Parul Kharod
In the commercial-filled world of the food industry, eating right is not easy. Food companies target consumers with flashy advertisements and magic fixes. Unless you are paying attention, it is easy to fill your grocery cart with the wrong things.
There are many foods that sound “healthy” but many of these foods are just marketed that way. Let’s look at ten such foods.
Bran muffins
Bran muffins are sold as the perfect to-go breakfast: a healthy alternate to fast food. But while bran itself is a healthy whole grain source of fiber, a muffin baked with heaps of sugar, flour, and fat is not. Muffins sold commercially are huge in size and can have more calories and sugar than a doughnut. Muffins can be a healthy choice for breakfast on busy weekday mornings for parents and kids. Make them yourself and look for recipes that use whole wheat flour and substitute applesauce for some of the fat.
Boxed Cereal
Cereal is the breakfast choice in many households. Unfortunately most boxed cereals are processed, have too much sugar, and not enough fiber. Even the high fiber cereals are high in sugar and filled with processed fibers. Kids’ cereals are worse as they have too many artificial chemicals in the forms of flavors and colors. Give up the boxed cereals and choose a better breakfast instead. If you do have to eat cereal, choose one with less than 5 grams of sugar and more than 3 grams of fiber.
Energy drinks
Energy drinks and vitamin waters are marketed as the perfect way to get that boost of energy during a busy day. These drinks are mostly enhanced with B vitamins which are water soluble. This means that most of those vitamins literally go down the toilet! Some of these drinks may also contain harmful chemicals and artificial colors. Save money and just drink regular water instead.
Granola bars
Sold as healthy breakfast and snack choices, granola bars contain more sugar and calories than certain candy bars. Protein bars are all full of processed chemicals. Save them for travelling emergencies and not as a daily snack. Pick ones with fewer than 200 calories and 10 grams of sugar per serving. Read labels to choose bars with as few ingredients as possible and ones that mostly contain just nuts, dried fruit, and seeds.
Low calorie bread
Less is not always better. Low calorie or lite breads are marketed as a healthy alternate to regular breads. However, if you look at the ingredients, lite breads are also made with the same enriched bleached flour as regular white breads. Lite breads may have extra ingredients and chemicals. Instead look for whole grain breads where the ingredient list starts off with the words “stone ground” or “100% whole wheat.” Watch out for the same list for breads marketed as “multigrain.” Truly multigrain bread should have a combination of all whole grains.
Pretzels
Pretzels have been touted as a healthy snack because they are lower in calories and fat than potato chips. However, all pretzels are made with white flour, salt and other ingredients such as added corn syrup. Choose whole grain crackers instead and pair them with hummus or peanut butter for a more balanced snack.
Reduced-fat peanut butter
If you read the list of ingredients on reduced-fat peanut butter, you will see that they add more sugar to make up for the lack of fat. Peanut butter can also be a hidden source of trans-fats as hydrogenated fats are often used as preservatives. The ingredient list on peanut butter should have only one or two things, namely peanuts and may be salt. So choose a natural regular peanut butter, and stick to 1 to 2 tablespoons per serving.
Trail Mix
A trail mix is an ideal balanced snack with dried fruits providing the natural sugar and the nuts and seeds providing the healthy fats and protein. Unfortunately commercial trail mixes often consist of other fillers such as candy or “yogurt”-covered raisins or fried sesame sticks. Moreover, these trail mixes are coated with hydrogenated fats to increase shelf life. Make a healthy mix yourself with raw or dry roasted nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Add some pieces of dark chocolate for a treat!
Veggie Pasta
Don’t let the color fool you. The amount of veggies in these pastas is minimal. Most often dry vegetable powders or food colors are added to make you believe that you are actually eating “a full serving of vegetables.” Instead look for whole grain pasta and add real vegetables such as spinach, carrots, broccoli for a better nutritional value.
Flavored Yogurt
Yogurt is a healthy food full of probiotic bacteria. Flavored yogurts, however, can pack as much sugar as dessert. Beware of added processed fibers such as inulin and artificial flavors and colors. Instead, choose plain or vanilla yogurt and add your own fruit.
When you look at an item in the grocery store, do not read the front of the package. The little red dress or the happy smiling cartoon figures are there just to lure you. You probably don’t even need to look at the nutrition facts label all the time. Instead, pay attention to the list of ingredients. Think about what goes into making that product. That is what you will be putting in your body.
Posted: Wednesday, September 2, 2015
