It sounds virtuous, but fat-free salad dressing is a health-food don’t. If you check the ingredient list you’ll see that this product is essentially sugar water, with flavor added. Do yourself a favor and whip up a quick vinaigrette. The oil will help it taste better, be more satisfying, and help you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in salad greens and other vegetables.

You could do worse, when it comes to cereal. Straight-up Cream of Wheat is fortified with vitamins and minerals and has no added sugar. But Cream of Wheat also is short on fiber (just 1 gram per serving), meaning it’s not going to fill you up. And if you choose the flavored instant packets, you’ll be getting a helping of added sugars, partially hydrogenated fats and caramel color (which sounds benign, but is linked to cancer in large quantities). The same goes for flavored instant oatmeal packets, so for the healthiest hot cereal, stick to oatmeal or mixed grains that give you more fiber, and flavor it yourself (you’ll control the amount of sugar and avoid all those unhealthy additives).

This drink really has a health glow, offering all the hydration and virtuousness of regular water with the added bonus of vitamins and minerals. But fortifying water with vitamins and minerals doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a noncarbonated soft drink. Although the nutrition facts label claims a serving is 8 ounces, the drink is packaged in 20-ounce bottles that certainly look like they’re intended as an individual serving, which means you have to multiply all that handy nutrition info by 2.5. Suddenly that 50-calorie beverage has 125 calories (and 8 teaspoons of sugar!). Plus, some of those vitamins are fat-soluble, so you’re not going to absorb them from a fat-free, high-sugar drink. If you want a watered-down soda, go ahead. But if you just want a healthy beverage, stick to water, or mix together seltzer and juice for a juice spritzer.

Sandwich Thins may offer a breadlike vehicle for your sandwich filling, but they really can’t count as bread. Real bread has a short, easy-to-understand ingredient list: flour (preferably whole grain), yeast, salt. Sandwich Thins (and many other packaged breads) contain lots of extra fillers, making them a more processed, not truly whole-grain choice. If you’re trying to save calories in your sandwich, just skip the second slice of bread and make an open-faced sandwich. Or if you’re buying a loaf that you can get sliced, ask for extra-thin slices.