When it comes to nutrition, not doing anything to improve your eating habits is a mistake but the illusion of knowledge can sometimes be worse than ignorance. Those well intention who want to change their diet for the better is right to be seeking healthier foods and apparently the internet is a good place to undertake thorough research.
While this is true and a savvy researcher will come up with plenty of useful information about nearly anything, superficial exploration can backfire.
That’s how people who assume that they are well on course and eating only healthy foods might have the unpleasant surprise of discovering that in fact, they are terribly wrong.
The fact that manufacturers go to great lengths to advertise their products aggressively doesn’t make it any easier to make an educated decision.
The truth is that there are plenty of foods out there who look good, taste very good and have stellar reviews, which are in fact unhealthy. You can’t go wrong with fresh organic food though and incorporate plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet is the right thing to do.
Meanwhile check out this list of 10 foods that you assume are good for you when in fact they aren’t.
① Low-Calorie Frozen Dinners
The name itself compels you to buy these products but they are deceiving and perhaps the only true thing about them is that they are actually frozen. Rich in chemicals, preservatives and with enough sugar to offset the benefic effects of your diet, these frozen dinners are not even remotely low on calories.
② Energy/Granola Bars
There we go again. Grocery stores are full of energy bars that are allegedly the perfect mix between healthy, inexpensive and tasty foods.
They are tasty; I give them that, but they are loaded with trans-fat or saturated fat, refined sugar, and fructose corn syrup which cause the arteries to clog, so the next time you might be tempted to buy, think about the alternative of making one at home.
③ Fat-Free Products
The terms are generic enough to cover a broad spectrum of products, but the thing they have in common is that they don’t have much nutritional value. Furthermore, these are not exactly fat-free and even though they contain fewer calories than other meals. At the end of the day, your intake will be higher, as you consume larger quantities.
Add to this the fact that they are not exactly tasty so to make up the flavor; manufacturers add modified chemical ingredients, sodium, and refined sugar while the chemicals they contain sometimes cause side-effects and you will be left with no reason to spend another dime on them.
④ Frozen yogurt
Food companies know that people tend to take for granted those things that sound promising and the idea of marketing the frozen yogurt as a fat-free dessert was brilliant.
On the flip side, these frozen yogurts are not fat-free by any stretch of the imagination, and they contain refined sugar and artificial hormones that interfere with our own body’s hormone processing.
⑤ Whole Grain Bread
Perhaps the food that we find the most difficult to exclude from our menu is the daily bread, and many of us have already given up hope of following such a radical plan. The most we can do is to focus on the healthiest types of bread, and you have to admit that whole grain bread sounds very promising.
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of perception vs. reality as this bread is, in fact, an end product using refined grain which in a nutshell, is not as nutritional as natural whole grain is. If you see anything labeled as “bleached” or “unbleached enriched wheat flour” you should steer clear.
⑥ Trail Mix
Let’s admit it. We are suckers for tasty foods and if they are also advertised as healthy, we don’t go to great lengths to prove the contrary.
This is the case with the trail mix that is in fact, littered with ingredients that have no business being there, such as peanuts, chocolate, dried fruits with added sulfites (preservatives) and nuts that have the nasty tendency of going rancid.
You don’t need to be a nutrition expert to realize that there is something terribly wrong with this, so if you want a tasty and energizing snack, make it yourself and handpick the natural ingredients.
⑦ Health Drinks
The name itself is an incentive to stockpile health drinks because after all, who would pass on a rare opportunity of dealing with thirst while enjoying something tasty and healthy at the same time?
Few foods are farther from the truth than these alleged health drinks which abound in chemicals, such as artificial sweeteners which are confirmed and known to cause cancer. Why not drink Thai coconut water or a different fruit infusion for a change?
⑧ Store-Bought Muffins
It is easy to understand how sometimes people can be tricked into believing something that is untrue, but when it comes to store bought muffins, you are simply lying to yourself.
Why would one even think that these muffins are not full of coloring agents, refined sugar, high sodium levels and chemicals of all sorts is beyond me. Do yourself a favor and learn how to bake them at home, because this is the only way of enjoying a delicious muffin without sacrificing your health.
⑨ Pre-made Smoothies
These sweet delights can also have unintended consequences in the same manner as the food described above, if you purchase the ready-made version.
You simply can’t trust the producers for not adding refined sugar, fat and other unhealthy chemical-related ingredients which are hardly going to help you with your diet. There is no point in undermining your efforts for the sake of convenience, so make the smoothie yourself as it takes minutes to prepare.
⑩ Prepared Salads
The idea of eating a salad a day is glorious but if you thought that buying one readily prepared for you from a supermarket will do the trick…think again.
They contain low-quality fats like mayonnaise or rancid oils and these ingredients defeat the purpose of eating healthy meals, so find the time to make your salad.
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Credit: LoveHealth
