5 Not-So-Healthy Health Foods
This is the year of getting healthy, getting fit and getting your dream body. There are a lot of factors that influence your success - namely, exercise and diet.When it comes to the latter, everyone and their uncle has an opinion about what you should and should not eat. Some of these opinions are correct and others are not, so it is important that you take dietary advice from a reliable source. In fact, there are several so-called "healthy" foods that are actually not good for you. These five are part of the gang:
Breakfast Cereal
It is really important to have a large, wholesome breakfast; however, breakfast cereal may not always be the best option for you. Most breakfast cereals are loaded with carbohydrates and sugar (the bad kind) which, if you want to lose weight, are the two most important things to avoid. It is absolutely critical that you read the label of the products that you buy because even the cereals that claim to be "low fat" are probably not.
Packaged Salad Dressings
Vegetables are great. Salads are great. But salad dressings - especially the ones that you will find on the shelves of your local superstore - are not. Again, processed salad dressing is loaded with artificial flavors, sugar and other bad ingredients that definitely make it taste really good, but do a whole lot of bad for your body. We recommend that you make your own salad dressing at home with herbs and virgin olive oil and/or vinegar.
Fruit Juice
Like salad dressing, packaged fruit juice is not as good for you as you think it might be. Fruits are great, often loaded with antioxidants that do wonders for your body and skin, but more often than not, packaged fruit "juice" is just water loaded with artificial flavors, preservatives and sugar. Your best bet is to make your fruit juice at home. Use honey instead of sugar if you want to sweeten things up!
Whole Wheat Bread
The idea that whole wheat bread is "healthy" is one of the most popular misconceptions floating around. Yes, it is a tad bit better than white bread, but it really isn't good for you, as you might imagine it to be. Whole wheat bread isn't made from whole grains as you might be lead to believe through claims on the pack and advertising. These grains have been ground into a very fine flour for easy digestion and so, they will raise your blood sugar level just as fast as white bread will. In fact, whole wheat bread is known to have a glycemic index that is equal to that of white bread. Tsk, tsk!
Granola
Again, while munching on granola is definitely healthier than eating a packet of chips, it isn't really helping your body in losing weight. In fact, granola is full of sugar, fat and carbohydrates - eek! As if that wasn't enough, when you consume granola as a cereal, you will invariably top it up with milk, which isn't helping the cause either. Avoid getting swayed by the dubious claims on granola packaging, and switch to oatmeal instead. Natural, whole grain oatmeal with warm water makes for a wholesome meal. You can top it up with your favorite fruits and berries for some sweetness!