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When is a healthy meal not healthy? When it’s filled with foods masquerading as beneficial or nutritious. Choices you make every day could actually be contributing to your weight gain rather than loss. Not every diet saboteur is easily recognized. Pay closer attention to how often you’re eating these sneaky six foods.
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Dressing, Sauces & Condiments
“You would be surprised by the amount of sugar in foods such as barbeque sauce, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce, jams and jellies,” says Colette Heimowitz, a nutritionist with Atkins Nutritionals and author of Atkins: Eat Right, Not Less. Oops! We guess that salad wasn’t so healthy after all. According to Heimowitz, when you eat a food that contains sugar, it triggers the release of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine. And then that super happy feeling begins to fade and you want it back ASAP. “The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you need to eat for your taste buds to experience the same level of sweetness,” she says. “So, it begins a vicious cycle of sugar cravings, blood sugar spikes, mood swings and weight gain.” Swap out sugary sauces for flavor-packed salsa, hot sauce, mustard, low-sugar or sugar-free salad dressings, mayonnaise, horseradish, lemon juice, and soy sauce or tamari.
Fruit Juices
Something is hiding in your glass of orange juice: sugar. You might not realize it but it’s going to start showing up on your body in all the wrong places. Heimowitz says 8 ounces of orange juice is equivalent to 4 teaspoons of sugar. “Skip fruit juices and eat the whole fruit itself,” she says. Berries are best (a half cup of raspberries gives you 4 grams of fiber, blackberries 3.8 and blueberries or strawberries 1.7 grams). Kiwis are right up there with 2.7 grams of fiber. Plus they’re beautiful! Accompany fruit with an 8-ounce glass of whole milk to slow the impact of the fruit’s natural sugars.
Granola
We’ve been tricked by granola but we’re not alone. It seems really healthy, right? But says Alix Turoff, a New York City nutritionist and trainer, says it’s loaded with calories and sugar. While it’s possible to find granola with better stats you need to read labels carefully and watch portion size. Chances are you’re eating multiple servings in one meal.
Pesto
“This is another tricky food because people tend to think it's healthier than other sauces - maybe because it's green?” says Turoff. A typical pesto can have as much as 250 to 300 calories per tiny ¼-cup serving. That’s huge when compared to an average red sauce that ranges from 40 to 90 calories per ½-cup serving.
Whole Wheat Bread
You probably think that you’re avoiding white flour and only eating healthy wheat bread. But just because a food is described as “whole wheat” or “seven-grain” doesn’t mean it’s good for you unless it has at least 4 grams of fiber. “Refined wheat, aka white flour, contains no nutrients and leaves your body hungrier than when you sat down to eat,” says Dr. Marizelle Arce, a naturopathic physician. Any food that lists “wheat flour” or “unbleached enriched flour” is pure weight gain promoting junk. “These empty calorie carbs will cause the next meal you have to be stored and turned into fat,” she says.
Sugar-Free Products
Real sugar isn’t great but there’s actually something worse – sugar imposters! Sugar alcohols have lots of tricky sounding names: erythritol, xylitol, maltitol. If you see any of these ingredients on bars and supplements, walk away. “The addition of sugar alcohols help lower sugar and carbs in foods but they also cause major belly bloat and GI distress,” says Stacy Goldberg, a nutritionist at savorfull. Diet soda is big offender. Research has reported a possible link between ingesting artificial sweeteners and weight gain. In one study people who drank diet soda made with fake sugar chemicals had a 36% greater risk of developing chronic diseases associated with packing on an unhealthy amount of pounds.
[Photos: Shutterstock]
