Lying, Cheating Foods

You’re pretty sure you’ve got your diet down to a tee.

You eat plenty of fruits and veggies, always making sure you get your five portions each day. You choose wholemeal bread and pasta over the highly refined white varieties and drink plenty of water. You avoid fizzy drinks, chips and biscuits and you certainly avoid saturated fat at all costs.

So why aren’t you looking any better or losing weight?

The scary truth is that almost everything you’ve been told about eating healthily could be completely wrong.

The health food industry is huge, and worth billions. Plus, the government is under pressure to make us healthier as a nation, by reducing obesity, and diseases related to an unhealthy lifestyle. We’re bombarded from every angle by adverts for how to eat better, what foods we should be consuming, what the ones to avoid are, and why we all need to be taking so and so supplement, or looking out for the latest super foods.

Next time you’re in the grocery store, or visit a health food shop, take a look at the ingredients of these so-called healthy foods. Often, foods that are advertised as natural, low fat, low sugar, wholegrain, or targeted at the weight loss and healthy eating market contain copious amounts of additives and ingredients that sound like they have more place in a nuclear laboratory than on your dinner plate.

Companies are very clever at using persuasive wording on their products. Words such as “natural,” “organic,” and “un-refined” are emblazoned across packaging and jump out at us. You automatically think how great said product must be if it’s got so many positives going for it, but what do these words actually mean?

Just because a food is natural doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Gasoline is a natural substance, but you wouldn’t drink that in your quest for weight loss.

Likewise, anything can be organic if it’s not been sprayed with artificially manufactured pesticides, but it this doesn’t do anything to reduce the calorie content or make what you’re eating any healthier.

There’s also some sneaky labeling in place.

Something can be labeled as zero calories, even if it’s not. The regulations differ between countries, yet many products that have a small amount of calories just pass by as being labeled as calorie-free. The same goes for trans-fats. Likewise, companies play around with serving sizes. If you actually weigh out how much cereal, rice or salad dressing you have, you’ll see that you can easily eat double or triple the recommended serving size without feeling full.

With that in mind, it’s clear to see that some foods aren’t quite what they’re cut out to be. Let’s look closer at some of these lying, cheating foods.