I'm sure many of you remember the diet fads of the late 90's. It was all about eliminating as much fat as possible, and I cringe when I think about how I survived on white pasta with a little Parmesan for many meals, and loaded up on fat-free Snackwell's cookies and gummy peaches for midday fuel. Hey, they were all fat-free so I felt good about my choices. Today, of course, the prevailing advice leans away from sugar and is kinder to fat. Personally, I feel that high-sugar snacks and white pasta alone aren't the smartest diet moves. But still, there are a few foods lurking on grocery store shelves that may still be fooling us with their reputation of purported health.
Katherine Tallmade, registered dietician and author, recently wrote a piece for The Washington Post on foods that trick us into thinking they're "healthy." Now, we all of course have a different idea and set of choices on what is "healthy" for us personally, so I'm curious what your perspective might be on each of these points.
Personally, while I think there's a lot of wiggle room with each of her points, she does raise awareness about reading food labels and paying close attention to what's actually in the packaged foods we buy. That's always a good thing. I can't say that I'll be giving up energy bars anytime soon, but here are Tallmadge's tips for being smarter and more-informed about your choices next time you're at the grocery store:
5 Foods That Aren't as Healthy as You Think
1. Reduced-Fat Peanut Butter: The oil is where most of the nutrients are, so if you opt for reduced-fat nut butters, you're almost always consuming the same amount of calories but missing out on most of the nutrition. If you want to really control the ingredients in your nut butters (not to mention the amount of salt and sugar you're getting), then make your own:
→ Homemade Peanut Butter at Averie Cooks (pictured above)
2. Enhanced Water : Katherine Tallmadge claims that these beverages are essentially "sugary drinks with a vitamin pill." Instead, she suggests going straight to the source: drink regular water.
3. Energy Bars: Energy bars often contain a great deal of sugar with some added protein or fiber. I often make my own at home (get our recipe here for homemade energy bars) and control exactly what goes in them, so I feel good about this decision, but Tallmadge raises a good point about becoming aware of the ingredients in these bars, and noticing how much sugar is in each one.
4. Multi-Grain Foods Multi-grain foods are another lesson in analyzing verbiage on your packages of crackers, pastas and breads. "Multi-grain" doesn't always mean "whole grain" and the latter is really what you want to shoot for if you're looking to minimize the refined flours and grains in your diet and boost it with whole grain fiber, protein and amino acids. Tallmadge suggests ensuring that the whole grain is the first ingredient listed in packaged foods (i.e. a box of flavored oatmeal would have "rolled oats" as the main ingredient; a loaf of rye bread would contain rye flour as the first ingredient).
5. Non-Fried Chips and Crackers : While avoiding fried foods is something we've all been told is a wise move, loading up on baked chips and crackers isn't always the best solution. Tallmadge notes that "most are made with refined grain or starch, which provide plenty of calories and few nutrients." Instead, she suggests searching for whole-grain crackers like Wasa of Finn Crisp for a nutritious, low-sodium option.
→ Read the Article: 5 So -Called Health Foods You Should Avoid by Katherine Tallmadge | The Washington Post
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(Image: Averie Cooks)
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With anything, but IMO, especially food, its buyer beware and its all the mroe reason to read labels and stay informed. Food manufacturers are in the business to sell their product, not necessarily make us healthier. If they can market it in the guise of it being a better, healthier product, then they'll slap as many labels as the law will allow them to.
Honestly, I didn't think any of those foods were healthy (and I'm no nutritional expert). I think the main take-home message from nutritionists is that we should eat a variety of unprocessed food in moderation. (Or, as Pollan says, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")
Another product I feel that gets a 'healthy' tag that it probably shouldn't is some yogurts. If it's full of sugar, artificial colours, artificial flavours, or comes in a tube- leave it at the store.
When everyone freaked out about trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils, most manufacturers switched to palm oil, which is acutally no healthier than the hydrogenated oils and requires burning down huge swaths of rainforest to plant oil palms. Indonesia has lost most of its lowland rainforest (habitat for tigers and rhinos and orangutangs) in the past decade to oil palm plantations. Even organic palm oil is produced this way.
Cindy, there was a bit about yogurt in that lengthy NY Times article last week - about how yoplait flavored yogurts have more sugar than a bowl of lucky charms but the company keeps their healthy image carefully guarded.
As for breads, if it doesn't say 100% whole wheat, we don't buy it. I know we're probably getting duped in some other way with bread, but oh well.
