Did you know that our country’s agricultural system
produces twice the calories that our population requires? That sounds like a good thing, but the fact
is that too many of those calories are provided by our ingenious food industry in
unhealthy forms – refined and processed foods that are loaded with sugar and
bad carbs. With appealing advertising
and abundant availability it’s easy to eat too many calories and yet be
malnourished. This can set up a vicious
cycle – our bodies continue to need nutrients so we keep eating, yet the only
thing we gain is weight.
The bottom line is that it’s easy to eat healthfully if
your diet is dominated by high quality whole foods – vegetables, fruits, lean
protein, whole grains, and good fats. When
you do buy packaged foods, it’s important to read the ingredient list (not just
the nutrition panel) and try to stick to products with just a few ingredients
that you actually recognize. I decided to call this post K.I.S.S. for Keep
It Simple Sweetie – no need for insulting adjectives like “stupid” when we’re
talking about taking care of yourself and those you love!
A recent article in The
Washington Post (see link below) does a great job of spotlighting food
items that are marketed as healthy but are actually far from it. Here is their list:
Reduced-fat peanut butter: This product typically has as many calories
as regular peanut butter but also more sugar and other non-peanut ingredients
to create a peanut butter-like texture.
The oil in peanuts provides nutrients, so stripping some of it out
decreases the product’s nutritional value.
Your best option is to purchase natural peanut butter, which ideally
includes only peanuts, or perhaps adds a little salt.
Enhanced water:
Vitaminwater and similar beverages “are essentially sugary drinks with a
vitamin pill.” Zero-calorie water drinks
are better, but the best choice is to drink plain water and to eat your
vitamins in food form, not as reduced and isolated additives to other products.
Energy bars:
Depending on the brand you buy, energy or meal replacement bars may
contain some whole foods and provide protein and fiber, but they are usually
high in sugar too. My teenage sons love
Clif bars and I like that they contain organic whole grains and have a pretty
impressive fiber/protein profile, but I was dismayed to see that the #1
ingredient is organic cane sugar!
Organic, cane… it’s still sugar! Again,
read ingredient lists carefully and consider nuts & dried or fresh fruit
for an energy boost.
Multigrain foods:
Grain-based food products can be very confusing with all the
healthy-sounding descriptors out there, but keep in mind that multigrain does
not mean whole grain. Multigrain just
means multiple grains, but all may be refined and stripped of nutritional
value. Look for a whole grain as the
first and preferably only grain in the ingredient list, noting that multiple
whole grains are even better.
Non-fried chips and crackers: This is a tricky one, because Baked sounds
healthier than Fried, doesn’t it? In the
case of chips and crackers that may not be the case. As Walter Willett of Harvard’s School of
Public Health notes, “Now that trans fats have been removed from most cooking
oils, the healthiest part of potato chips is the fat.” That’s because most chips and crackers are
made from refined grains or starch, so their natural healthfulness is greatly
reduced. Look for whole grain crackers
and chips made from whole grains (or vegetables, such as Terra Chips) and fried
in healthy olive or canola oil. Note
that Sunchips are recognized as a decent option “so long as you keep to the
one-ounce serving size.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/5-so-called-health-foods-you-should-avoid/2012/01/31/gIQA6E7vfR_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment