Friday, February 20, 2009

13 Worst "Healthy" Foods in the Supermarket

More wonderful info from Men's Health:

13 Worst "Healthy" Foods in the Supermarket

Worst "Healthy" Pastry
Pop-Tarts Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon (2 pastries)
400 calories
14 g fat (4 g saturated)
5 g fiber
28 g sugars

Whole grain ain’t the whole truth. There’s also a glut of vegetable oil and seven types of sugar stuffed inside. In this case, the costs definitely outweigh the benefits.

Eat This Instead!
Sun-Maid Raisin English Muffins with Cinnamon
170 calories
0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
2 g fiber
13 g sugars

Worst Frozen "Healthy" Entree
Healthy Choice Complete Selections Sweet & Sour Chicken (340 g)
430 calories
9 g fat (1 g saturated)
600 mg sodium
29 g sugars

Why would fried chicken cloaked in sugar ever be considered the “healthy choice”? Sugar Equivalent: 2 scoops Breyers Reese’s Peanut Butter cup ice cream.

Eat This Instead!
Kashi Southwest Style Chicken
240 calories
5 g fat (0 g saturated)
680 mg sodium

Worst Yogurt
Yoplait 99% Fat Free Cherry Orchard (1 container, 170 g)
170 calories
1.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
27 g sugars

Think those 27 grams of sugars come from the cherries? Think again: After milk, sugar’s the first ingredient on this list. And there’s as much of it in there as there is in a Kit Kat. Choose a Fage yogurt instead, which makes their flavored versions that much more tempting by blending in more fruit than sugar.

Eat This Instead!
Fage 2% Strawberry
140 calories
2.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
17 g sugars

Worst "Healthy" Bread
Arnold Whole Grains Health Nut (2 slices, 86 g)
240 calories
4 g fat (0 g saturated)
4 g fiber

Don’t fall for the label braggadocio. For as calorie dense as this bread is, there’s just not enough fiber to justify it in your diet. Look for this unsuspecting potato bread, instead, which is one of the best loaves on the shelf. In addition to a boast-worthy fiber load that doubles that of Arnold Whole Grains Health Nut, it also packs an impressive 12 grams of protein.

Eat This Instead!
Martin’s 100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread (2 slices, 70 g)
140 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
8 g fiber

Worst Canned Fruit
Dole Tropical Mixed Fruit in Passion Fruit Nectar (1/2 cup, 122 g)
90 calories
0 g fat
20 g sugars

This recipe is augmented with a gob of sugar, which adds unnecessary calories to the can. 100% juice is the best you can hope for—it means you eat only real fruit and their juices. After all, why pay full price for anything less than 100%?

Eat This Instead!
Del Monte 100% Juice Tropical Fruit Salad (1/2 cup, 122 g)
60 calories
0 g fat
14 g sugars

Worst Canned Vegetable
Del Monte Fresh Cut Sweet Peas (1/2 cup, 125 g)
60 calories
0 g fat
390 mg sodium

Avoid briny veggies like these, which pile on unnecessary amounts of sodium. Opt for the version without salt, and try seasoning with lemon juice and pepper—you won’t even miss it.

Eat This Instead!
Del Monte Fresh Cut Sweet Peas No Salt Added
60 calories
0 g fat
10 mg sodium

Worst Cereal
Quaker 100% Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins (1 cup)
420 calories
12 g fat (7 g saturated)
6 g fiber
30 g sugars

Granola, for all its good reputation, is usually weighed down by a deluge of added sugars. It’s the caloric equivalent of 8 chicken wings—and, for the same amount of sugar, you could have a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles more than twice the size. Even scarier, with the Cocoa Pebbles, you’d get more fiber and save about 60 calories in fat.

Eat This Instead!
Kashi GOLEAN (1 cup)
140 calories
1 g fat (0 g saturated)
10 g fiber
6 g sugars

Worst Snack Bar
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Raspberry Cereal Bar (1 bar, 37 g)
140 calories
3 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
13 g sugars
2 g fiber

With refined flour on the outside and high-fructose corn syrup on the inside, these cereal bars are only healthy in theory. Not all Nutri-Grain products are equally unsavory, however. Choose the Nutri-Grain fruit and nut bars for more of the good stuff, and less of the bad.

Eat This Instead!
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Cranberry, Raisin & Peanut fruit and nut bar (1 bar, 32 g)
120 calories
3.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
11 g sugars
3 g fiber

Worst Dip
Dean’s Guacamole (2 Tbsp, 30 g)
90 calories
9 g fat (2.5 g saturated)
170 mg sodium

This “guacamole” dip is comprised of less than 2 percent avocado; the rest of the green goo is a cluster of fillers and chemicals, including modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food coloring. Dean’s isn’t alone in this guacamole caper; most guacs with the word “dip” attached to them suffer from a lack of avocado.

Eat This Instead!
Wholly Guacamole Classic (2 Tbsp, 30 g)
50 calories
4 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
75 mg sodium

Worst Juice
V8 Splash Mango Peach (8 fl oz)
80 calories
0 g fat
18 g sugars

This juice is closer to Capri Sun punch than regular V8. The first two ingredients are water and high-fructose corn syrup, and it contains only 10% juice. Go for the less gimmicky version, instead.

Drink This Instead!
V8 V-Fusion Light Peach Mango (8 fl oz)
50 calories
0 g fat
10 g sugars

Worst Butter Substitute
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original (1 Tbsp, 14 g)
90 calories
10 g fat (2 g saturated, 2.5 g trans)
90 mg sodium

Stick margarine is the absolute worst. To make it solid, it has to be stabilized with partially hydrogenated oils, the source of trans fat. Instead, choose the lower-calorie Organic Valley Whipped Butter, which only has two ingredients: sweet cream and salt.

Eat This Instead!
Organic Valley Whipped Butter (1 Tbsp)
50 calories
6 g fat (3.5 g saturated)
40 mg sodium

Worst Protein Drink
Naked Protein Zone Banana Chocolate (15.2-oz bottle)
456 calories
3 g fat (1 g saturated)
67 g sugars

This drink packs 30.5 grams of protein, but is that really worth the sugar and calories? It’s the sugar equivalent of 5 Breyers Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches, and you’d need to lift weights for 135 minutes—over two hours—to burn off those calories.

Drink This Instead!
Bolthouse Farms Perfect Protein Vanilla Chai (16-oz bottle)
320 calories
42 g sugars

Worst "Healthy" Frozen Treat
Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark (1/2 cup, 70 g)
210 calories
13 g fat (2 g saturated)
16 g sugars

Tofutti claims “no butterfat” and “no cholesterol,” and both are technically true, but they paint a false sense of security in the person looking for a healthy indulgence. Ignore front label claims (Tofutti is not made with dairy, so by definition it can’t have butterfat or cholesterol) and flip the package for the straight scoop; here you’ll see that this ice cream substitute still has as much sugar and fat per serving as most regular ice creams.

Eat This Instead!
Breyers Double Churn Creamy Chocolate (1/2 cup)
100 calories
3.5 g fat (2 g saturated)
13 g sugars

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