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Top 10 Over-Hyped Health Foods Ever!
Photo credit: bigstock.com
We are absolutely inundated with claims about what to eat and what not to eat. It doesn’t matter where you go: you get these messages via television, billboards, magazine and newspaper ads, word of mouth, and, perhaps the most common place people get their “health” information is off the internet. How are we supposed to know which are real and which are hype?
That old saying of “consider the source” holds more truth now than perhaps ever before. “Milk does a body good,” sponsored by the dairy council, “Beef is what America wants for dinner,” sponsored by the cattle industry. It helps to pay attention to who is paying for this “health information” that you are getting. Many of these supposed health food claims are being put out there by celebrities, ex-sports stars, and television “doctors,” all of whom want to sell you something.
Most of the health food claims made by celebrities and others are often exaggerated or are just plain not true. Don’t be fooled! Check out the top 10 most over-hyped health food claims currently making the rounds.
1. Protein Bars
Remember back about 15 years ago, those Power Bars were used only by professional athletes because they tasted like crap? They still do taste like crap, only now you don’t know it because manufactures fill them with artificial sweeteners or plain old sugar, chocolate chips, and honey.
One look at the ingredient labels and you will wonder, what the heck are all those ingredients anyway? Besides the soy fillers, and a few added vitamins, some “protein” bars look more like a candy bar! Adding vitamins to a candy bar does not make it healthy. Skip these puppies! Read more how to read labels.
2. Acai Berry Juice
It seems as if celebrities everywhere are swearing by this juice, calling it the new “super berry” and claiming it does everything from cure cancer to wrinkle prevention. Although this little berry is nutritious, it is hard to find them fresh. This means that most people drink juice, which generally contains artificial ingredients and sometimes sugars.
Also, research shows that his juice has only average health benefits when you compare it to other fruits. Acai berries are much lower in antioxidants than blueberries, pomegranates, or red wine, all of which are far cheaper alternatives.
3. Margarine
If you haven’t heard, margarine is not everything we have been told it is. Margarines contain trans-fats, the worst kind of fats you can consume, because they are made from hydrogenated oils. Why people would choose to eat a man-made source of artery clogging trans-fats when they can eat plain old healthy, good tasting butter is a mystery.
If you think you need more sterols or stanols in your diet, eat more avocados and nuts. There is nothing healthy about margarine, no matter what that label might tell you.
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freedomdove
Jun 8, 2015 at 1:53 am
Rather than entirely skipping many of these things (like yogurt and granola), I like to just make my own, DIY-style. Homemade versions of (organic sourdough) bread and yogurt and the like are really good and are much more healthy than their store-bought counterparts; the main difference being that you can control the ingredients and use the highest quality possible. Recipes abound on the Internet for “homemade such-and-such”, even handmade butter (instead of the margarine).