'Healthy' foods that arent

As a chef, I refuse to eat "fake" or diet food. Things that are labelled low this and lite that are generally fluffed out with chemicals and who knows what to make them taste acceptable - that's not to say that they even taste good! One real chocolate chip cookie leaves a better aftertaste and feeling than 5 diet cookies any day!
I'm not one of those extremist "5 ingredients or less" people, but I try to make sure that at least 90% of what I'm using is real - no margarine, no lite/low/reduced/etc, nothing with added this or that, only olive oil or butter, etc. I'd rather use 1T of butter than 5T of margarine!
I hadn't had any kind of Helper (Hamburger, Tuna, etc) in over a year, and then one day it was on sale for $0.50/box, so I bought it, cuz my man loves it. I ate my share and the next day it was, well, let's just say I'll never do that again! So much sodium, preservatives, etc etc etc.

The Healthiest Food is REAL Food.

thanks for this post !! I'm from France & love baking. and I am always surprised with all the pre-mix stuff here in the US.... Like baking pre-mix. Ok, cakes are not great for diet but it's so easy to do a simple cake with real ingredients like chocolate & butter & egg & sugar & that's it !!!

OMG those Atkins bar things! soo many calories!!

Another trick they use is bogus serving sizes e.g. "per 1/2 sandwich". Or variable serving sizes - one pack screams it's only x calories per serving so you think it's lower than the rest. But it just uses a smaller serving size than competitors.

That's why I like labels that quote "per 100 g".

My kids hate my oil and vinegar dressing. I tried to find a dressing they'd like. Even in the natural food section they all contained soybean oil. I did end up buying one just for them. And organic croutons to make a salad for them.

After reading labels I've found a lot of things I thought were healthy (quaker harvest crunch) isn't. I plan on making my own granola.

It's all in the choices you make. If you go to subway and get some salt laden ham sandwich, slathered in sauces, cheese or mayo, then yeah not too healthy.

Some protein bars, yes. I personally avoid one like South Beach or Special K. Lot's of sugar. Not to say the Atkins that I sometimes eat are uber healthy, but they (my opinion) at least have better levels of protein or fiber.

I agree, store bought trail mix. NO WAY. I make my own.

I agree about the salads indeed. Restaurants have a way of making them sound so healthy but if you look them up, holy cow! Usually lots of sugar or salt.

Really, you just have to watch what you eat and how much. It would be like buying a low fat sugar free ice cream treat (say a sandwich bar or Popsicle) and saying "wow, how healthy is this" but then eating 5 of them. Not healthy after all.

I sometimes might not always make the best choices and I am still learning about ingredients (good, bad, better, worst, what to avoid, etc) so sometimes the choice I make that might appear healthy, might not be and other times it might be. Still learning, like I said.

*edit, I tend to go to the low fat or fat free but I think I will go back to regular. Just keep tabs on the portions. Most low fat or fat free just doesn't taste the same and I too noticed the amount of salt in such foods. Nuts!

Everything can be healthy in moderation. A huge plate of nothing but bacon and lard isn't going to be healthy, but one slice of bacon along with a balanced meal certainly can be.

Ummm....bacon is not healthy no matter what you pair it with. Certainly eating a well balanced healthy meal is better for you but then adding a piece of bacon does not make the bacon 'healthy' because the meal is. That being said, I agree with everything in moderation but bacon is one I eat VERY rarely. I would rather use those calories for something else!

Someone also posed something about smoothies. Some may be high in calories but they are nutrient packed so even if they are 500 calories, who cares if those calories are coming from fruit, protein and ingredients that are good for you!

Granola was a surprise for me as well. This is where I use 'healthy in moderation'. Since granola ( unlike bacon) has some ingredients that are good for you I choose to eat it 'here and there' with my Greek yogurt!

The protein bar and shake racket I think is disgraceful. My friend practically lives on bars and shakes and she's been trying for years to shove them down my throat. She drinks a shake for breakfast, might eat a salad for lunch and a shake or some bar for dinner, and a bar for snack. While I'm not against shakes for a quick meal that you have to get in, I do not want to exist purely on shakes and bars, I like food and the taste of it. I used to keep larabars in my desk at work, in case I wasn't able to eat breakfast, and I do have a low sugar protein powder at home for the same reason. But to live entire on shakes and bars, yuck! and a lot of them are so loaded with sugar.

Fiber One bars are the scariest looking ingredients and they make one...ummm gaseous.

Fiber One bars are the scariest looking ingredients and they make one...ummm gaseous.

Well, in all fairness, I think that they're supposed to make you that way.

Some protein bars. Some aren't much better than candy; when the first three ingredients are different forms of sugar kind of makes me think it would just be better to have a hard boiled egg for protein.

oh goodness, this ^
i'm always taken aback by people who boast about their protein bars... only to look through their nutrition labels and find myself shocked by all that sugar and fat! (Some of those silly things don't even have very much protein in them, either!!)
i don't understand the obsession with peanut butter "flavor" in those bars, too..
why not just have the good ol' PB (made with just nuts and a dash of salt) or a handful of almonds?

However, i do think eating a protein bar, for a sweet fix, is much better than reaching for a regular candy bar.. At least they provide a little "something-something"

The healthiness or lack thereof in food is a myth perpetuated by people confused on what sort of details are important when it comes to food.

All foods contain macro and micronutriets. Eat a wide variety of foods and micronutrients are irrelevant, unless you are pregnant.

How filling a particular food's macronutrients are is irrelevant when you can control portion size and have control of your eating patterns; when you can do that it is impossible to set some food on pedestals relative to others. If you've met your micronutrient and protein goals for the day and have 500 calories of space, whether you fill it with chocolate, cookies, potatoes, beef, turkey, oranges or carrots is irrelevant if hunger is not going to cause psychological issues with you later on.

Overly fat people see high calorie density foods as unhealthy. Shouldn't overly skinny people see low calorie density foods like veggies as unhealthy?

And away from the fattening power of food or its largely irrelevant micronutrient profile, everything else is basically a form of orthorexia, irrationally believing in the healthfulness of purity.

And science agrees with me.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/hormonal-responses-to-a-fast-food-meal-compared-with-nutritionally-comparable-meals-of-different-composition-research-review.html

Yes.

I think one of my favourite irrational health beliefs is the belief that food prepared at home is inherently "healthier" than food that's prepared for you ..... even if it's the same food. It's as if the more inconvenient and work-intensive the food is, the healthier it is.