Supposed 'healthy' foods that are loaded with sugar/salt?

jaybird90

I am always surprised by the amount of foods on supermarket shelves marketed as 'healthy' but contain masses of sugar and salt!? I'm not quite sure how they even get away with calling themselves 'light' or 'healthy'!

Any foods in particular that you have been put off by properly studying the nutritional information?

For me it is definitely certain cereal, pasta sauces and soups. I used to eat the soups and pasta sauces all the time when I was 'dieting'.. definitely not any more!

Just to add, I am currently researching for my dissertation on this topic so any opinions you have I may reference to, if this is an issue please just say and I will not include your comment! I am very interested in what you all think though :-)

minikhan95

bump.

taso42

Sugar and salt are not unhealthy as part of a balanced diet.

Bumdrahp

How about those slim fast shakes that are loaded with sugar? I don't even understand how anyone loses weight ( AND..keeps it off )with those.

christy_frank

Stay away from chemically engineered foods. None of them are 'healthy'. Everything 'Sugar Free' and 'Low Fat' has WAY more chemicals and sodium then the regular.
Want healthy food? Stick with foods that do not have an ingredient list. If you must (which we all do) then choose the food with the LEAST amount of ingredients with the most natural ingredients that you can pronounce easily.

jennaworksout

I found it was anything low fat ....all those prepackaged low fat foods have to get their taste somewheres without any fat ...guess where..sugar , low fat or fat free does not mean its healthy ...

sbjmorgan

Salad dressings. You'd be better off making your own vinaigrettes or even creamy from scratch if that's your thing. Also, premade oatmeal packets, and "healthy" cereals with high sugar contents.

lachesissss

Special K anything generally falls into this category. Or at least the empty calories kind. Anything low fat will have the flavor lost from removing the fat replaced by flavor added from sugar or salt usually.

cwolfman13

I've long considered "health foods" to be a scam.

Priincess_Natalie

Processed packaged foods in general. If you stick to foods that don't have nutritional labels you don't have to worry about what's in it. It's hard to do but it takes the guess work out of what is healthy and what's not.

Midnight_Sunshine

then choose the food with the LEAST amount of ingredients with the most natural ingredients that you can pronounce easily.

This is how I buy shampoo and conditioner

Debbe2

Cold cuts are loaded with sodium, so is cheese. Spaghetti sauce, ketchup, cereals are loaded with sugar. But, as Taso says its not a problem if your diet is well balanced and you have no medical issues causing you to want to track sugar and sodium. Personally I prefer the taste of low sodium cold cuts and soups and will choose them every time over any other.

jstout365

I had a shock by Frank's Red Hot sauce. A recipe called for 1/2 a cup of the stuff which ended up being over 4000mg of sodium. A little is fine, but that is a lot of salt split between 4 servings.

nahiluoh

Here are a few foods that used to seem "healthy" (to me) but that I now avoid because they contain too much sugar, extra carbs, or salt. I know there are healthier versions of all these but this is just a general observation of regular store brands:

Cereal
Yogurt
Juice
Smoothies
Bagels

frando

I was reading an old Glamour article saying that things that market themselves as 'low fat' are generally compensating for the lack of fat with higher sugar/salt levels and they generally leave you filling unsatisfied- so you have more!

It's all about balancing and reading, in my opinion.

Topher1978

My healthfoods usually come with skin or shells... And are often high in sugsr or fat...

panicintheattic

The thing that is really the problem, I think, is that many of us live in a culture that consistently and widely equates the amount of calories in something to it's nutritional value. A good majority of things that are labeled as "low-calorie" and "diet" are filled with crap and can hardly be called food at all- many of the ingredients are either processed sugar or corn byproducts, chemicals, or both. There is a huge list of things the FDA doesn't require companies to list on their labels. And almost all the tastes and smells in processed food is manufactured in a factory in New Jersey. Nothing is natural anymore and we are constantly sacrificing real nutrients in order to save on calories. At least, a lot of people. Obviously not everyone, and I know not many that are probably using this site.

What is the exact topic of your dissertation? It sounds interesting.

Edit: But, I guess, to answer your question, I think depending on what your concern specifically is, there is a huge amount of foods that are off-putting, or at least irksome in one way or another. What's in them, where they come from, the impact they cause on the earth, communities, etc. just to get them.

Cslauson86

Nothing in a can, frozen or prepackaged. You don't mention other food additives, like faux man made citric acid,benzoic acid (non-organic flour) in USA/Canada/UK {Google it}, msg, artificial whey, preservatives, etc. Basically only fresh foods and/or organic, in my opinion.

AnninStPaul

granola
fruit bottom yogurt
anything with a cartoon character

wolfchild59

It’s because there isn’t really one standard definition of “healthy” or “healthier”. To one person it could mean just eating lower calorie foods. To another it could mean only eating raw foods. To yet another person it could mean only eating organic foods. And for still another person it could mean that it’s lower fat. For another person, it could mean eating only whole foods.

My mom falls under the “organic = healthy” section. She would make ice cream with all organic whole milk, berries, raw sugars, etc. and then tell me that it was fine to have a big ole bowl of it when I came over to her house because it was healthy. Not minding that the size serving that she scoops out probably had 300-400 calories, which doesn’t usually fit in my calorie/macro plans for the day.

A co-worker is staunchly in the “lower calorie = healthy” section. Doesn’t matter how high in sugar, sodium, or fat it is. Or how processed it is filled with chemicals and ingredients you can barely pronounce, as long as it’s lower calorie than a similar item, it’s healthier.

Personally, I’m a mish-mash. I try to eat foods that are lower in calories than other options and do my best to always prepare my own meals when possible. If not possible, I try to select minimally processed and chemically foods. I’d rather eat something that has a bit more fat in it rather than chemicals to replace to that fat. But I also enjoy stuff like Mini Reese’s Peanut Cups and some Cheez-It Snack Mix every now and again.

When I first started MFP I started eating “healthier” than I was before, when I subsisted mostly on fast food, whatever junk food was on sale for the cheapest amount at the store, and soda. When I started I would have a low-cal cereal bar for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice Steamer for lunch, 100-cal packaged treats for snacks, and then often times a can of soup for dinner. Or maybe a bunch of imitation crab meat mixed with mayo and siracha and cucumber for dinner. Heck, sometimes I just had another microwave meal.

And to me, that was infinitely healthier than I had been eating. Now I feel like what I’m eating is healthier than what I was doing when I started MFP. And, in both instances, I’m correct – to myself. But to a clean eater or a raw vegan, I’m still not as healthy as they are.

So the TL;DR version is that healthy is in the eye of the beholder.

MRPHotter

The thing that amazes me is how quickly you really can "un-train" yourself to expect those strong sweet/salty flavors. After giving up sugar and added salt, I'm amazed at how much flavor is in things I never noticed before. Fruits and veggies are more satisfying because I can actually taste their subtlety now. I wish manufactures would realize that they could save money and make healthier food by weaning us off sugar and salt en masse by gradually lowering how much they use in their products.