Deceptively Unhealthy Foods

Posted on June 10, 2009. Filed under: Healthy Foods |

How many of us have stopped at a popular fast food joint on the way home to grab a quick dinner after a long, hard day and picked the salad over the burger. I know I’m guilty! I’m definitely one of those women that see the word salad and think healthy. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes that salad is loaded with more calories than the burger your kids are scarfing down!

So … how do we know what’s really good for us? Well, when you’re shopping in the grocery store – read the labels and compare with other brands. Know what you’re buying and what you’ll eventually be feeding to you and your family.

Just some food for thought: Why is it that we take more time to pick out an outfit than to pick out the food that goes into our bodies?

While you ponder my words of wisdom (Ha –ha) … check out these five suggestions from David Zinczenko’s best-selling book Eat This, Not That!

Yogurt. Stonyfield All Natural O’Soy Strawberry Yogurt is all-natural, but loaded with sugar making it sweeter than Coke! Instead, pick up some Oikos Plain Greek Yogurt which has twice as much protein and twenty-one less grams of sugar.
Snacks. Starbucks Lowfat Apricot Blueberry Muffin has just as much calories as two glazed donuts!! Try a spinach, roasted tomato, feta and egg wrap instead. It has enough protein, fiber, and healthy fats to keep the hungry monster at bay until lunch.
Salads. Quizno’s Chicken Caesar Salad is a great example of salad that lacks nutritional value, but remains popular simply because of its “salad” tag. A) it’s loaded with fat and calories and B) it contains nearly a days worth of sodium. How about that? Eating an entire day’s worth of sodium in ONE salad!? That’s crazy! Order a small Honey Bourbon Chicken Sub instead. It has a quarter of the calories, fraction of the fat, and half of the sodium.
Seafood. Olive Garden Grilled Shrimp Caprese is saturated with cheese and oil and has over a day-and-a-half’s worth of sodium!! For a healthy alternative, try the Olive Garden Garden Herb-Grilled Salmon. Salmon is usually a safe dish to go with when trying to lose weight, and this dish is loaded with protein and the healthy fats that your body needs.
Smoothies. Smoothie King’s 40 oz. Cranberry Supreme may not be high in fat, but with over 1000 calories and 190 grams of sugar … who needs fat? Your body will just take all those calories and sugar and store them as fat. Try the Smoothie King 32 oz. Coffee Mocha Smoothie which has a third of the calories and only a fraction of the sugar.