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

Where I live the water is foul as far as I'm concerned. We can only drink it if it has been filtered and even with a filter fitted it isn't great so I guess I'm left with lettuce.

A few thick people who misinterpret things might think a veggie burger is a healthy choice when a beefburger is an unhealthy choice, but failing to understand that 1. Neither is a healthfood, 2, neither are inherently unhealthy and 3, the vast vast majority of people buying veggie burgers over meat burgers, are doing it because they dont want to buy meat for all sorts of reasons but still want a burger sometimes.

Food advertising in the UK is pretty strongly regulated to not make tenuous health claims.
What individuals infer from it is another story

But this is, in fact, surely a far more sensible way to eat chocolate. You still get the enjoyment of a dairy milk, rather than some 'low fat coco-substitute' bar, but in a smaller serving. That's what I'd do if I was trying to lose weight.

Although I'd probably just buy a real chocolate bar and have half one day and half another.

Imo the labelling of 'good' and 'bad' foods is one of the main reasons for the number of people whose eating is totally disordered.

Exactly. Its much easier for lots of people to control their portion size of chocolate when the bars come in smaller sizes, rather than the self control dilemma of having to break off 2 or 3 squares from a 200g bar and then sit on your hands

Cereal bars
many salads
lots of vegan stuff

I didn't object to it being normal chocolate - it was more the point that they were marketing it as "diet" product when in fact it was a smaller bar of the same thing without a smaller price!

I'd much rather eat a smaller amount of "normal" chocolate than a low sugar or low fat one and, if its easier for portion control potentially buy a smaller bar, but my peeve was being charged the same for half a bar!

many salads

Yes, lots of pre-packaged food. If I do a salad at home it will have several of my five a day in it (often all of them!). When out, you pay a load of money for a salad that is mostly leaves.

Surely the PP’s point was that it was half the amount of chocolate for the same price as a full bar?
I like the small chocolate bars as it gives me my chocolate ‘fix’ without erring a full bar. Annoying if it costs the same as a full bar of the same stuff though!

I don't think that healthy eating is just 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 sugar. Moderation and balance are important.

I weighed out the sugar once that was equivalent to that in a nephew's bottle of milkshake. Horrifying!

@BrightOrangeOrange wholemeal bread isn't inherently unhealthy (nor is anything else in the list you're replying to), but it's not necessarily healthier than white bread, and may be slightly LESS healthy if you need to have less sugar or calories for whatever reason. It often has slightly more sugar or oil to keep it as soft as the equivalent white bread in the same range.

@viques I drink maybe 2 a week
I'm not really bothered about 50 cals in a week considering I don't drink energy drinks, fruit juice, sugar in hot drinks, or any other fizzy

My dentist used to have a display like that - drink bottles and sugar in a little plastic bag next to them. Certainly made you think. Calories in drinks is a big issue.

I should add I don't drink alcohol either! So a 25 cal fizzy water is my equivalent of a glass of wine a couple of times a week for when I want something more "grown up" than squash and more interesting than plain water (I drink litres of water especially exercising)

So many people going on about calories… you know we need calories to function, right? A particular food item being high calorie is irrelevant, what matters is how much you consume overall.
The nutritional information is readily available for most things, so no one should be getting ‘caught out’ or sucked in by the marketing.
Bread, rice, cereal etc are all perfectly decent things to eat. They’re not ‘unhealthy’, they’re just food.

Thank you for replying.

If the below is true though I'm going to stick with wholemeal:

Overall, wholemeal bread provides higher amounts of most micronutrients, as well as fibre compared to white bread.

a small tin of baked beans or a small tin of cat food is also worse value for money per 100g than a large can. Buying in bulk is cheaper for all sorts of things but if you really only want a small amount at a time, then people will pay for the fact that they dont have to waste as much if its opened and doesnt get eaten, or the willpower they need to restrain themself from just an extra chunk or five of a big bar. Its not limited to chocolate or unhealthy snacks

Most food is ok in moderation. But the spurious claims some foods make is the problem. Digestive biscuits low-fat option. yes, they are lower fat than a normal digestive, but to make them appealing to eat they replace the fat with extra sugars, etc. This means the calories are virtually identical (85 vs 77) But the lower fat branding sends a message that the lighter version is lower calorie/better for you. so people feel they can eat more of the 'healthy' version
There's nothing wrong with having a digestive with your tea, but eating 3 or 4 because they are 'healthier' ones is where the problem is.
Same with foods branded high protein. it's all marketing. They aren't inherently healthier or better.
tesco low fat yoghurt has more sugar and calories than an activia full fat version.

Quorn. Vile processed shit.

But that information is there on the packet. Surely if people are wanting to follow a particular ‘diet’ they check that info? In general, people who are concerned about their calorie intake aren’t going to eat 4 biscuits without checking the calorie content, just because a packet says ‘low fat’?
Or maybe it’s because I work in marketing that I don’t get sucked in by marketing!

Fry Light, any slimming world followers will have this pushed at every meeting but the state of your pans after using it, imagine what it’s doing to your insides!

Yeah, that’s not how it works.

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

Sugar is sugar. There isn’t such a thing as good sugar and bad sugar.

This. There are some folk who seem to think the ideal aim is to consume nothing at all. Which isn’t healthy, as you would be dead.

Not me. I’ve just accidentally pushed half a packet of Le Petit Bierce biscuits into my mouth whilst reading this thread. They were delicious.

*Buerre

Different sugars do releases differently into the body and how they are combined also matters so the sugar in a banana is less likely than the sugar in fruit gums to give you sugar rushes , and the fibre and minerals in the banana will provide some other benefits that the gums won't

Vegan food has no "fat" in it. It has plant oils. I'd rather eat animal fat.