WIS news anchor Dawndy Mercer-Plank conducted an in-depth investigation into what hidden ingredients may be present in the foods and products available at the grocery store. Specifically, she found that there may be added sugar, dye or other unhealthy—possibly even cancer-causing—ingredients in foods that are typically considered to be healthy, such as yogurt, cereal and marinara sauce. There is also often a trade-off in foods that are low in fat: they tend to be high in sugar. In addition, sugar tends to be included in ingredient lists under a name that is not recognizable to shoppers as sugar, such as fructose, dextrose or even fruit juice.

In addition to working with our nutrition experts here at the Cancer Prevention and Control Program to research and report on this issue, Ms. Mercer-Plank also hosted a small group of experts in the WIS studio to answer viewer-submitted questions about healthy eating. This group of experts included our director Dr. James Hébert, frequent Columbia's Cooking! guest chef Leré Robinson, who is a nutrition consultant and founder of the nutrition-promotion project Alive Again LLC, and Kay McGinnis, R.D., L.D., a registered dietitian with Providence Hospital.