Pictures of luscious-looking fruit adorn the packaging, and the labels claim that there is real fruit inside—but don't think you can count these snacks as one of the four to five daily servings the new dietary guidelines recommend. Because current law doesn't require labels to specify how much fruit is in the product, manufacturers can brag on packaging that food is made with real fruit if it contains only small amounts of fruit juice.

"Concentrated white grape juice or pear juice may sound healthy, but all that really means is fruit sugars and water," says Gail Rampersaud, RD, of the food science and human nutrition department at the University of Florida. Other downsides: Few of these snacks provide any fiber, and some faux-fruit munchies even contain small amounts of artery-choking hydrogenated fats. And they often have as many calories—almost all from sugar—as candy. For example, a 25-g serving of Fruit Gushers has 90 calories, just about equal to a handful of Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper jawbreakers.