You’re eating better foods for your health…or are you? Food advertising and labeling is so tricky these days, it’s sometimes hard to realize the difference between the real thing and a gimmick. Here are ten common food items that you may think are good for you, and replacements for them that actually are.
Vitamin Waters
Drink this water and it’s just like drinking a vitamin, right? Why actually eat nutrients in fruits and vegetables when you could just drink them in this delicious beverage?
Sure they have been loaded with vitamins and minerals (albeit synthetic, or man-made, which do not act the same in our bodies as the nutrients coming from whole foods) but they have also been loaded with food coloring, preservatives and chemicals, and either sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Believe me, any tiny benefit you might receive from the vitamins are completely outweighed by the health risks you take when you ingest this chemical cocktail.
Real Healthy Alternative: Instead, make your own vitamin water by filling a pitcher of filtered water with fresh fruits, cucumber slices, and herbs. Refrigerate overnight to let the water infuse. Strain out the fruit and enjoy the water.
Energy, Protein, Fiber Bars
It’s so tempting to buy any sort of packaged bar when you are hungry and in a hurry. Maybe you grab a protein bar because you think you need more protein, or an organic “energy” bar as a snack, or a fiber bar – they all sound super healthy, right?
The truth is that you might as well just grab a candy bar, with all of the sugars, chemicals, and preservatives that are added. Again, the benefit of a little extra protein, whole grain, or fiber fails to exceed the cost of the calories, sugar, and cancer-causing chemicals on your health.
Real Healthy Alternative: A piece of fruit, carrot, nuts, or celery sticks are just as easy and portable to grab as a bar for a snack. In a pinch, choose a packaged bar made with just a few ingredients that you recognize as real food. Larabars are a great choice.
Protein Powder
We know everyone (including us) is telling you that you need plenty of protein each day to be fit and healthy, and to lose fat. A little protein powder mixed in with a smoothie can be a convenient way to get in some extra protein.
But the majority of powders on the market are filled with artificial sweeteners, flavors, and fillers. Unless you’re trying to win a body-building or figure competition, getting enough protein in at each meal really doesn’t have to be that difficult.
Real Healthy Alternative: Plain Greek Yogurt is a great food that is fermented, contains healthy bacteria, and lots of protein. Try adding this to your smoothies instead, or mix it with some nut butter and fruit for a delicious, high-protein meal.
Whole Wheat Products
Real whole grains and whole wheat are perfectly healthy, but many, if not most, of the whole wheat products that you see packaged in stores are not. One look at the ingredients of a bag of “100% whole wheat bread” and you will find a chemical storm that will make your head spin, along with added sugars like high fructose corn syrup.
Real bread has a very short shelf life, and this just doesn’t work for the food company’s bottom line, so they add all sorts of toxic ingredients so the bread can sit on the store shelves longer.
Real Healthy Alternative: If you have time, try making your own bread at home using real grains. Otherwise, read the ingredients carefully and look for products with just a few real food, recognizable ingredients, or buy from a local bakery. Or, use lettuce wraps like butter leaf or collard leaves instead.
Frozen Meals
“Healthy Choice”, “Lean Cuisine”; the names would certainly imply that you are making a healthy decision when you purchase one of these pre-packaged frozen meals. But calorie and portion control DOES NOT always mean healthy! Take a look at the ingredients on the back, and you will find high amounts of sodium and preservatives.
Real Healthy Alternative: When you make nutritious, home-cooked meals, make extra and freeze or refrigerate it for quick, re-heatable meals on the go without all the extra stuff.
Cereal
I don’t think any of us are naive enough to think that something like Fruit Loops or Cookie Crisp is healthy, but many boxed cereals do claim to be healthy or to help you lose weight.
The box says “first ingredient is whole grains!” or claims that if you eat a bowl of their cereal every day you’ll lose an inch from your waist. But look at the ingredients list, and again you’ll find synthetic vitamins added to give the illusion of nutrition, as well as loads of sugar, chemicals, and additives to increase shelf-life and taste.
Real Healthy Alternative: Old-fashioned rolled oats made into oatmeal, topped with real fruit is a great way to start your morning. Or, make your own cold cereal by combining dry rolled oats and nut butter, and add fruit and milk.
Yogurt and Frozen Yogurt
Plain yogurt itself is a healthy food, with live bacteria that is beneficial to your digestive system. But most yogurts you find on the shelves have added sugars and yes, preservatives for flavor. The low-calorie versions have only replaced fat and sugar with unhealthy artificial sweeteners.
Frozen yogurt instead of ice cream may also seem like a good alternative, but most also have tons of sugar to mask the flavor of having removed most of the fat, and healthy bacterias have usually all been destroyed.
Real Healthy Alternative: Buy plain yogurt (greek yogurt is the best choice) with no other ingredients added, and add your own fruit, raw organic honey, nut butter, nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, etc. You can even make your own frozen yogurt by combining fruit, honey, and greek yogurt in a food processor and freezing it.
