According to a Lawrence dietitian, you won’t see a lot of labels around foods with the most nutrient density.

The FDA warned General Mills to reword its health claims on Cheerios, saying specific cholesterol-lowering claims could only be made by drug makers.

“Lower sugar” and “less fat” than original or leading brands is good news, but check the label to see if the product still exceeds your needs.

Organic claims are regulated. If the “USDA Organic” seal is on the product, it’s accurate. Claims like “natural,” though, aren’t regulated.

Claims like “fat free” or “low sodium” are regulated and must be approved before the packages are labeled as such.

Terms like “promoting vitality” may or may not be accurate, but they’re not regulated, so the company doesn’t have to prove it.

A food package isn’t just a package anymore. It’s a marketing tool. Sure, modern bags and boxes still contain all the important material — name, type of food, manufacturer, etc., but there’s something else you might notice smack dab on the front of your favorite cereal box.

Fat-free. Low calorie. High fiber. Good source of calcium/vitamin C/protein. Organic. Natural. Whole grain.

Think those are just random terms bandied about by food makers to get your attention? Well, they are and they aren’t.

Some of those terms are federally regulated using a strict set of guidelines. However, some are terms that are nothing but empty claims that go unchecked by any entity other than your internal skepticism meter.

“I’m still a little confused on what those mean,” says Lawrence shopper Angie Fishburn, who makes it a point to look for buzz phrases like “low sodium” and “low sugar” when at the grocery store. “I would say 99 percent of the time, I read the (nutrition) labels.”

So what claims can you trust and which claims should you swallow with a grain of salt? We break down the lingo and let you know what’s what at your favorite market.

The FDA’s rules

The Food and Drug Administration regulates four different types of claims that can be printed on each food on your cart: nutrient content claims, health claims, qualified health claims and structure/function claims.

Nutrient content claims

Defined as a claim on a food product that directly or by implication characterizes the level of a nutrient in a food. These terms are regulated by specific definitions and can’t just be splashed willy-nilly on packages. And, if a nutrient content claim hasn’t been approved by the government, it can’t appear on a package.

Included in the realm of NCCs are some of the most widely used food labels, including “fat free,” “low sodium,” “high fiber,” and may be accompanied by a disclosure statement like “See nutrition information for sodium content.”

Health claims and qualified health claims

Both types are characterized by a claim made about disease risk reduction, a la the American Heart Association’s red heart label on “heart healthy” products. And though the claims can mention a disease risk reduction, they can’t make claims about the diagnosis, cure, mitigation or treatment of diseases, and the claims must be reviewed by the FDA prior to use.

The difference between the two types of claims is that though both must be based on solid, publicly available scientific evidence, a qualified claim can be based on science not as strong as a plain old health claim, which must line up with what the FDA calls “significant scientific agreement.”

Because of this, a qualified health claim must be accompanied by a disclaimer. For example, that granola bar in your pantry infused with omega-3 fatty acids can claim those acids will reduce your risk of heart disease if it also says something like, “Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”

Structure/function claims

These types of claims normally appear on dietary supplements. They describe the effect that a substance has on the structure or function of the body and does not make reference to a disease. For example, a food or substance touting its calcium content may legally say, “Calcium builds strong bones,” therefore implying that the product can improve the structure of your bones if you ingest it.

USDA labeling

Which of these is not like the other? Natural. Organic. Whole grain.

All seem pretty wholesome and benign, right? Well, only one of the three is regulated by the government. The other two can be slapped on a food boxes pretty much without a second thought.

The only one defined and enforced? Organic.

The term is defined and regulated by the United States Department of Agricultural, which puts a “USDA Organic” seal on products that meet its guidelines.

Natural and whole grain? Pretty much useless, says Trish Unruh, a nutritionist and registered dietitian with the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.

“Organic is defined, but natural is not,” she says. “Things can be made with whole grains, but not have whole grains as a major ingredient.”

The bottom line

The best thing you can do if you’re not sure about a product’s claims? Read the label, and don’t be shy about giving the product the third degree.

“In counseling when we talk about that you do have to be careful reading food labels because something can say “a third less fat,” but if it’s very high in fat content initially, even being a third less may still be high in fat content,” Unruh points out.

Therefore, if a product seems too good to be true, it probably is, says Staci Hendrickson, a registered dietitian with Healthy Balance, Inc.

“If you really look in the grocery store, a lot of the foods that are using a lot of these claims are foods that maybe don’t have a lot of nutrient density,” Hendrickson says. “Like if you’re going though the produce aisle, you don’t see a lot of claims there or on your gallon of milk, you don’t see a lot of those kinds of claims, so again that’s just kind of using a little bit of that consumer sense … of ‘Wait a minute, what are they trying to pull me in with?'”