When you decide to start buying quinoa instead of rice, Lilydale chicken instead of KFC and orange juice instead of soda, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. And while we all know the creme de la creme isn’t found in any aisle (the produce section should be where the bulk of your food is at), surely the “health food” section is better than junk, right?
That’s what I thought until I saw “whole grain” coco pops.
Luckily for me (and you), Max Lugavere, author of NY Times best-seller #GeniusFoods has some helpful tips on Instagram.
Max recently posted six “health” foods that are as crucial to a balanced diet as glucose gel is to a non-endurance athlete’s. As he points out, “Of course eating one of these foods now and then likely won’t do anything to you (other then send your blood sugar temporarily out of whack).” However, he continues, “When we make these foods regular staples in our lives they become highly problematic.”
Up first on the hit-list is “heart healthy” cereal, which tends to contain added sugar and refined grains. We recommend replacing this with a healthy banana bread recipe, porridge or (if you’ve got more time on your hands) avocado, eggs, tomato and whole-grain toast.
Up next is agave syrup, commonly associated with “health”, being from nature and so on. Unfortunately it is also highly processed, and contains pure, isolated fructose. We recommend switching it for 100% natural honey, or—even better—cinnamon.
“Fruit on the bottom” yogurt is third on this list, by ‘virtue’ of its added sugar. Max recommends switching this one for natural, full fat, plain greek yogurt and mixing in your own fruit (this saves you money, too).
Grapeseed oil, while it sounds healthier than the stuff they use at Maccas, still makes the cut for this not-healthy health foods list. This is down to its highly proccessed nature and its omega 6 to omega 3 ratio being out of whack. We recommend switching this for extra virgin olive oil.
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Barbecue baked beans (or tomato baked beans for that matter) are penultimate on his list, containing a whole bunch of added sugar that is a package deal with the fibre-y goodness they also contain. Switch these for black beans or chickpeas.
Last on the list is orange juice, which contains 6 teaspoons of sugar per glass. While this is still better than Fanta (at least this sugar is ‘natural’) Max says you would be even better off eating an orange, whose fibre make it harder to overindulge on, and which contains more nutrients.
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