Foods Thought To Be Healthy But Are Not

Foods Thought To Be Healthy

But Are Not

Food is one of the most essential parts of life for survival, health and pleasure. I always prefer to take kind of food which gives me pleasure but is healthy as well. This list has been made to make people aware that what they eat as healthy, might just not be the same.

Diet Soda

There are not many scientific studies carried out on the health effects of diet soda hence this has become a controversial debate, but the few studies that have been carried out, have shown that diet coke is worse than the sugary versions.  Diet soda may cause considerable weight gain because it stimulates the appetite and the consumer eats more than the calories that were saved by drinking a diet soda. Some studies have suggested that the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can cause weight gain, just like ordinary sugars and some of these sweeteners, like Aspartame, have been believed to increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer.

 

Processed Cheese

Everybody knows that cheese is not good for health, but processed cheese is even worse. Because its salt content is very high, in addition to saturated (bad) fat content,  and one can reach far past the recommended daily intake with just 2-3 slices of processed cheese.

Soy Sauce

Although soy sauce contains high levels of antioxidants but it also contains very high amounts of salt and chemicals known to increase the risks of certain types of cancer. After relatively fresh knowledge of the dangers associated with high salt-contents and much stricter regulations on these chemicals, several kinds of low-sodium soy sauces, free of dangerous chemicals are now available. Unfortunately, as is true about most healthy variants of food, it is not as tasty as the one with high salt content and chemicals.

Peanuts

In general nuts are good for health. Most types of nuts are available in the packed form with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and lot of other nutritious elements. The peanuts available in the market are roasted hence coated with unhealthy fats and are packed with a lot of salt. Nuts contain unsaturated fatty acids known as omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 acids.

The risk for many common diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer’s is increased many fold when  a food with a too distorted omega 6:omega 3 ratio (in favor of the omega 6 version) is consumed. In the nutshell, nuts should be consumed in the raw & natural form, without added salt & fats and in limited quantity.

Fruit Juice

General belief is that fruit juice is good for health that’s why people consume it instead of whole fruit. Although fruit juice contains a lot of vitamins but it also has extra sugar and its pulp is usually removed. The pulp in fruit provides fiber, which is a good counterbalance to the natural sugar contained in the fruit. Hence it is advisable that raw fruit should be eaten instead of consuming fruit juice.

Vegetable Oils

 

Vegetable oils are thought to be good (unsaturated) fats, healthy double bonds in the unsaturated fat decrease their melting point. However, the “oil” used for frying in fast food restaurants, is most commonly palm oil, an almost purely saturated (unhealthy) oil. It’s semi-solid at room temperature, liquid when heated and used for frying and is not healthy. Another more healthy oil could have been used for frying without affecting the taste of fries provided that the potatoes are of good quality. But the palm oil is cheap and the fast food companies care more about their profit than your health. In third world countries, where check and balance system is not that strict, palm oil is being marketed under the label of more healthy vegetable oils, beware of it.

Pasta

All the varieties of pasta including spaghetti, macaroni and noodles are made up of plain flour mixed with water and eggs (small percentage of egg included in pasta do not contribute much to its nutritional value). There are no vitamins, no minerals, and barely any fiber in pasta. Only empty carbohydrates constitute the pasta. Fast food pasta is even worse because it often contains a lot of salt, mixed with unhealthy fat.

White Bread

This is pasta in the guise of white bread.

Soup Mix

Soup mix contains water/milk/butter and tasty salt and preservatives. Excessive salt is not good for health. It can lead to high blood pressure and consequently to heart disease.

Ketchup

Ketchup is generally considered healthy food item because it is of vegetable origin and contains the antioxidant lycopene (antioxidants reduce the risk of developing mutations in the body, and the risk of diseases like cancer). But be careful because ketchup contains a lot of sugar (as high as 26% carbohydrates)and salt. In most of the ketchup brands lycopene levels are much lower than expected from the amount of tomatoes used because most of the ketchup we eat is processed and non-organic.