A USDA report says that when food companies reformulate their products to reduce the salt and sugar content, the fat content, which can raise blood cholesterol, tends to go up, says the Washington Post. “Experts say the contradictory trends speak to the immense difficulty of reformulating packaged foods — even at the world’s most advanced food companies.”
Although foods often are advertised as healthier when the recipe is revamped, it’s not clear that they really are, according to the USDA report, which compared existing products with thousands of new products that went on sale from 2008 to 2012. USDA economists looked at breakfast cereals, yogurt, candy, frozen meals, and refrigerated meals because they make up the majority of packaged foods.
Sugar and salt content fell in most packaged foods over the years. “But saturated fat … has increased a statistically significant amount in cereals, yogurts, snacks, and frozen meals,” said the Post. Analysts said the results were not surprising — sugar, salt, and fat are key ingredients in a lot of foods. If there is less of one, the others account for a larger share of the product. One researcher said companies may be using saturated fat as a replacement for trans fats, which are regarded as a greater health risk.