Losing weight has transformed from something achievable through sweat and perseverance into a game you can easily lose without some basic nutritional knowledge! So the real reason weight loss fails isn't a lack of effort, but how cunning food manufacturers can be, right?
1. Puffed Rice Cakes
Puffed rice cakes shot to fame as a diet food in the late 80s and 90s, during the low-fat diet craze. Coupled with buzzwords like "whole grain," "coarse grain," and "brown rice," they always give us dieters the feeling that they're healthy, low-fat, and great for weight loss. But are puffed rice cakes really a healthy diet food?
Let's just say, compared to potato chips and fried chicken, they're probably healthier. However, they're not suitable for when you're on a diet! Because the glycemic index of puffed rice cakes can be as high as 91 (what does that mean? Pure glucose has a glycemic index of 100!). In other words, puffed rice cakes are a carbohydrate with an extremely high glycemic index. When you eat them, your blood sugar shoots up like a roller coaster. In this situation, you're much more likely to store fat!
2. Low-Fat/Fat-Free Salad Dressing
Lately, I've seen more and more "healthy" salad shops popping up near office buildings, but that doesn't mean there will be more thin people. Because not everyone who eats salads will lose weight! As I mentioned in my previous public account post, many ladies already know that regular "Ken's" brand salad dressing is just a synonym for high calories, full of sugar and fat! So more and more people are choosing low-fat or even fat-free salad dressings!
But! Low-fat and fat-free salad dressings are rich in sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, emulsifiers, and other additives that make the taste better and the shelf life longer. I think I'll pass on that...
Sincerely, I recommend just pairing your salad with a vinaigrette! Use some olive oil and a little vinegar. The taste isn't actually as bad as you might think, and it will make you feel much more at ease!
3. Sugary (Sports) Drinks
If you only want to do one thing for your weight loss, stop drinking sugary (sports) drinks! This is a realization I've gained from chatting daily with nearly a hundred people trying to lose weight. There are always so many women around me who don't eat much, but their waistlines keep getting thicker. This is because they underestimate the power of sugary drinks!
Scientific research has shown that drinking sugary beverages daily not only leads to rising cholesterol but also increases your triglyceride levels. Besides causing weight gain, these two also increase your risk of heart disease. Most importantly, drinking sugary drinks disrupts your body's inflammatory balance, increasing your chances of developing various chronic diseases!