#Avoid #traps #hidden #foods #considered #healthy
More and more patients ask me about organic, vegan, sugar-free, light products during nutrition consultations. But many of these products hide traps and most of the time they are not at all what they seem.
Labels are often misleading and contain harmful substances.
Food marketing uses terms that sound healthy, but which do not guarantee a nutritious product.
For example:
Sugar-free in which sugar is replaced with artificial sweeteners or other carbohydrates with a similar effect on blood sugar (ex: maltodextrin). These sweeteners often irritate the cardiovascular system or can even cause cancer (acetsulfame K).
No fat/ Low-fat here I mean the 0.1% or <1% dairy in which the fat is replaced with sugars or starch to compensate for the taste and texture. I always recommend fat to patients instead of sugar, which is the lesser evil.
100% natural it is not a guarantee of quality. A “natural” product can still contain large amounts of sugar, salt or unhealthy fats and then it is natural, but not necessarily healthy.
Bio/Organic – it refers to the production method, not the nutritional value. A dessert made with a lot of sugar still makes us fat, even if it is organic.
Fitness – marketing term, without a clear regulation. It does not mean that the product helps to lose weight.
The most popular products considered healthy
Those that do not actually help our figure or health are:
- Granola and cereal bars loaded with sugar, syrups and refined oils are caloric bombs. If you want to get rid of your sweet tooth and increase your protein intake, it’s better to consume a shake, which you can mix with spinach, flax seeds, raspberries or bananas. In this way, you keep your sugar level under control and keep your calories to a minimum.
- “Natural” smoothies and juices. Most of them contain large amounts of sugars, losing the fibers from fruits, only those from vegetables can be beneficial. fruit juices instantly increase blood sugar and expose us to type 2 diabetes.
If you have an uncontrollable sweet tooth, I recommend a chromium supplement, for example Chromium Max 500 from Calivita accompanied by L-carnitine for a better result.
- Whole grain bread. Only a small part of whole flour, the rest being white, plus additives and preservatives. Whole grain bread makes you fat as fast as normal bread, and bread with seeds is the most dangerous from a caloric point of view. It is best to get your fiber level from vegetables or supplements such as fiber Nopalin from Calivita for example, which cleans the colon and reduces toxins and bad fats in the body.
- Vegan / plant-based products. Most are highly processed, rich in sodium, additives and refined oils. Many vegan products are based on soy, which is genetically modified and is not recommended for consumption.
What is to be done?
– We are not fooled by labels: We read the list of ingredients carefully, we check the composition. We are not fooled by green / rustic / “eco” packaging. The order of the ingredients matters – the first ones are the most abundant.
– Beware of hidden sugars: corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, honey, agave. Honey has a lot of fructose, which is more toxic to the liver than sugar.
– Eating healthy does not mean buying products with “bio” or “fit” labels. It means being informed, reading the labels, choosing simple foods as often as possible: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, quality proteins.
– Unfortunately, the lifestyle does not allow us to respect the adequate intake of protein. That’s why I recommend all patients, including those who don’t do sports, to take the protein in the form of a shake.
For example Shake One Pure from Calivita which contains pea protein and many vitamins. It can replace a meal when we’re on the run and don’t have time to eat, or it can replace dinner, if we want to lose fat, not muscle mass.
This article was written by…
Dr. Aliona Chirosca
Sports doctor and nutritionist
She is a graduate of the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, following a residency in sports medicine at the National Institute of Sports Medicine, Bucharest. He is a sports doctor since 2019 and a nutritionist since 2020, being a member of the College of Doctors from Romania, the College of Doctors from Ireland, the Romanian Society of Medical Rehabilitation and the Romanian Society of Sports Medicine. Over the years, he participated in international internships for constant improvement: Ghent (Belgium) – musculoskeletal ultrasound, Vienna (Austria) – ESPEN, Clinical Nutrition. She is the author of numerous articles on nutrition, sports medicine and wellness.
The post Avoid hidden traps in foods considered healthy appeared first on the Official Blog Calivita.
