food mistakes to avoid if you're trying to lose weight

1. All salads are good for you
   Vegetables are good for you, absolutely. But salads often include other ingredients, which will hike up your kilojoule (kJ) count.

A Caesar salad looks green and leafy but is filled with hidden fats from the bacon (8g fat; 360kJ), parmesan cheese (6g fat; 340kJ) and creamy salad dressing lathered over the top (20g fat; 770kJ). Even the croutons are fried for added crunch. So a Caesar salad gives you 70 per cent of your total daily fat intake for an average adult in one meal.

1. I don't eat junk food, just 'healthy' snacks
   
   There's recently been a shift towards more natural forms of added sugar, but they contain no additional nutrients and no fewer kilojoules. Adding honey or agave syrup to your dish does not differ nutritionally from adding sugar to the same dish. It may taste different, but you're still adding sugar.

Next time you feel like something sweet, try adding some fruit instead. It has a natural sweetness and will give you extra vitamins and minerals.

3 Anything fruit-based must be healthy

Think of the humble banana, mashed up into banana bread. This is not a bread at all, but a cake.
If you've ever made banana bread you'll realise just how much butter and extra sugar gets added to something nature has already made to be sweet and in its own convenient package.