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

bump.

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Read the ingredients label before buying anything. Eat nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label, if you can't pronounce it, have no idea what it is...stay clear. Although the should be the rule of thumb it is not however practical for quick fix but identifying why you need the quick fix is. We all go astray from time to time but it has been part of the re-educating yourself program in weight loss achievement.

Fruit juice
Granola
Cereal bars
Salads in restaurants
Cereal in general
Flavoured waters

If anyone says "fruit" I will cut a *****.