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It’s safe to say that the current obesity epidemic has been teaching people how to choose healthier foods and take better care of their bodies.
I’ve learned not to frequent fast food chains, eat white breads or pastas, and I avoid products with long, confusing ingredient lists.
But what if that’s not enough?
We know that companies purposefully confuse or trick us into buying unhealthy products disguised as being healthy. I was shocked to learn how many ‘healthy’ food items I’ve bought that turned out to be the furthest thing from nutritious.
Let’s start with the most important meal of the day, breakfast.
Unhealthy ‘Healthy’ Breakfast Options
1. Cereal
By now we should all know that eating cereal with marshmallows or chocolate mixed in is a bad idea. And we certainly shouldn’t be feeding these to our kids.
But what about the brands that aim for a healthy take on cereal?
According to an article on CNN.com, you have to check the ingredient list for whole grains that will be ingested as healthy fiber for your body. “Fiber is in general good, but all fibers are not created equal”, says Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Intact fibers that come from whole grains or bran carry health benefits, but many cereals add in isolated fibers, which are removed from grains and made into powders”.
These powders don’t do anything for you health wise, so make sure the ingredients on the cereals you choose are whole grains and low in sugar.
Did you get that? Make sure they are low in sugar.
In all honesty there aren’t many breakfast cereals that are low in sugar, which is why they are listed here as a breakfast food that’s best avoided.
2. Yogurt
The appeal of the grab-and-go yogurt is unquestionable. Yogurt comes in so many different flavors and you can eat it on the train or at your desk.
But as I shared with you before, yogurt is full of hidden sugar.
A 6 oz. container of Yoplait Reduced Sugar yogurt clocks in at 18 g of sugar. You know what else contains 18 g of sugar? A miniature Snickers bar.
Activia, the healthy gut promoting brand, dishes out as much as 15 g of sugar in a smaller 4 oz. container. Seems like all that sugar might have the opposite effect of being gut healthy, wouldn’t you think?
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