Is This Healthy Food?
10 "Healthy" Foods You Should Move Away
Consider the following reasoning:
1. Low fat foods are healthy.
2. Candies have no fat.
3. Therefore, the candies are healthy.
Makes sense? Of course not, but that is the kind of argument that food companies use. In our case, we started reasoning with a false premise. This is because the term "low fat" is often a code for "high sugar concentration" - an attribute that makes foods very unhealthy.
Making healthy choices is not as simple as knowing that beans are high in fiber, or that fruits have plenty of health-beneficial antioxidants. Producers often add ingredients like sugars that instantly make good food a bad choice. As a result, many of the products we think are healthy are anything but that. That's why we've created a list of 10 so-called "healthy" foods that you can (and should) keep away from.
Yogurt with fruit in the background
Pros: Yogurt and fruit are two of the healthiest foods known to man.
Cons: Corn syrup is not. But it is this product that is used to make fruit jelly in the bottom of yogurts.
The Healthy Alternative: Opt for light yogurts, which contain about 90% less sugars than regular yogurts.
Tin Bean
Pros: Beans are made with fiber, which helps keep your appetite sated and slows down the absorption of sugars in the blood system.
Cons: Beans are typically canned with a brownish sauce made with white and yellow sugars. And since the fibers are located inside the beans, they don't have the opportunity to interfere with the speed with which sugar is digested. Consider that one cup of canned beans contains about 24 grams of sugar.
The Healthy Alternative: Canned Beans in Water. Can get all the benefits of vegetables without the extra sugar.
Prawn Sushi (California Roll Style)
Pros: The seaweed that rolls up sushi contains essential nutrients such as selenium, calcium and omega-3.
Cons: It is basically a Japanese sugar cube. The two main ingredients are white rice and a shrimp imitation, both with fast-digesting carbohydrates and virtually no protein.
The Healthy Alternative: Tuna or Salmon Sushi. These varieties have a lower concentration of health-damaging carbohydrates and high quality proteins. Cereal and Fruit Bars
Pros: They are made with oats, a nutritional and fiber-rich product indispensable for healthy eating.
Cons: Oat flakes are glued together with high fructose ingredients such as corn syrup, honey or barley malt. They all quickly raise the blood sugar level.
The Healthy Alternative:
Eat your old-fashioned snack. Mix cereals with berries and some milk.
Pasta Salads
Pros: The vast majority of pasta salads include a variety of fresh vegetables.
Cons: The main ingredient is dough made with white flour, a product similar to bread.
The Healthy Alternative: Egg salad has no impact on blood sugar. The University of Connecticut has conducted a study showing that there is no correlation between egg consumption and heart disease.
Croutons
Pros: Its small size contributes very little to the calories in your meal, and adds a pleasant and tasty crunchy effect.
Cons: Most croutons are made from the same refined flour used to make white bread, a food with a higher glycemic index than sugar.
The Healthy Alternative: Sliced Roasted Almonds. They are crispy, sugar free, and have monounsaturated fats (the same type of fats found in olive oil).
Light Salad Dressing
Pros: Reducing fat decreases the calories the sauce contains.
Cons: Sugars are added for flavor. However, the main aspect is that the removal of fat decreases the body's ability to absorb many of the vitamins in vegetables.
Healthy Alternative: Make your own salad dressing made with olive oil and be moderate in serving.
Canned Fruits
Pros: The main ingredient is fruit, arguably a healthy food.
Cons: Many brands preserve fruits in high sugar syrups. Half a cup of canned fruit contains 23 grams of additional sugars.
Healthy Alternative: Look for canned fruits with 100% juice instead of syrup.
Fat Reduced Peanut Butter
Pros: All peanut butter has a considerable amount of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat and even reduced blood circulation.
Cons: Many trademarks of peanut butter add powdered sugar, the same kind used in cake decorating. Fat-reduced peanut butter is the worst because it has more powdered sugar and less monounsaturated fat.
The Healthy Alternative: Look for natural peanut butter with 100% peanut fat and no additional sugar powder.
Pretzels
Pros: 280 grams have only 110 calories.
Cons: These low fat products have very high glycemic indexes, even higher than ice cream or gums.
The Healthy Alternative: Crispy Cheese Fritters.
