pork contains at least twice as much fat as does a piece of turkey or chicken. Pork is not a white meat, no matter how much "producers want to distance themselves from beef, which they perceive as a loser," notes Liebman. The rehabilitation of real food may have begun, say health experts, but it still has a long way to go.