KEY POINTS:
Tonic water, brown rice and bran muffins - boring, but good for you, right?
Wrong. Well, sort of.
According to a new shopper's guide put out by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a glass of tonic water has more calories than 10 chocolate Tiny Teddy biscuits.
Brown rice is four times as fatty as white. And bran muffins - those bastions of wholesomeness - contain more fat and calories than two packets of peanut M&Ms.
But dietitians point out that the fat in brown rice is actually made up of "the good oils", while the bran in muffins will keep you going much longer than sugar-packed M&Ms.
Healthy eating has never been more complicated. Choosing the Right Stuff, which hit shelves last week, was put together to help Australasian consumers read food labels and better understand what they're eating. Jan Milne, executive director of the New Zealand Dietitians' Board, said the book was a great starting point for healthy eating.
She said the "fat" in brown rice would be purely plant oils, but she was stunned that tonic water packed such a calorific punch.
"That would be just pure sugar, I suppose. That's fascinating." Milne said the board wanted to see food labelling simplified, but until that happened, "any information is good information".
And packed with facts it certainly is.
Choosing the Right Stuff features a complete rundown of food additives and a section that breaks down the fat, calorie and kilojoule content of hundreds of foods, from KFC chicken to cucumbers, rainbow trout and Vogel's bread.
Additives are listed twice - both alphabetically and numerically - and range from acacia (a thickener used in some muesli bars) to xylitol (a sweetener that increases saliva flow and cannot be eaten by bacteria and thus cuts down on cavities).
Although both the FSANZ and Milne said all the additives were certified and safe, some sounded as though they would be more at home in a chemistry lab: agar, aluminium, bone phosphate, hydrochloric acid and potassium sulphate.
Then there are some, such as bleached starch, which you would expect to find in a laundry, and others - like petroleum jelly, used as a glazing agent in food - which have been smeared on babies' bottoms for generations.
Allergens, food intolerance, genetically modified food and new foods, such as micro-algae and bush tucker, are also covered.
Pregnant women can read up on folic acid and on the dangers of eating too much deep-sea fish. Although fish should be eaten two to three times weekly, pregnant women have to be extra-careful about mercury levels.
Dean Stockwell, general manager of Food Standards in Wellington (and acting CEO), said people might take the book along to the supermarket or browse through it beforehand to better understand what they were putting on their lists.
"Consumers do read labels on a regular basis - there are certainly some who would like more information, and there are certainly many who would like simpler information. Striking the right balance is actually very important.
"Our advice is always to choose a variety of foods and include plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables in there, and lean cuts of meat and so on - this [book] will reinforce those comments." He said additives were certified as safe only after experts had examined a wide range of research - Googling names could throw up information that looked scientific but was not peer-reviewed or independently researched.
