Unhealthy Foods Disguised as healthy foods
I will be the first to say that I am guilty of falling prey to the unhealthy food that is disguised healthy foods. I have always considered myself a healthy eater so of course I was on board to add these tasty treats to my normal diet. However, upon taking a closer look at these delectable treats I have established that maybe I haven't been doing myself as big of a favor as I had initially thought. Perhaps these foods were actually not aiding in me get closer to achieve my body goals. Maybe they were even putting me further behind.
Biggest diet offenders in disguise.
1) Granola.
This one comes as a blow to my diet ego. I am a self proclaimed granola lover. Hands down favorite "healthy" food, or so I thought. Here's the "skinny" on it. On average 1 cup has approximately 453 calories, 12 g of fat, and 80 g of carbs, 28 g of sugar. Yikes! My morning cereal or snack was packing near half of my daily calories, and 28 g of sugar that is equal to 7 tsp of sugar! That's no favor to myself!
Compare that to the "unhealthy" Cinnamon Toast Crunch which 1 cup has 173 calories, 3.7 g of fat, 31 g of carbs, and 13 g of sugar.
While I don't recommend starting your day with a nice bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I don't recommend patting yourself on the back for eating a bowl of granola either.
Instead I recommend for a delicious breakfast: A nice hearty bowl of oatmeal (stone ground or old fashioned made on the stove top, topped with your choice of delicious fruit, 1 tsp of brown sugar and voila awesome breakfast and on the path to a trimmer waistline!
2) Wraps.
When cutting carbs, doesn't it seem like a no brainer to swap your bread consumption with a wrap? To ramp it up and be even more healthy you opt for spinach, tomato, or even whole wheat wraps. [pause to pat self on the back]. However, good idea? Unfortunately not. A large 12 inch spinach wrap packs in 290 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 43grams of carbs. Thats equivalent to about 3 slices of bread. After coming to this finding, I found myself feeling less virtuous about my "smart" food choice.
Instead! Have Ezekiel bread! Each slice only has 80 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, and 14 grams of fat. Not too shabby. If you'd like to be an over achiever, have your sandwich open faced and only eat 1 slice of bread instead of two. By doing this you save yourself a few calories and if you compare this to the wrap you spare your self 210 calories! ( 210 calories is equivalent to a 35 minute exercise session on the elliptical BTW!) :o
3) Bran Muffins or otherwise whole grain muffin
Who doesn't love a sweet treat. A delicious addition to your coffee, Mmmmm, or a nice quick breakfast. Bran muffins seem to solve the unhealthy pastry problem, right? Sadly wrong. I will confess serious sweet tooth. I think that those near me will back me up on this. I love sweets, but after delving further into the nutritional facts on my pastry substitute, I have determined maybe I should look into alternate ways of satisfying my sweet tooth.
A Starbucks 2.5 inch Bran Muffin has a whopping 400 calories, 19 grams of fat, and and 58 grams of carbs! Holy skinny mocha-latte that is a lot of calories! This pastry substitute is no way to maintain a slim waist line.
Instead, consider making your own breakfast treat. Google a great recipe for a protein muffin. There are so many great recipes that you can put together. A breakfast option I really want to try in this egg white french toast muffins.
Directions: Cut up Ezekiel bread into cubes, place several into muffin pans, add egg whites to cubes, mix in cinnamon and your favorite sugar free sweetener and there you have a healthy alternative to this. Each treat comes out to only about 50 calories! Now there is a treat I can get on board with.
4) Fruit Juice. At about 110 calories for an 8 ounce cup, a piece of fruit has about half that, plus plenty of fiber. When possible always opt for fruit.
5) Veggie Chips. This is one that I am so sad about, I thought for sure chips made out of vegetables had to be good for me. Right? Wrong! These chips are basically the same as eating regular chips with all the added oil they have and processing.
My suggestion? Find ways to make vegetables snacks. Maybe adding lemon, salt and pepper to cucumber. Or Drizzling some olive oil, salt, and pepper on some cherry tomatoes and serve with a serving of cottage cheese or low fat mozzarella cheese. YUM!
6) Gluten free foods. I will say, there are some people who are 100% truly gluten intolerant have Celiac Disease, but by and large the general population can eat gluten despite what the latest diet trends may be saying. Gluten is a protein that is added to make breads bind and have a really nice texture, so when a product is made gluten free, something else has to be added to make up for the change. This is normally achieved by adding sugar and extra starches to the products. This makes the product higher in calories a lot of times, and definitely not as healthy as we would believe.
So there you have it. A list of unhealthy foods hiding behind health food labels. Of course as any healthy diet allows you can still eat some of these products on occasion if you love them, but like with everything, moderation is key.
Hope these tips help you on your quest to be continue being Fit and Pretty.
xoxo,
-Carmen
