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

Yoghurt is only unhealthy if you choose the sweetened ones. Rice cakes contain too much arsenic to be healthy. Raisins are very sweet, and you tend to eat more raisins than you would grapes. For example, 20 grapes is quite a lot, but 20 raisins feels like nothing, but the sugar content in 1 grape is the same as 1 raisin.

Rice cakes contain too much arsenic to be healthy.

wtf! My teenage ds eats loads of rice cakes!

I didn't know that about the arsenic in rice cakes, I will do a bit of research. We get the mini bags anyway and not everyday, we have plain greek yoghurt decanted into smaller tubs so that's probably fine and I'd never thought of the comparison between 1 raisin and 1 grape so thanks for highlighting tthat. I try to keep an eye on my children's nutrition as we are vegetarian but I'm always open to improving what we eat.

Why is it better than going to school empty?
Because I found out that DS was going to the shop round the corner on his way to school and buying chocolate and crisps because he was hungry. He insisted that he couldnt eat porridge or a bit fruit or anything else I would suggest.
If he us hungry enough for pringles before school he can also have so.ething with some nutritional value in!
However it is not an issue now, he is an adult and lives in his own place!

Yes, it came to light some years ago about the arsenic. We have a child (now adult) who is allergic to dairy and who used to drink rice milk (before all the other alternatives were avaialble), but she had to stop when we realised how unsafe it was. Here's one article on it: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/04/inorganic-arsenic-rice-cakes-babies-queens-university-belfast. This is about the ones sold for babies/toddlers but the grown-up ones are no better.

My autistic son used to pretty much live on rice cakes before I found out about the arsenic content. I switched him over to corn cakes which you could try with your ds. They also taste slightly less cardboardy and a bit more like popcorn.

My DD is 11 and completely refuses to eat any fruit. It's a nightmare. I've tried everything. She will drink smoothies though so I give them to her...I'm aware the sugar content isn't great

Smoothies are delicious and nutritious, even if they do have high sugar content. @cookiemonster2468 You do realise these two things are mutually exclusive- nutritious and high sugar content.

I linked to an Innocent Smoothie earlier. There are 17gms sugar in a 150ml serving. That's the same as 3 teaspoons of white sugar. Your body doesn't know if it's sugar in a cup of tea or a smoothie.

You are missing the point.

If someone eats a whole fruit- a banana, a peach, a few raspberries,- they are getting the whole fruit. they would also not eat as many/much in one serving as in a bottle of liquidised smoothie.

So the sugar hit is far greater in a smoothie. This raises insulin.

Why not just have a glass of water and a peach? Or a banana? Or a handful of strawberries?

@JillFromHolt Dried fruit is lethal for teeth. Ask any dentist! Raisins etc have so much sugar that sticks to teeth. You may as well give your child wine gums or a boiled sweet to suck.

I think smoothies are being demonized a bit here.
I agree shop bought ones can be high in sugar but home made ones made with full fat Greek yogurt, water, spinach, avocado, flax seeds and a few strawberries and a bit of vanilla essence isnt all bad surely?

Just to say, I don’t think meat substitutes are marketed as being healthier than meat - they are aimed at people who want to go vegan / reduce meat, which is usually for environmental or animal welfare reasons.

When you say margarine do you mean that white stuff like Stork? I haven't seen that for decades.

Or do you mean those vegetable fat butter flavoured spreads? I totally eat those, they are a reasonable enough approximation of butter and they don't tear bread or require keeping at room temperature. I have actual butter too, for anything where it matters, but a fake-butter-spread is fine in a sandwich.

I don't think smoothies are bad, but it's not great for you to drink calories and they aren't good for toddlers.

I used to have a pal at work I would chat with all day about this or that. He was fairly active but complained that he was starting to get a little spare tire around the middle. He said he just couldn't figure it out, he was eating healthy and to be fair, at least when he was at work, it seemed like it was true- smoothie in the morning, salad with healthy protein for lunch, avoided the biscuits and crisps that were always hanging around.

