So-called healthy foods that aren't
It's had enough to give up the Cheetos and start eating healthy. (I should know!) But the world of food makes it even more difficult by dressing up bad-for-you foods in healthy clothes and tricking people into thinking they are doing themselves a favor. It's just junk food in disguise.
I remember the day I learned that granola mixes are basically just a Snickers bar in disguise. Most of us think of granola as the quintessentially healthy food, but it's packed full of sugar and fat. And lots of dried fruit, which is itself about as healthy for you as a Starburst candy. When you dry fruit, not only do you end up concentrating all the sugars, but most companies add even more sugar. They may hide it on the label by calling it "evaporated fruit juice" or "evaporated cane juice," but you and I know the score. It's just more sugar.
The food industry knows that we want to eat junk food, so they do whatever they can to trick us into buying it. What genius managed to position fruit juice as a health food? It's every bit as bad for you as soda, without the fizzy carbonation. The same is true for sports drinks, which position sugar as an "energy boost" for "replenishing after a workout."
Which reminds me, that energy bar? It too is basically a Snickers bar in disguise. Check the calories and grams of fat and compare them to an average-size Snickers. You might be surprised!
Unfortunately if you want to eat healthy, you have to do the research yourself. Don't rely on the claims made on the package or in the commercials. The healthier I try to eat, the more acutely aware I become of the lies that the food manufacturers are constantly pushing at us.
Image courtesy Flickr/Gabriel Li//Studio Gabe