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

Too much fruit though isn’t actually that good for you due to the sugar content. If you calculate how much fruit (and therefore sugar) is in a smoothie it’s far more than you’d normally eat if eating fruit alone. A lot are also pasteurised, etc.

What does it do to your pans? Mine are okay 🤔 I use it when I need just a tiny bit of oil so I know how many calories it is.

Goods which people think are healthy but really arnt:

Rice. 0 Nutritional value.
Brown rice even worse.
whole meal Pasta
fruit yo-yo’s and similar
cereal bars.
special K cereal and similar ‘health cereals’
wholemeal bread.
Apple Juice and other fruit juices.
most youghurts
marketed fat free / low fat stuff
processed sugar free things that still taste sweet.

Years ago, Cadbury did a "diet" chocolate bar. Essentially it was just a normal dairy milk type bar that was packaged in a weight that made it under 100kcal. The calories/fat per 100g were the same as regular bars but you were being charged the same money for a smaller bar!

Agree with these.

Low fat anything
'Healthy' cereals
Vegetable/sunflower oil
Cereal bars
Cereal...
Fruit juices
Fruit (it should form no more than 2 of your 5 a day for this reason)

Tbh, it makes me cringe when someone evidences that they eat healthily by saying they eat a banana every day. Taste nice; not healthy.

You can not argue that eating a banana every day is not healthy 😂

Maybe in the same way that brown rice is apparently less good for you than white rice! This thread is full of misinformation.

@Sirbobblysock123 I don't think eating a banana is bad. Maybe eating 15, not so much. Finding the balance is key. It'll be a long day in hell if I completely give up all the sugar 😂 finding the balance is key

I might get flamed here but I (vaguely) know someone who only eats fruit. And so does their child. Apparently she used to have an eating disorder but now is healthy on a diet that is all fruit. I am not convinced that is super healthy.

So she still has an eating disorder then 😟 and her poor child...

Educate me.

What's wrong with brown rice and whole meal pasta?

Vegan frankenfood. Things like Quorn sausages, chickpea bites, soy products shaped like meat products etc. Super processed, full of salt and additives.

However, no such thing as healthy food Vs unhealthy food. Balance is key. We all know this but bashing other people's food choices is just another way for us to make ourselves feel better about our own choices, right?

Yes to low fat yogurts! When I had gestational
diabetes they were on my suggested list of foods to eat, but I could find hardly any that didn’t have so much sugar in I couldn’t eat them because of the GD!

I agree with cereal bars and breakfast biscuits.

Granola

I got stung by the 'dried' banana chips before. Dried in a deep fat fryer, the calories per 100g were eyewatering.

Sunflower oil (and all seed oils tbh). Originally created to clean farm machinery. Used in foods coz it's cheap. It's in everything.

There’s some fairly warped ideas on this thread. I think many people become confused with healthy and high calorie.

Just because a food is high in calories does not mean it’s unhealthy.

Your lifestyle and diet as a whole is also key

I’m waiting for the brown rice is unhealthy explanation …..

You can if you look at the sugar content. And the effect of sugar on insulin levels/spikes. And the relationship between insulin spikes on the resulting hormonal imbalance. And the impact of hormonal imbalance and weight gain. And the impact of weight gain on obesity.

Amd the likelihood that someone who eats a banana every day because its 'good for you' does other 'healthy' things like eating low fat food and cooking with 'healthy' oils...

There's a reason why the obesity crisis has only hit once people started eating 'healthy' food... and why people post on MN listing their 'healthy' diets and asking why they can't lose weight...

Low fat and natural sugar are usually the worst.
I'm diabetic and I have dark chocolate rather than the diabetes kind as the other stuff gives you the runs😂.

I find the lower fat yogurts have so much more sugar than the normal ones.
When I was diagnosed and I checked like for like with the lower fat and full fat version.
Often the lower fat had more salt and sugar.
It was eye opening.

Why do you all say muesli is unhealthy?

mine is mainly oats, nuts, seeds, some dried fruit…. It’s high calorie yes but not everyone is calorie restricting!

also… bananas and fruit are not unhealthy 🤔

I don't use it so no idea what it does to your pans! But it doesn't contain just oil. You'd be better off using a teaspoon of real oil and then wiping the excess out with a paper towel if you really don't want much oil.

also… bananas and fruit are not unhealthy

The sugar content of fruit is very high.

Sugar is the culprit in weight gain/health not fat. There are micronutrients we need in fruit but they can be obtained elsewhere.

@BorderlineHappy yes if something is fat free the fat is removed and replaced with sugar to give it flavour. Sugar is far more harmful to our teeth snd bodies than fat. It's eye opening like you say

Absolutely.

Ah I posted and disappeared!

You made the same mistake I did as a teenager - I thought they were dried banana but they were actually fried. Plus with the size portion I was eating I worked out I ended up having more fat, calories and sugar than walkers and a kitkat.