Five 'healthy' food items that are bad for you

With every brand trying to fit into the healthy bandwagon, shopping can be an overwhelming experience, especially for those who have legitimate health concerns. Low-fat, sugar-free, gluten-free items are stacked in aisles of supermarkets, but many of them are not good for you. When it comes to nutrition, the most powerful tool is knowing everything about what you are consuming. Here are a few food items that have gained the tag of being ‘healthy’ but are not.

Vegetable and Seed Oils

While some vegetable and seed oils are linked to health benefits, there are concerns about the excessive intake of omega-6. While coconut oil and olive oil are excellent choices for your health, but you may want to reconsider the use of other oils. Both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids and you need to intake some because your body cannot produce them. But scientists have hypothesised that too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 may contribute to chronic inflammation, which is an underlying factor for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. Unless the cooking oil is cold-pressed, wood-pressed or expeller-pressed, your oil contains trans-fatty acids, which cause inflammation.

Granola Bars/Energy Bars

Often considered a snack that you can munch on guilt-free, granola bars are actually laced with calories, sugar, and artificial ingredients. On average, a single serving of a granola bar contains 15 grams or 4 tablespoons of sugar. Some companies opt to use sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners to cut down on sugar content. These sugar alcohols are not fully broken down in the body and may negatively affect the beneficial gut bacteria digestive issues.

Zero Sugar/Diet Soda

Often considered as a healthy substitute to cold-drinks saturated with sugar, diet soda alone does not contain any calories, sugar or fat in it but it has been linked to the development of type-2 diabetes and several heart diseases. Observational studies have shown that a single serving of an artificially sweetened drink per day is associated with an 8-13 per cent higher risk of type-2 diabetes.

Packaged Oats

Anything that is mass-produced, processed, and advertised as healthy is often the opposite. Luring commercials of packaged oats promising to keep you fit and healthy can actually add empty calories and fat to your body.

Wheat Bread

Mislabelling and misleading are rampant in the fast-moving consumer goods and consumer-packaged-goods industries. The trick involved here is that you can add wheat to literally any carbohydrate and label it as a wheat product. If it is not 100% whole wheat bread, then it can contain enriched flour, which can cause a sugar spike and bloating, while contributing very little in terms of nutritional value.