Things disguised as healthy...

[marshmallowmamma]

A light hearted post but what are some things that are portrayed as healthy but aren't really ? My list is as follows...

Flavoured water
Most yoghurts
Yoghurt coated raisins
Most cereals
Fruit juices

Obviously we need to live a little but give us some that yiu think are purely just marketed to reel us in

Cereal bars that are basically like eating a packet of biscuits

Eating a cereal bar is the same as eating a pack of biscuits?

@Lazerbeen Ok so maybe a slight exaggeration.... a handful of biscuits

Why all seed oils??

Agree with vegetables oils but why seeds oils??

Especial linseed oils is super food, full of omega3, and high in fibre. but need to be consumed cold.

heated up seed oil became trans fat.

But courgetti is just spiralled courgette and cauliflower rice is blitzed cauliflower. It’s not disguised as healthy it is healthy. I eat both it’s a great way to add more veg to your plate. I do eat pasta and rice but not massive amounts. Sometimes I fancy cauliflower not rice - it’s lovely roasted in oven. Sometimes I’ll have mix of spaghetti and courgette. I also eat boodles (butternut squash noodles) and butternut chips. It’s just veg in more interesting shapes than boiled.

I think some people consider anything French or Italian (white bread, pasta, pastry) to be somehow nutritionally superior because it’s ‘classier’.

Pretty much any branded food

The lighter touch the branding, the more wholesome the food is likely to be.

An apple in the garden may be grown without fertiliser or insecticides

An apple in a supermarket may have a ticket showing the producer. It will have been sprayed with insecticide and possible covered in wax to make it shiny and preserve its shelf life. It will have been ripened in gas rather than while on the tree.

An apple flavoured chewy sweet won't have much goodness left in it.

The longer the shelf life of a product, the more likely it is to have lost a lot of its nutrition in processing.

I don’t know anyone who thinks that.
I know far more people who demonise bread, pasta and pastries etc as ‘empty carbs’.

Most 'free from' foods. I'm gluten free and most alternatives are packed with oil and sugar and additives. The clue is that most gf alternatives never seem to go bad!

When I was a child (I’m old, 49!), supermarkets were a quarter of the size they are these days. When I go shopping now, I look at the layout of these huge supermarkets and see that at least half the store is actually full of crap, unhealthy shit and most of it aimed at young people and dieters.

There are entire aisles dedicated to crisps and unhealthy snacks. When I was a child crisps did not come in multipacks which encourage bingeing, they came in single packets.

Nothing added to milk. Maybe you're thinking of margarine? Margarine is bleached and has yellow colouring added because it's natural colour is a very unappetising grey.

To a degree things like trail mix and nuts. They can come in quite big bags but should only really be eating a small handful.

They can come in quite big bags but should only really be eating a small handful
Why?

There are 131 calories in 5 walnuts. That's probably considered a healthy portion.

Eating a 400g bag is not.

Hope this helps.

Nuts are healthy. Or as far I’m willing to call a single food ‘healthy’. They are a good source of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. They aren’t too expensive, require no further processing from the consumer(though they are also delicious roasted) and are satiating for many people. I don’t think they’re disguised as anything either, they’re just nuts. Calorically dense or high fat doesn’t mean unhealthy.

Well, we are told that fermented foods are good for the gut…😂

On a similar note, how about organic tobacco? 😜

heyhi

They can come in quite big bags but should only really be eating a small handful

Why?

There are 131 calories in 5 walnuts. That's probably considered a healthy portion

Eating a 400g bag is not.
Hope this helps
Not really.

Thr amount of calories in something is just for information. It is what you do with that information is important.
Sometimes a lot of calories are necessary or are needed.

If I am doing an endurance cycle ride ( 100 mile plus) eating a large portion of trail mix would be good for me, for example. When I’m on the mountains for the day, same.
To say eating a large portion of trail mix out right is not health is just a broad sweeping statement.

The good thing about trail mix is that its name is appropriate. It's great for giving you energy if you're hiking all day. If you're physically active, calories aren't the enemy. And if calories are what you need then walnuts are great, because they will also give you a lot of nutrients. If you don't need so many calories, I also find they're good because when I'm more sedentary, I don't eat so many of them. I can happily nosh through an enormous bag of crisps but if I eat a few walnuts I'm sated much more quickly.

My OH has type 2 diabetes and his nutritionist would disagree with the first three items on your list. Rice does have nutritional value as part of a healthy diet - not so much if it’s all you eat. Not sure what you mean by brown rice as someone upthread is of the opinion that this is just coloured white rice. From a diabetic point of view whole grain rice and wholewheat pasta, along with wholemeal bread are much better options than the white, highly refined alternatives. Whatever carbs your body doesn’t use for energy, turn to sugar and can cause blood sugar spikes. Wholemeal alternatives are lower GI and release sugar more slowly, so if eaten as part of a healthy diet, can help reduce blood sugar spikes. Agree with you about the rest though - especially fruit juice. For diabetics, eating the fruit is better because the sugar isn’t as concentrated as in juices. Just for info - one diabetic tip is to pre cook things like whole grain rice, pasta and potatoes and let them go cold, then reheat when you’re ready to eat. Apparently something in the process between cooking and cooling reduces the carbohydrate content which is beneficial for blood sugar.

When I saw the NHS nutritionist for gestational (pregnancy) diabetes she said brown and white rice / pasta spiked your blood sugar equally, but with wholemeal there is some fibre and in theory you should need to eat less as it's more filling. I had previously thought brown anything was lower GI. My favorite part of seeing one was healthy portion sizes and honestly I naturally have about 3 portions of rice.

My parents eat everything, chocolate, cakes, wine but everything is tiny. They are both slim, but a cake lasts about 2 weeks in their house. They are both very controlling so maybe it's in their nature or just habit. I come back starving.

I think that’s the difference isn’t it, because ‘brown’ doesn’t necessarily mean whole meal or whole grain and it’s really only the ‘wholefood’ options that are lower GI. Soluble fibre is also important for blood sugar and it’s present in whole foods, rather than their processed white counterparts. When my OH was first diagnosed I found it really difficult to understand what we were supposed to do because there are no hard and fast ‘diets’ to follow. The advice was to eat healthily from each food group, take care with carbs and watch portion sizes - and I agree with you, seeing the nutritionist really helped with that. I found a book online called ‘Can I Eat That?’. It was a really helpful guide through the minefield of what and what not to do after a type 2 diagnosis - written from experience. The book was named after the question the author’s husband used to ask after his diagnosis ! I also got a portion control plate from Amazon, which helps to control carbs and protein.

Just a question for those saying fruit is unhealthy, as is rice, muesli, smoothies, yoghurt, etc... What on Earth do you eat?!

All of that stuff. But none of them would be healthy if it was all you ate! (I didn't say all were unhealthy but I did participate in discussions like that).

It's all relative really isn't it? I am a firm believer that foods cannot be healthy/unhealthy, but diets can be more healthy or less healthy.

I follow a vegan diet (mostly)
Rice is essential with other grains as a complete protein.

it’s all relative

I don't eat any of that stuff. Well, apart from full fat natural Greek yoghurt.

I eat fish/seafood, meat (chicken thighs, pork belly, steak, 20% fat beef mince etc), cheese, nuts, avocados, butter, olive oil, lard, double cream, eggs, green leafy veg, cauliflower, swede, peppers, mushroom, salad, small amounts of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Mainly.

I only eat 2 meals a day but around 1500 calories and use a wide range of recipes for variety. But generally keep it simple.