When you’re new to the whole healthy living thing, you’re likely to grab at anything with the words HEALTHY on it. FAT-FREE is another phrase that separates you from your cash. NO ARTIFICIAL COLOURS. LOW CALORIE. That kind of thing.
You may think you’re bucking sinister mainstream psychological methods of sale by going healthy. The fact is that the health market is filled with these same methods. Products that appear healthy are often not. They can do just as much damage as products that aren’t advertised as health products. They advertise the “healthy” ingredients on the front of the packaging. But quite often they’ll only have trace amounts of these substances in the product. These items could still be full of additives, emulsifiers and other unhealthy, unethical ingredients.
The thing to remember about many of these products is that they’re supposed to be enticing to people who don’t know much about health foods. That usually involves making them sweet and addictive. People aren’t as clever as they like to think when it comes to these buzz phrases. LOW CALORIE and FAT-FREE sounds sexy to them. But things like natural and vegan seem to turn people right off. Fact: the best sources of energy are natural sources. Find out more at GoGnarly.com.
Cereal or granola bars are often advertised as being great for you. But the bars that taste good usually do so because they’re filled with sugar, fat and chocolate. Even those with fruit in them aren’t doing you much good. The fruit will be in a small amount, and will have been processed and freeze-dried beyond nutritional value. What’s more is that these cereal bars are usually pretty light and small. Many people end up having to eat more than one.
Even products like Nutri-Grain bars do you pretty much no good. Sure, it has an oaty outer layer and a fruity filling. But that outer layer is mostly processed flour, and the fruit filling is mostly high fructose corn syrup. That’s the man-made refined corn syrup that has been linked to diabetes, obesity and liver disease. Fitday.com has more information about Nutri-Grain, specifically.
Drinks like Gatorade and Vitamin Water are very popular with newcomers to health and exercise. If you’re working out a lot, then it makes sense to get something called a sports drink, right? And Vitamin Water, surely there’s no question there? It has vitamin in the name! HuffingtonPost.com has more information on the dark side of Coca-Cola’s “healthy” beverage.
Remember: don’t just read “sport” and “health” then make your purchase. It’s important to read the ingredients and understand what they do. A big deal is made about the restoration of electrolytes and sodium during exercise. It’s true that this is important. But Gatorade contains too much sugar (and too much sodium) to do the job right. It’s also loaded with artificial colouring. The same goes for Vitamin Water, which is jammed with over 30g of sugar per bottle.
You may have seen your favourite sports star drink and eat this kind of stuff during breaks. Here’s something to remember. Companies pay big sports stars to consume these things in the public eye. It’s just advertising. These stars are often paid in the millions to endorse this kind of stuff.
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If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that you shouldn’t believe everything you read on food labels. It may say it’s healthy but that doesn’t have to be true. I just had a talk with a food scientist today and he said the best thing we can do is eat a good balance of foods, drink lots of water, stay away from soda and don’t go overboard on extreme or fad diets. He said we can even eat fast food once in awhile, as long as just that - once in a while. Basically, we just need to use a little common sense.
Perfect! This is exactly what I’ve been telling my older sister, who all of a sudden became a “personal trainer”……there’s no way you get a certificate in 3 months and are an “expert”. When we switched to healthier eating, we actually started making a lot of our own protein bars, snack bars, etc., really no so hard…Pinterest is full of recipes! And though we don’t have a huge garden, we have enough of the common herbs, fruits and veggies that we use grown in our yard. Do our research and there are feasible and affordable ways to eat healthier.