Trying to eat better? Sometimes brands use terms that make you think their food is healthy when really it’s full of questionable ingredients and sugar.
With so many Americans overweight and unhealthy, marketers know that the best way to get someone to buy something these days is to tell them it’s good for them in some way.
Companies know to use words like “whole grains”, “vitamins”, “low-fat”, “low-cholesterol”, etc… But often these claims mean nothing or it’s just a bit of vitamin added to something otherwise very bad for you.
These foods are fine occasionally. Moderation is the best thing to practice to have a healthy diet but I believe people should be aware of what they are eating and if it’s actually healthy.
These are just a few examples of foods that people may believe is good for them but really it’s not.
Healthy Sounding Foods That Aren’t Healthy
- Vitaminwater– Sounds good for you right? Vitamins and water, what could be bad about that? And the bottles have all kinds of claims of how it will help you. But Coca-Cola is being sued for making people believe this drink, with 33 grams of sugar in each bottle, is good for them. Coca-Cola has even said, when defending itself, “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”
- Subway- In the fast-food world, Subway seems like a good choice, after all, it’s not all greasy like a burger place, and look at all of those people that lost weight eating it. Sure, if you have been eating a diet of fast food burgers, switching to Subway will likely help you lose weight and feel better but this doesn’t mean it’s health, just better than some of the worst food you can eat. Subway food contains things like nitrates, high fructose corn syrup, GMOs, artificial dyes, hidden MSG, and so many more harmful ingredients.
- McDonald’s Salads- A McDonald’s burger contains 250 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 480 mg of sodium. The Premium Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken is 450 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 820 mg of sodium, and many of their salads are as bad or worse.
- Cool Whip- Just look for recipes on Pinterest and you will see a ton of “healthy desserts” that feature Cool Whip. The benefits being lower calories and fat, but is that all that matters in food? I say, no. I’m just going to share the ingredients with you as I think that will help show just how bad the stuff is, water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skim milk, light cream, sodium caseinate, natural and artificial flavors, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, and beta carotene. Yum! In contrast, homemade whipped cream contains- cream, though you can also add a bit of sugar and real vanilla.
- Herbalife- The name has herb right in it, surely it’s natural. And it’s got all kinds of herbs in the ingredients! But is this just another case of taking something loaded with crap and throw in a few healthy ingredients so you can say it’s good? In my opinion, yes it is. Soy protein is the ingredient that concerns me the most in these shake diet drinks, and to be fair Herbalife is not the only one to use this, Shaklee and many others use soy proteins. The soy used is highly processed and has been linked to a lot of health problems. Other ingredients in these drinks also concern me and are not something that goes along with a healthy, real food diet.
What are some foods you see people say are healthy but when you looked into the ingredients found some dirty secrets? I’d love to hear your lists, share in the comments below.
Amber
Great post! I had no idea about a few of these, but I’m certainly glad that I know now.
Lisa Sharp
Glad you enjoyed it. It’s amazing what some companies will claim.
CelloMom
This is so worth beating the drum about! now that we’re gluten free, and I’m forced to read all the labels, there are a rather uncomfortable number of items that don’t make it into my cart any more – and not because they contain gluten.
Lisa Sharp
Yeah it’s amazing what they put in packaged food!
Cherie
I recently learned about Vitaminwater, although I was never a customer as I wondered how healthy it is do ingest unknown quantities of synthetic vitamins. I guess it all goes back to what Michael Pollan says – don’t eat anything your grandparents or great-grandparents wouldn’t recognize as food.
Lisa Sharp
They say there are hardly any vitamins so the sugar and dyes are likely even worse. It seems like to me, it’s a way to make people feel better about drinking a very unhealthy drink. 🙂
Jenn the Greenmom
The Subway one bums me out, though I guess I knew all that already, because it’s the fast-food-cheap-sandwich go-to place for me at school. On the other hand, what I usually get there is the veggie sub, which is basically their bread (which, non-organic as it is, can’t be much worse than what you get anywhere else) with a slice of cheese and every fresh vegetable they have in the place on it. But yeah, the reason I do that is that their meats seem pretty scary and I don’t want to go there.
And BTW, not to wave flags for non-food products when real food IS what we should be eating–there’s a Cool Whip alternative called “Truwhip” or something which has way less scary ingredients. It’s not great, and whipped cream is way better, but for those for whom Cool Whip is a part of daily life they don’t want to give up it’s a much better substitute. (Trader Joe’s has a version of this too.) It’s weird stuff, Cool Whip–a true chemistry experiment the ordinary kitchen cook just CAN’T duplicated, even if they wanted to…:-)
Great post–I want to show it to all my VitaminWater-swilling friends. 🙂
–Jenn
Lisa Sharp
Yeah Subway is better than a lot of options but still not good at all. It’s to bad, it could easily be healthy.
I never grew up using Cool Whip so not using it isn’t a big deal for me. Real whipped cream can replace it in a lot of things but yes from what I have heard Truwhip is better if you really MUST use something like that. 🙂
Kanelstrand
Oops, Herbalife got me shocked. I remember it used to be very popular a few years ago but since I got “educated” in modern time eco problems I have never considered it. Also Subway, I didn’t know they used GMOs, but why shouldn’t they when it’s cheaper. Thank you for letting us know. I believe that in a capitalist world where all is about money it is our own responsibility to take care of ourselves and to investigate what we are offered. I bookmarked the links, I am sure, quite interesting reads!
Lisa Sharp
Herbalife is quite popular were I live right now. I’ve heard several stories of people getting sick from using it. My doctor is no fan and I know several other doctors in the area that don’t recommend it.
Yeah, Subway is one that often surprises people. It’s sad because it could easily be a truly healthy option.