Last May, as Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric's obesity documentary "Fed Up" was opening, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on the increasing presence of sugar in the American diet,especially as a food additive.
A year later, little has changed.
Amid skyrocketing rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, Americans are still loading up on sugar, often by consuming products masquerading as health foods.
Mashable recently asked three nutritionists to name the 10 biggest health food misconceptions. Not surprisingly, sugar was the main culprit in many of them.
Check out below for foods don't live up to their "healthy" reputations.
Granola
Ironically, the word can describe a health food enthusiast or someone who is environmentally aware. The reality is that granola is laden with sugar and often cooked in butter, fat or oil. What self-respecting crunchy Earth mother wants that?
Smoothies or Juice
While smoothies and juices have become all the rage, getting your veggies this way comes with a hidden enemy: sugar. Plus, juicing strips out the fruit or vegetable's fiber, which can cause a more rapid spike in blood sugar, Jennifer Calo, dietitian for Compass Nutrition, told Mashable. She suggests eating fruit and veggies with their skins on and eating them throughout the day. "My motto is 'Do not drink your calories'," she says.
Skinny Cow Ice Cream
The idea of this ice cream alternative was to offer a guilty pleasure without the guilt. And indeed, it has less fat and fewer calories, but the trade-off is more chemicals and artificial sweeteners. The latter has been found in some studies to actually increase the appetite for sugar.
Flavored Yogurt
Yogurt is good for you and has been for centuries. The problem is, today's yogurt makers add dollops of fruit preserves or other sugar-heavy flavorings. Some yogurts have nearly as much sugar as ice cream. If you want the health benefit of yogurt, buy the plain variety and add honey and/or fresh fruit.
Restaurant Chicken Dishes
Restaurants often cook poultry in oil or slathered with butter, salt and/or cream. For example, the Cheesecake Factory offers a diet-busting Crispy Chicken Costoletta that will stress your gastrointestinal system with 2,610 calories, 89 grams of saturated fat and 2,720 milligrams of sodium. The lesson? Cook your chicken at home.
Energy Bars
You might as well eat a candy bar. They're basically the same. "(Energy bars) often have a chocolate or yogurt coating (think Special K) and contain a ton of chemicals and artificial sweeteners," dietician Jennifer Calo told Mashable. "Fiber One granola bars for example contain about 20 ingredients, some including corn syrup, sugar, food dyes and palm oil." Fresh fruit and raw nuts are better choices for snacking.
Vitamin Water
Despite its healthy sounding name, it's really soda that's lightly carbonated. The "nutrient enhanced" content doesn't make up for the 31 grams (8 teaspoons) of sugar. Instead, stick to bubbly mineral water with a slice of lemon or lime.
Reduced-Fat Peanut Butter
What you're losing in fat, you're gaining in sugar, which is added to make up for the taste. Stick with the full-fat variety. ash.
Agave Syrup
Sugar is sugar, regardless of whether it's a natural sweetener like agave nectar or the white processed variety. Either will spike your blood sugar levels.
Multi-Grain Anything
It means only that more than one grain is present in the bread or pasta. If the flour base is white, most nutrients have been stripped away. For a healthier alternative, choose 100 percent whole wheat.
From: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Related:
Surprising Health Benefits of 13 Beloved Foods
10 Nutrition Rules You Never Knew You Needed
7 Tips for Cooking Healthy Without Buying a Thing
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