If you’re trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight, don’t be fooled by products that make claims like “All-Natural,” “High-Fiber,” “Made with Whole Grains,” and “Low-fat” or “Fat-free.” These foods that sound healthy are most likely marketing hype that trick us into eating larger portions of them because we think they’re diet-friendly. They are associated with less-than-healthy, ultra-processed foods that can contribute to weight gain.
“Natural”
Natural means next-to-nothing and certainly has nothing to do with how nutritious a food is. The FDA says that foods can be labeled as “natural” if they don’t contain synthetic additives, flavorings or coloring agents. You can find “All Natural” claims on foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified ingredients, gums and all kinds of other ingredients that most people wouldn’t think is consistent with the term “natural.”
“High-Fiber”
Fiber is one of the most important ingredients to have in any diet and most of us only get about half of what we need daily. Fiber can help lower cholesterol, reduce GI transit time so that it provides GI benefits and research shows that it can help keep your weight in check. However, like whole grains, the vast research on high-fiber diets is based on food naturally rich in fiber—fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds and whole grains—not sweet treats that have been pumped up with man-made fibers. Research on the health benefits of synthetic fibers is still very limited.
“Made with Whole Grains”
Whole grain cookies, brownies or doughnuts may sound better for you, but they really aren’t. They’re still high in calories and sugars and low in nutrients. Buy 100% whole grain foods or check the Nutrition Facts when buying products made with whole grains to make sure the foods you’re buying have a total carbohydrate to fiber ratio of up to 10:1 (Every 10 grams of carbs should have at least 1 grams fiber.) and are not high in added sugars.
“Low-Fat” or “Fat-free”
Americans used to be “fat-phobic” as they assumed that eating fat would make them fat. That is not the case, when the fat eaten is of high quality and is unsaturated. Many researchers believe that added sugar poses more metabolic abnormalities than fat, so read those food labels of fat-reduced foods and make sure that sugar isn’t one of the first three ingredients…..
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