Many widely-held beliefs about food and healthy eating are more fiction than fact. Here’s a look at four popular food myths and the facts that disprove them.

As long as there has been food, there have been food myths. We heard them as children, and even years later, we still believe many of them. Logical or not, much of what we grew up learning about food is simply false. As part of our report on the link between prevention and good nutrition, Better Health explores some common misconceptions about food, and separates fact from fiction.

Fiction: Low-fat foods are low in calories.

Fact: It’s one of the most common food misconceptions, but the truth is and always has been, low-fat does not equal low-calorie.

The total calories in a food item depends on the calories in each of the food’s ingredients. Fat contains calories, but so do carbohydrates and proteins. Though a product label says ‘low-fat,’ the total calorie count may be similar or even higher than the regular ‘full-fat’ version. In the process of making foods lower in fat, it’s common for producers to increase other ingredients like sugar and flour to improve food taste. The added ingredients may contain little or no fat, but they still have calories.

So the next time you’re out food shopping, take a closer look before stocking up on everything ‘low-fat.’ Read food labels carefully, and be sure to check the serving size and total calories along with fat content.