We talked it through and he described his smoothie recipe- which included an entire cup of peanut butter from the big tub he bought at costco along with fruit, protein powder, etc. He was sucking down about 2000 kcal every morning before most people had managed a slice of toast and a cup of coffee 😂

Fruit and peanuts aren't inherently unhealthy, but 2000 kcal worth of them, blended, before 9am every day definitely IS unhealthy for most people. It's all about context and balance, isn't it?

Having said that, the idea that smoothies are just as good as eating the fruit they're made of is nonsense. When you eat whole fruit, your body doesn't get access to every molecule of sugar in the fruit - it's contained within tough cells so some of it passes through your body. When you make a smoothie basically pre-digesting the fruit and ensuring that your body gets access to every calorie available and minimising the mechanical action of the healthy fibre that makes fruit "healthier" than just having the equivalent amount of sugar in some other way. If you only have fruit in smoothies (as a convenient meal replacement, rather than an occasional treat that you enjoy), you might as well just make your life easier and have a few teaspoons of sugar and a vitamin C tablet instead.

That doesn’t sound particularly unhealthy - but to me it doesn’t sound like it tastes very nice either! But if you like it, that’s great.

I'd be interested to see what foods people consider definitively healthy, as there is always a way to explain away most foods as unhealthy. It is so hard to understand healthy eating these days.

What this tread is very clear in demonstrating is that people focus on one part of a food, oh that's high in sugar, that's high in fat etc.
What you need to consider is the full nutritional value of a food and how it fits into your overall intake. Fruit is indeed high in natural sugars, it also has fibre, minerals and vitamins. Mars bars do not.

Food is fuel, it is inanimate therefore not good or bad. Pick the fuel your body needs.

Isn't it naturally occurring sugar though? Therefore much better for your body than chocolate or cake or whatever?

Sugar is sugar. All sugar is naturally occurring. The benefit of fruit is that it also contains some fibre and vitamins, and there's more effort involved in eating it so you probably eat less sugar in a sitting. Smoothies give you far more fruit in a serving than you would usually eat in one go, and therefore more sugar.

This article is useful I think about the arsenic in rice thing. It says that 100g rice a day for an adult or two large rice cakes for a 5 year old is ‘low concern’.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2F1MDzyW55pg97Tdpp7gqLN/should-i-be-concerned-about-arsenic-in-my-rice

All food (unless it is spoiled or adulterated with industrial chemicals or something) is healthy, in balance, as part of a varied diet that provides the macro and micronutrients you need for your body to operate, without too much excess. It's easier said than done in a world of convenience and fast food and stress and eating disorders and body dysmorphia but genuinely eating a balanced diet that includes some broccoli but also some biscuits is healthy. Eating NOTHING but biscuits (or broccoli for that matter) is unhealthy.

The amount of people that think rice crispies are the healthy version of Coco pops is surprising.
Raisins are like haribo for your teeth. Ketchup is mainly sugar. Sweetened yoghurts are awful. Natural yoghurt is a nice flavour but once children start on the sugared ones they don't want them.

If you want food explained, or at least the current advice on it, read 'Spoonfed' by Dr. Tim Spector. It's been a real eye opener for me.

I agree. I feel like this thread has pretty much mentioned every food there is! So, oh wise ones, what do you actually live on? Lettuce leaves and tap water?

Definitely get your advice from a nutritionist, rather than some of the people on here!

Bananas are rich in fibre and potassium. They are great before a workout. Other fruits are also full of nutrients and vitamins. Yes I’d have more portions of vegetables than fruit but fruit is definitely not unhealthy.

I'd be interested to see what foods people consider definitively healthy, as there is always a way to explain away most foods as unhealthy. It is so hard to understand healthy eating these days.

I wouldn't say any food is definitively healthy, as anything eaten to excess will cause problems. I would say that some things have far greater health benefits than others and that most things eaten in moderation, as part of a balanced diet, are okay.

I would also say to ignore much of what is posted on this thread and to verify any of the rest of it, if you want to take it seriously. And that includes what I've just said. 😀