Thanks for linking to my peanut butter post. I love making peanut butter at home...it's so much more flavorful than anything you could ever buy!
This is a great list and discussion. I am glad you also mentioned granola/energy bars. That's another one I always make for that reason!
Flavored oatmeal? I go for the least processed options available these days. That in itself is huge step in the right direction, in my opinion. Anything a package has to say to me about how 'healthy' the food inside is just becomes irrelevant.
So apparently whole wheat breads and other foods made with whole grain flour (pulverized grain) are not as healthy as one would like to think. It's actually the "intact" whole grains that are good for you. This is according to Andrew Weil (as interviewed in episode 522 of The Splendid Table) I've also heard this from the Nutrition Diva podcast... Even so, I still eat bread, even white bread, more than I ought to. Just can't give that up, it's too good.
Personally I think that the more you can avoid anything processed from the grocery store, the better. I know it's easier said than done and that most people don't have the time (or energy) to bake their own bread or cook for hours. But if you do, you know exactly what you eat and there won't be any surprises.
Yeah, I feel like people who put any amount of actual thought into their food probably already realized that most of the marketing about "healthy," highly-processed foods is garbage. If you are trying to eat healthy and still eating a lot of processed food, you need to think long and hard about why you're doing that.
For those who don't want to add yet another "homemade" item to their lengthy list, there are plenty of 'natural' no sugar/salt peanut butter options available for purchase. My personal favorite is Crazy Richard's, although that does have a little salt that is the only ingredient other than peanuts. Read the labels though, some of these 'natural' nut butters have added sweeteners and oils.
Some supermarkets make and sell their own nut butters - some even give you the option of grinding the nuts yourself! The ingredients list is short: peanuts, sometimes salt, depending on the package.
It's true about peanut butter. I'm on weight watchers, and I have to measure it out carefully because it packs a lot of energy into a single tablespoon.
Reduced fat peanut butter, natural peanut butter, and normal peanut butter (creamy or smooth) all come out to exactly the same points value. I have no doubt that natural is the healthiest option. There's more to health than weight loss, after all.
One thing I have learned to be aware of: "reduced fat" often means "now with added high-fructose corn syrup!"
This is particularly true for dairy products.
I realize that there is debate about how evil HFCS is. It has the same glycemic index as honey, and honey is considered one of the healthiest sweeteners. However, I personally would rather that every item of food that I consume NOT be stuffed with it.
As a dietitian, I couldn't have said it better myself-Pollan's statement reflects my advice for most people.
what if it's natural no-stir peanut butter (no salt or sugar) - but I pour the oil off for other cooking and only stir the remaining part left into my cereal - is that bad?
There are plenty of natural yogurts out there though, and it's easy to make your own.
I would add gluten free breads to this list. Gluten is a protein that might kill or prevent vitamin absorption in some people but the simple starches used to make gluten free breads will contribute to weight gain and diabetes in everyone. If you must avoid wheat try oats, millet, amaranth or quinoa as alternatives instead of potato and rice flours. Treat those simple starches like cookies, eat only small portions. Complex carbs = energy...simple carbs = empty calories.
Reduced-fat peanut butter is a joke. They add sugar and hydrogenated fat. Plus, it tastes disgusting.
Laura Scudder's All Natural, FTW.
I think most of the readers of this site are probably aware of this. However, the vast majority of American's are not. I would like to second the gluten-free breads and the foods marketed as low-fat. I would also like to add those reduced calorie snacks, like the 100 cal ones. They're empty calories, and the ingredients are crap.
That's funny. Like other readers, I wasn't aware that any of those things were supposed to be healthy. I was afraid you were going to say something like "kale" or "broccoli" or "rice". Phew.
Ms Melly, the problem with most yogurt is the high sugar content. Yogurt has a healthy reputation, but they stuff it full of sugar and it winds up being as nutritious as a candy bar.
Well, the thing about energy bars is that they're formulated to give you, uh, energy - primarily immediately-available energy for endurance sports. When I am doing a 3 or 4 hour workout on my bike, I NEED that sugar in those bars. the problem is when people eat them as snacks without being active. All that is to say that they're not unhealthy so much as they're largely misused.
I can't imagine anyone here even remotely considering these 5 items as 'healthy'.
And water is not a food.
Yogurt has another problem - commercial yogurRd are made by pouring the hot milk and culture into the plastic tub and letting it incubate. Hot liquid + plastic = chemicals leaching into your food. Make your own - it's definitely healthier!