Surprise, surprise, certain foods that have acquired an undeserved good reputation can actually be pretty bad for you. Though these foods can contain some healthy ingredients, they are also often loaded with sugar and/or fat. Below are the seven culprits to watch for:

Granola bars – Sugar, corn syrup, chocolate. The list of additives goes on and certainly negates any healthful properties.

Tea drinks – Think they’re the better option than a can of Coke? Think again. Unless you are drinking them unsweetened, many popular brands of iced tea contain as much sugar (sometimes more!) than a can of your favorite soda.

Pretzels – Sure they’re low fat, but they’re also low in any substantial nutrition and very high in salt. If you buy the flavored variety, the fat and sodium content jumps.

Muffins – Most store or restaurant muffins are high in fat and sugar and are big enough they could probably feel a small country for a couple of days. And don’t be fooled: even if a muffin is advertised as low-fat consider this: a reduced-fat cranberry muffin at Starbucks may contain only 3.5 grams of fat, but it also packs in a whopping 330 calories and 36 grams of sugar.

Rice cakes – Similar problems to the pretzel. There is not much nutritional value, but a fair amount of sodium to make up for it. Again the flavored options, fat content just goes up.

Fruit-flavored snacks – While the first ingredient may be listed as fruit and many contain the recommended daily intake of vitamin C, often the concentrate is boiled down fruit juice which contains a high volume of sugar. Add that to artificial ingredients and hydrogenated oil, and any benefit of the fruit, is pretty well reduced to nothing.

Frozen yogurt – Live and active cultures are what make yogurt good for you. Many varieties of frozen yogurt are devoid of these cultures. The fat-free options often contain a lot of sugar and unless labeled as fat-free, they often contain almost the same amount of calories and fat as reduced-fat ice cream.

Always, always, always read a nutrition label carefully. I can’t stress this enough. The companies who produce supposedly healthy foods have fantastic marketing teams. There are those of us out there who make an effort to eat well and we (yes we, I get sucked in too) can be misled by words or catchphrases such as “low-fat” and “whole-grain.” However until you actually read the label to see how many calories, grams of fat, grams of sugar and so on are actually in the product, you are clueless as to what has been compensated in the recipe to give that low-fat or whole-grain option a great taste.

If any foods on this list are ones you turn to when searching for a “healthy” snack, read the full article to discover their pitfalls – and learn what you should be looking for on nutrition labels, as well as some healthier alternatives.

» MSNBC Health