4 Common Food Mistakes

Foods that re not healthy

There are some foods that you might think are extremely healthy, but upon a closer look, it becomes clear that these foods may not be such a great healthy choice after all.

4 Foods That Are Not So Healthy

1. Bread Products

There are lots of breads which may look or seem like a healthy alternative to white bread, but this is misleading. For instance, bread which states that it is wheat, rye, or multi-grain, may not be considered a healthy food after all, if it’s made mostly with enriched white flour.

When in doubt, read the labels on all the bread products you want to purchase to make sure they’re truly healthy foods. Look for products that are labeled as whole grain or whole wheat and read the labels and check if they contain whole grains or whole grain flour. If the majority of the product is really made from whole wheat, then that should be the first ingredient listed.

Keep in mind that just because you’re eating whole grain breads that doesn’t mean you should forget about eating whole grain foods like oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, red river cereal or buckwheat. Make sure these healthy foods are part of your diet.

2. Muffins

Commercially made muffins are not a healthy choice even though they may seem like healthy foods. Even muffins made with bran or ones that contain ingredients like walnuts, carrots or banana can be loaded with fat from oil, shortening, or hydrogenated vegetable oils.

These “healthy” muffins can also be very high in calories and contain processed white flour.

If you want to eat muffins, there are many healthy recipes you can try which incorporate healthy ingredients and this may be a much better alternative. If you choose this route, try to make muffins that are of normal size and do not eat too many of these nice treats as they are not a substitute for healthier foods.

3. Granola Products

Purchasing commercially made granola is usually a mistake because if you read the labels, the truth comes out. Most of these store-bought brands contain high amounts of sugar, concentrated, fruit juice, and various types of hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The actual grain products are further down the ingredient list and, quite often, the granola you have just purchased turns out to be a high-calorie unhealthy snack—definitely not something you should consider a healthy food!

The best way to enjoy granola is to make it yourself at home.

4. Gluten-Free Foods

This is one of the biggest gimmicks going around now in the food industry ever since gluten has been shunned by a number of nutritional gurus. The simple fact is that not only does gluten not cause the diseases it is purported to cause but very few people are actually gluten intolerant.

Quiet typically, foods labelled as being gluten-free contain non-grain products anyway so of course, they would be gluten-free! Food manufacturers just use the “gluten-free” label as a marketing tool!

Even bread products that are labelled gluten-free can also contain a great deal of sugar, refined flour, fat, and calories so some of them are not really a healthy choice.

If you really want to eat healthy foods, then you need to always read labels very carefully before you buy anything you’re not sure about!


Source:
Samotin, P., “10 ‘Healthy’ Foods that Are Actually Really Bad for You,”Yahoo! web site;http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/healthy-living/10-healthy-foods-actually-really-bad-223700754.html,last accessed Dec. 2, 2013.