Don’t be Fooled by Certain “Health” Foods
Newswise — If you’re one of the millions of Americans hoping to lose weight
by buying fat-free, cholesterol-free, or all-natural products, you may be
surprised. Experts say it’s those so-called “healthy” foods that often sabotage
diets.
“These are the foods we naturally look to as we try to lose extra pounds;
however, they are the ones that we need to be careful about,” says Dee Rollins,
PhD, R.D., dietitian with Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.
Case and point—granola.
“Everyone thinks granola bars are wonderful and yet if you turn it over and
look at the ingredients you’ll see that it has high fructose corn syrup and a
lot of sugars,” adds Dr. Rollins.
In fact, the average granola bar contains more than 300 calories and 10 grams
of fat—not a healthy snack at all.
Now what about some of those bran cereals?
“You’ll find that there’s a lot
of hidden sugar, perhaps even some hidden salt, even a little fat in those
cereals that you don’t anticipate finding,” says Dr. Rollins.
The meat aisle is no safer—a pound of ground turkey can really ruffle a
dieter’s feathers, sometimes containing more fat grams than a pound of ground
beef.
“If you flip that label over and read the ingredients, you’ll see that it’s
high salt, maybe they added some fat, maybe they added some sugar and those
products might not be as healthy as you think they are,” explains Dr.
Rollins.
And don’t look down the bread aisle for any less deceptive
packaging.
“Multi-grain, honey wheat, seven-grain…we’re looking at all of
those names and inside that brown bread wrapper we think it’s going to be a
really good product,” adds Dr. Rollins.
But experts say it’s actually ‘whole grain’ that’s the only indication that
it’s a truly healthy buy.
And the ultimate in diet deception—“low-fat.”
“When they take the fat out they almost always put the sugar in so check the
calorie count. There’s probably more calories in a low-fat or low-carbohydrate
product than in a regular product,” says Dr. Rollins.
And here are some other “healthy” foods to watch out for:
- 100 percent
fruit juice—it’s still full of calories
- all-natural potato chips—made from
real potatoes, but still loaded with fat and sodium
- ‘cholesterol-free’
anything—if it’s not an animal product it doesn’t have cholesterol in it at all
so keep in mind that usually when you see the label ‘cholesterol-free’ it means
nothing.
So what exactly should you look for when reading labels? According to Dr.
Rollins, concentrate on three things—sodium, fat and total calories. Then read
through the ingredients and make sure things like salt, sugar and corn syrup
aren’t at the top.
For more information about Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine, visit
http://www.BaylorHealth.com.