Deli Meats
A turkey sandwich or lean ham wrap seems like a healthy choice for a meal, right? But most deli meats use very low-quality (mechanically separated, yum!) pieces of meat that would be inedible without all the sodium, sugar and preservatives added. They are also loaded with known cancer-causing agents like caramel coloring and nitrates.
Real Healthy Alternative: Grill your own meats and slice them up, keeping them in the fridge for your sandwiches and wraps.
Tofu/Vegetarian Products
When you think of the word vegetarian, healthy comes to mind, right? After all, vegetarian food implies vegetables. But many of the meat alternatives that food companies have produced to create a convenience for vegetarians are far from healthy.
Many tofu products are highly processed, much like the deli meats listed above, as are many of the veggie burgers, veggie hot dogs, and cheeses. Read the label and you will find the same processed chemicals as main-stream food products.
Real Healthy Alternative: The fermented soy-bean tempeh is a great meat alternative that, in my opinion, tastes better than tofu anyways. Other plant sources of protein that are healthy include edamame, black beans, miso, lentils, spirulina, quinoa and hemp.
Smoothies
Ever skipped the ice cream or milkshake and gone with a fruit smoothie thinking you were making the healthier choice? If you purchased your smoothie from a restaurant or the refrigerated section at the supermarket, you probably just chose as much if not more sugar than the ice cream.
Commercial smoothies may contain fruits and vegetables as well as other healthy additions, but at the cost of added sugars, syrups, or artificial sweeteners. Buyer beware.
Real Healthy Alternative: Make your own smoothie at home in a blender! Here’s how.
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Tofu is not *highly* processed; it’s made much in the same way that cheese is made. In fact you can easily make your own tofu right in your own kitchen with no fancy equipment or ingredients.
It’s true that the stuff (soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed soy protein, etc…) found in many veggie burgers, fake meats and protein powders should be avoided like the plague. There are also those who believe that all unfermented soy should be avoided, including edamame (whole soybeans) and tofu.
While there may be reasons to avoid soy (true that fermented soy… tempeh, miso, tamari… is the best choice) if you suggest that edamame are healthy, then tofu is not far behind.
Tofu is made from soy milk, produced by blending whole soybeans with water and straining the solids. The soy milk is boiled and then a coagulator is added; usually nigari (a concentrated solution of various salts remaining after the crystallization of salt from seawater), but lemon juice or apple cider vinegar can also be used. The curdled soy milk is transferred to a mold, lined with cheese cloth, where it is pressed to the desired firmness.
It is not a “whole” food, but it’s certainly not HIGHLY processed.
Soy products are certainly a controversial topic. The problem with soy milk and other products like tofu that are made from it is phytic acid, which can inhibit nutrients from being absorbed. I would say in this case that reading the ingredients label on your tofu closely and eating it in moderation is a safe bet for vegetarians. Thank you for this input.
Agreed. Phytates are too a somewhat controversial topic as there are studies claiming both detrimental and beneficial effects.
Going back to soy, however, phytic acid does occur in the soybean itself, therefore edamame (whole soybeans) also contain phytic acid.
I initially thought this was to what you may have been referring; then I saw your inclusion of edamame as a healthy option, so it was somewhat confusing.
If the suggestion is to avoid/limit phytates, which are also found in
seeds, bran nuts and all other legumes, then edamame should be limited as well.
As a side note, sprouting and fermenting reduce phytic acid. Sprouting also activates phytase, which neutralizes phytic acid and helps to digest, so choosing sprouted organic tofu would be a better option.
Thanks for the thoughtful article.
Though I’m still on the fence about fermented/unfermented soy products (but let’s get real, tempeh tastes sooo much better than tofu), this article overall is wonderfully inclusive of the many types of “health” foods people are buying. It’s a sad but true fact that commercialized health foods–the vitamin waters, energy bars, frozen meals and everything else you mentioned–are created with the intention of getting people hooked, not helping them achieve greater health. And what hooks tastebuds the quickest? Buckets of sugar, salt and fat (and, yeah, chemicals).
If anything, your article is really a call to action to READ LABELS before purchasing pre-made foods. If the general public had a better understanding of the crazy, chemical-related words listed on the back of food labels, I have a good feeling there’d be a lot more homemade meals, snacks and smoothies in the world, and a much lower demand for vitamin waters and crappy energy bars.
Hopefully we’re getting to a point of more and more consumers becoming aware and at least making educated choices. Thanks Claire!
YES!!! I’ve recently started reading labels and it is TERRIFYING what they put in food. Try give up sugar! I dare you! It’s in EVERYTHING! But fortunately I like to cook so I do most of my eating at home from scratch 🙂
This article is dangerously vague and hyperbolic in its language. I get the point and, truth be told, agree on nine out of ten arguments, but this is just so holier than thou and fire-and-brimstone that if I weren’t already decently informed on the issue, I’d be turned off and label the writer as a tin-foil-hat crazy foodie.
Thanks for the feedback Rusty.
Most soy in the US is also GMO, if you can find organic, it may not be as bad as indicated. Good luck.