Six Healthy Sounding Foods that Really Aren't

A great way to sabotage your health and any weight loss efforts is to fall for the fraudulent claims of “healthy” snack foods and drinks. Many will try to fool you into thinking they’re good for you simply because they taste like fruit, or contain a small portion of something healthy, even though other ingredients might counteract any health benefits completely – excess sugar or artificial sweeteners, being just a couple of the main culprits.

Below are Dr. Mercola's comments on Energy Bars and Yogurt. Keep in Mind that Dr.Mercola is a renegade when it comes to nutrition. He goes up against pharmacy and all of the food manufacturers for what he believes is right according to research and common sense. Here's his two cents followed by a list of 6 not so healthy snack foods.

The Low-Down on Energy Bars
You already know that candy bars are not good for you. Loaded with sugar and typically devoid of any healthy proteins or fat, they give your body a quick lift without providing any real nourishment. The lift soon gives way to a letdown and you feel hungrier than before. Many contain trans fat and a slew of artificial ingredients.

Enter the Energy Bar. They look and taste like candy bars, have the shelf life of candy bars, contain protein and fiber, and are loaded with vitamins and minerals. They are convenient and they taste good. And, thanks to an incredible amount of advertising hype, they can be consumed without the guilt of the candy bar.

Or… can they?

The original energy bars, such as the Power Bar and the Source Bar, were based on so-called “natural” sweeteners--high fructose corn syrup and juice concentrates--along with dried fruits and nuts, a combination that resulted in higher percentages of carbohydrates than your typical chocolate candy bar.

But the real boost for the bar business came with the advent of cheap that could be added to make a "high-protein" bar.

Unfortunately, most of today’s energy bars contain few desirable, health-promoting ingredients and quite a bit of junk. For example:
Soy Protein comes with an initial burden of phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors and isoflavones. More toxins are formed during high-temperature chemical processing, including nitrates, lysinalanine and MSG. Soy protein must therefore be processed at very high temperatures to reduce levels of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors -- a process that over-denatures many of the proteins in soy, especially lysine, making them unavailable to your body.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (or concentrated fruit juices, which are high in fructose), has been shown to be more hazardous to your health and waistline than sugar.
Synthetic Vitamins are thrown in so the bars can be called "complete.” However, synthetic vitamins are useless at best and hazardous at worst, as your body cannot process synthetic vitamins the way it processes natural vitamins.

With the exception of most of the fats, most of the ingredients used in energy bars are actually waste products from other industries:

Soy protein isolate and most whey protein are the waste products of the soy oil and cheese industries respectively. Apple and lemon fiber, used to create a crunchy effect, are made from the pulp left over from squeezing the fruits for their juice.

Most of the sweeteners are made by highly industrialized processes and can cause significant rises in blood sugar and insulin levels. In short, most of the ingredients in energy bars are anything but natural. Of course, there are exceptions, but you really have to analyze the ingredients.

Naturally, you can’t compete with whole, unprocessed high-quality food, but if you occasionally need a healthy alternative, make sure you do your homework before you throw those commercial energy bars into your bag.

What’s Really in Your Yoghurt?
Yoghurt is another very common food that is misleadingly advertised as healthy.
Why?
Because nearly all commercially available yoghurt is pasteurized. Pasteurized cow's milk is the leading allergic food in the United States
It has been well documented as a cause in diarrhea, cramps, bloating, gas, gastrointestinal bleeding, iron-deficiency anemia, skin rashes, atherosclerosis, and acne
It is the primary cause of recurrent ear infections in children
It has also been linked to insulin dependent diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, infertility, and leukemia. Pasteurizing milk destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamins, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, kills beneficial bacteria and promotes pathogens.

And, the pasteurization aside, store-bought yoghurt can also contain high amounts of added sugar; high-sugar fruit jams; or worse, artificial sweeteners.

End Dr. Mercola's comments.

Six Healthy-Sounding Foods That Really Aren't
Many foods have been heavily promoted as being healthy. But not all of them are. Here are some foods which are far less “good for you” than most people believe.

Energy bars
Energy bars usually contain protein and fiber, but they may also be loaded with calories. That’s fine if you occasionally make one a meal, but most people eat them as snacks.

Granola
Granola sounds healthy. But it’s often high in fat, sugar and calories. Don’t be fooled by a seemingly low calorie count; the portion sizes on the label are usually tiny.

Salad Toppings
The pecans and Gorgonzola cheese on Panera Bread’s Fuji Apple Chicken Salad propel it into double-cheeseburger territory. Before ordering a salad, check its nutrition information.

Smoothies
Added sugars can make some smoothies the equivalent of drinking fruit pie filling. The smallest serving of Jamba Juice’s Orange Dream Machine has 340 calories and an astonishing 69 grams of sugars.

Sushi Rolls
Sushi rolls vary, and the fried bits and mayonnaise in some can really jack up the calories.

Yogurts
The “fruit” in yogurt is really jam (that is to say, mostly sugar).
Sources:
Shine from Yahoo May 22, 2008

End

When possible make fresh foods at home. It takes a little more work, but in the long run you are always better off.

Your friend in fitness,

Kelli Calabrese

www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.ArgyleBootCamp.com