'Healthy' foods that arent

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.

Sauces for cooking! Even the simple ones like barbecue sauce or garlic sauce which I wanted to use for crockpot recipes are like 70-80 cals per tablespoon and 20-40% of daily sodium requirements! I want to eliminate the fat from cooking oils and extra ingredients like sauted onions, tomatoes etc., but this is probably worse.... I would be no longer "lightly" flavoring my chicken!

I was going to have a baked potato for lunch.....but HOLY CRICKET! That's a lot of calories in just the potato alone.
Rice.....another one with a lot of calories. I didn't know that until I got on here. My husband is Asian and we used to eat rice nearly everyday.....we have since taken it out of our diet except for maybe one or two times a week.

Crap, just ate at subway, I think it depends on what you put on the sandwich, I mean a meat ball sub is probably way worse than turkey ham with tons of veggies. My brother used to say "Don't even put oil on your sandwich, it's just like adding a layer of Crisco all over it! I also check out their nutritional info and the "Build Your Own Sandwich" option on their website...

I just thought i'd start a thread about foods that you thought were healthy - but arent and foods that are better than you first thought.

I dont really have any specific examples but Subway surprised me - if you look at the nutritional content within their menus it is not particually comforting to know that this 'health' food bar is feeding up fat, salt and high calorie subs passing them off as healthy.

(Note - It does depend what you have on your sub but generally theyre not as good as you first think).

Thanks for starting this thread..very enlightening!!!

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.

i make my own granola now... it's so freaking yummy. and i know there are a lot of people who think that making food at home is "labor intensive" but i find it just as simple to make it at home (if not simpler) than it is to get to the store to buy it (especially considering all factors).

start with Alton Brown's granola recipe, then alter it to fit your nutritional desires. I don't remember what his is off-hand, but now I add pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds to every batch. pumpkin seeds have more protein than a steak, so it's a good way to also cut some meat from the diet (and saves some cash, too) without sacrificing nutrition!

we make a simple salad dressing using hmoemade mayonnaise (blender, less than 5min) balsalmic vinegar and herbs. if the kids like thousand island (i did when i was a kid) you can make that easily with homemade mayo, ketchup (homemade ketchup is kind of a hassle and you don't use that much in the dressing) with chopped pickles. so simple.

Smoothies! They CAN be healthy but often aren't, and lots of people suck down a 500 calorie smoothie as a snack!

This is why I make my own Homemade tastes so much better!

There are very few things that are healthy. I know the low fat/fat free stuff cant be with all the chemicals in it. I even switched to using real butter over margarine...again cause of the ingredients.

I think all processed foods are bad..cause of what it takes to make it frozen..and whatnot..Do I eat them...oh yes I do...but that's because I try to eat healthy 80% of the time...

I have also cut out milk..we now do either coconut or almond milk which is so much better...I think people concentrate too much on calories..that if it fits..its all good..not really..its the macros you have to watch.

I know for one I had a salad at Einsteins..and it was healthy..the dressing..I dipped my fork...just to get a bit of flavor..and still decent in calories/fat/salt...

Best thing..read the macros..and the ingredients..

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.

This... even a home made salad with lashings of fatty / sugary dressing will make it calorific... Not necessarily unhealthy.... protein bars... just cos the're full of sugar doesn't make them bad unless you're not watching how they fit in to your daily calorie allowance... granola, great for fibre and vitamins... but it is calorific...hence why its good for trail mix... not too bulky yet calorie dense...

You need some sat fat so a bit of bacon/lard every now and then in appropriate quantities isn't bad.

Loads of plain salad would be bad as you wouldn't get a diverse amount of nutrients like fats and proteins.

You need to have the nicer things in moderation from time to time to keep you mentally happy!

Salads. Especially from restuarants/fast food places. They can have as much fat and calories as a cheeseburger. I've heard coworkers say they are eating "healthy" by eating salads fromt fast food places. Wrong. If you aren't dieting and enjoys salads, then by all means eat one, but don't fool yourself into thinking they are healthy.

The salad I get at Mcdonalds (like a once a month, if that) is only 190 calories. Thats with grilled chicken. Not too bad. Its the dressing that kills it.


Cottage cheese is good, relatively low in fat, and you get a great amount of protein.

Who said Starbucks frapps were healthy? Are you like that lady trying to sue Nutella because on their packaging it says its 'part of a healthy breakfast'?

Mine would probably be granola. It always surprises me.

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SUE NUTELLA?!?!?!?! Nutella RULES! But, yes, it's not necessarily a health food.

I just thought i'd start a thread about foods that you thought were healthy - but arent and foods that are better than you first thought.

I dont really have any specific examples but Subway surprised me - if you look at the nutritional content within their menus it is not particually comforting to know that this 'health' food bar is feeding up fat, salt and high calorie subs passing them off as healthy.

(Note - It does depend what you have on your sub but generally theyre not as good as you first think).

Yeasty bread from Subway that is not a natural food (goes through a lot of processing, bleaching or whatever to get to the state it's in, albeit smells and tastes good I don't find healthy). I would've never lost weight like Jared, I would however if I didn't eat the actual bread or only a small amount of it (like take the top off and only the bottom).

Soy/tofu/soy milk touted as a health food, soy protein, soy protein bars, etc. Yeah, hello, slows metabolism, stops thyroid hormone from absorbing iodine which then slows your thyroid and messes with your hormones, NO THANKS.

Low fat anything or fat free.... some have proplyene glycol in them, etc. I ate that for years because "fat" was bad. Good fats are good!

Grilled chicken at restaurants like McD's...yes they have nitrates, way too much processed sodium, MSG (this constricts your vessles causing migraines, you to be hungry, stomach issues, nervousness, you name it).

Cereal...there really isn't a cereal out there that IS healthy for you. Yummy and will fill you up for a minute, yes. Sugary, yes, even granola is way too high carbohydrate/high sugar for the amount you get to eat.

Trail mix, when you add chocolate pieces, non-raw (roasted nuts), etc. it turns out to be more fattening than healthy. Raw almonds= healthy.

Peanut Butter, most have sugar, processed salt, or hydrogenated oils.

Low-fat freezer meals, not real food, processed, microwaved, with little to no nutritional value left in them at all.

Turkey bacon; full of nitrates, some have msg, some are filled with GMO Soy, too much sodium, unnatural flavors, etc.

A lot of protein bars (soy protein messes with hormones and is genetically modified a lot of times), protein bars are very processed, unnatural, high in carbohydrates, not real or raw food, too much sugar...etc.

Popscicles, Juice pops, etc....let me think, juice, dyes, sugar, preservatives (gosh I make my own at home from 100% juice, pureed organic fruits, etc.)