"Healthy" Foods That Aren't Healthy?
[Introduction] Before you toss foods labeled "low-fat," "high-fiber," "multi-grain," or "natural" into your shopping cart, it's best to take a close look at the ingredient list. You'll find that many foods are simply products of imaginative marketing, hiding behind the "healthy" label.
Low-Fat Peanut Butter
The fats in nuts are actually among the healthiest in the food world. For example, peanut oil contains a large amount of linoleic acid, which helps the body break down cholesterol into bile acids to be excreted, preventing coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis. Peanut oil also contains a highly bioactive natural polyphenol called resveratrol, an effective anti-aging agent and a natural chemopreventive agent for tumor diseases. It can also reduce platelet aggregation, preventing and treating atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, reducing the fat in peanut butter is completely unnecessary and, in fact, removes some of its inherent benefits. Moreover, according to Bernie Willett, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, "Low-fat peanut butter has about the same number of calories as regular peanut butter, but it has more sugar."
Substitute: Buy regular peanut butter. Eating an ounce or two of nuts daily is very beneficial for reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. A recent Harvard study even found that people who eat nuts daily have a lower average weight than those who don't.
Energy Bars or Nutrition Bars
This sounds like the ideal meal replacement: just chew two bars, and you don't need to eat a meal, while maintaining a balanced diet, staying energetic, and even losing weight. In reality, these foods are calorie bombs. They are just sugar bars with some added vitamins, protein, and fiber. If you look at their ingredient labels, you'll find that the first or second ingredient (meaning the one with the highest proportion) is always "sugar."
Substitute: If you want to lose weight, eat vegetables and fruits. If you want to build muscle, eat yogurt. If you're going on an outdoor hike and need an energy-boosting, non-perishable snack, nuts and dried fruits are the best choices.
Multi-Grain Foods
Multi-seed breads, fiber crackers, multi-grain breakfast cereals, etc., are the most confusing foods. Whenever we see words like "multi-grain" or "fiber," we think they must be as healthy as "whole grain foods." This is not the case. A "variety" of grains does not mean they are not "refined." Only people who regularly eat "whole grains" (like whole wheat products) can reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. If you see "enriched flour" on the packaging, then sorry, it is still a "refined flour."
Substitute: Foods whose ingredient list only contains "whole wheat" or "whole wheat flour," such as quick-cooking oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and rye bread. Bread with some bran sprinkled on it, or cereal drinks with added fiber flakes or multi-grain powder? They are nothing more than refined foods disguised in a "healthy" outer layer.
Sports Drinks
Walter Willett, an epidemiologist and nutritionist at the Harvard School of Public Health, advises: Whether vitamin or mineral drinks are beneficial to your health depends on whether you are deficient in them. For many people, drinking these "healthy" beverages can lead to an imbalance or excessive intake of vitamins and minerals. According to a recent "Iowa Women's Health Study," several common vitamin and mineral supplements are even associated with an increased risk of mortality.
Substitute: Plain drinking water. Boiled or purified tap water is the healthiest beverage. If you want to increase your intake of vitamins and minerals, your best choices are fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grain foods.
Non-Fried Potato Chips
"Non-fried," "baked," "low-fat"—aren't these convincing terms a genius invention when combined with snacks? But if you compare their ingredient lists, you'll find that refined flour, starch, etc. are still the main ingredients. The fat content hasn't been reduced much, and the list of additives is long. In other words, even though the preparation method has changed, a chip is a chip—a calorie-dense, nutrient-poor, and additive-laden food.
Substitute: Freeze-dried fruit slices are a great new invention. They are generally dried through a vacuum freeze-drying process, without frying or baking, and without added sugar. Whole grain crisps and tortilla chips are better than non-fried potato chips. The former has a low fat content and is rich in fiber. The latter, although also fried, at least preserves most of the nutrients of the whole corn kernel, rather than refined potato flour.
Eating More Berries Can Help Prevent Cognitive Decline
A U.S. study published in the journal Neurology on April 4th stated that regular intake of flavonoids is greatly beneficial to human health. Research shows that these compounds help prevent a series of diseases, including brain diseases (such as Parkinson's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease), certain cancers, and heart disease.
In the past, scientists also found flavonoids in tea and red wine. This antioxidant can help neutralize free...