For many people, the first step in eating healthier is choosing good foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, cheeses and nuts over bad foods like frozen pizzas and fast food. However, not all foods which appear to be healthy are all that great for you. Many have hidden dangers like high sugar content, or more fat than is necessary.

The following are a few tips on choosing the right options when it comes to healthy snacks and foods, to ensure that you truly are eating healthy, rather than simply being deceived!

Yogurt: This is a great snack, because yogurt is generally very high in calcium. What many people do not realize however, is that many yogurt brands pack a lot more sugar in their yogurt cups than you really need. Sugar-laden yogurt cups are missing many of the nutritional value that you believe that you are getting. Make sure to read the labels, and look for yogurt cups which are low in fat and sugar. You can always opt for the non fat plain yogurt, then add your own fruit to give yourself more control over the content of your snack.

Fruit: Fruit is available with many different choices, ranging from fresh, to water-packed pre-cut, to canned. Fresh fruit is always going to be your best choice, because canned fruit is boiled before it is canned. Canned fruit is processed with heavy syrup which adds significantly to the sugar content of the fruit. If you cannot acquire fresh fruit for some reason, your second choice should be frozen fruit. You may lose some of the nutritional value by buying frozen, but fresh and frozen fruit is much healthier and more nutritious than the canned varieties.

Vegetables: Fresh vegetables, or vegetables which have been pre-washed and cut and have been packaged in water are much more nutritious than canned vegetables, which like fruit have been processed and canned. The water in cans of vegetables typically contains more sodium than you really need to consume, so avoid canned vegetables if you can. Frozen vegetables are also an option, but nutrients are generally lost in the process. Also, try to cook your vegetables as little as possible because much of the nutritional value of the vegetable is lost while it cooks.

Fruit Juices: Make sure that any juice you purchase is 100-percent juice, because many juice brands only actually offer 30 to 40-percent juice, which means that the rest of the bottle is filled with sugar, water and corn syrup. Sugar fruit juices actually work to dehydrate rather than to hydrate, which makes them practically worthless to drink. Make sure to read every juice label before you purchase anything.

Boxed or Frozen Meals: Although these meals may seem like a quick and easy fix, they tend to be high in both salt and calories. You can prepare many of these same meals on your own to save yourself and your family a lot of calories, and the real deal tends to taste a great deal better than what comes in a box or a bag.

Anyone else have anything to add to this list? Leave your comment below!