When you reach for turkey products at the supermarket, you probably think youre making healthy choices, substituting lean poultry for fattier beef or pork. But is that really the case?

Even when the labels bear buzz words like lean or healthy choice, dont overlook the nutritional facts. On each product we tested franks, turkey ham, smoked sausage, pepperoni and Italian sausage the primary ingredient was dark turkey meat, and every item still derives half of its calories from fat. There is good news: Most will cut the quantity of calories and fat grams substantially.

The biggest surprise

Jennie-O Turkey Ham: Unless you just prefer the taste of turkey ham and the salt added during processing, this product isnt much different nutritionally than real ham. Two-ounce portions of extra lean turkey ham and sliced deli ham have virtually identical nutritional profiles; their calorie counts, fat, protein and carbohydrate grams are almost identical. The biggest difference is in fat grams, and deli ham wins the contest: 1.8 grams of fat compared to the turkey hams 3 grams.

The biggest difference

Honeysuckle White Italian Sausage: Dont let the word White in the products brand name make you think its made from white turkey meat. Its made from dark meat and each 112-gram link gets half of its 140 calories from fat (8 grams). Another downside, 580 mg of sodium. The good news is that while its not the healthiest choice, its considerably healthier than pork-based Italian sausage, which for the same portion size has 385 calories and 30 grams of fat.

Healthier but not healthy

Butterball Turkey Smoked Sausage: If youre making gumbo or jambalaya and you want to trim calories and fat, the turkey smoked sausage will cut a substantial number of calories (100 calories in 2 ounces, compared to 221 calories in pork sausage). The cut largely comes from the fat category, since the same portion of turkey sausage has 6 grams, compared to 18 grams in regular sausage.

Hormel Turkey Pepperoni: Pepperoni is a true dietary bad boy, loaded with fat and salt and yet so yummy on a pizza. A sizable portion of turkey pepperoni (17 slices or 30 grams) has just 70 calories, compared to 150 in its full-fat brother. Remember, though, that its still 50 percent fat and loaded with sodium.

Jennie-O Turkey Franks: First let me say this: these things dont even taste good. One frank has just 70 calories but more than half of those calories are from fat. You dont want to eat meat that has more fat than protein.

Note: The American Heart Association recommends healthy adults consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Those with high blood pressure should consume no more than 1,500 mg per day. The AHA urges consumers to keep fat intake to 25 percent to 35 percent of calories for a heart-healthy diet.

Source: Product labels, www.calorieking .com, www.americanheart.org.