Seven Foods You Think Are Healthy But Aren't
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1. Breakfast cereal
The packages scream nutrition messages at you: "Good source of vitamin D!" "High in fiber." "Antioxidants." And for years, we've been told that breakfast cereal is a healthy, wholesome way to start the day. But if that's the case, why is it nearly impossible to find a box in the cereal aisle without an array of synthetic vitamins and minerals added in? The reason: Without help from added nutrients, many cereals would have very little nutrition and wouldn't be able to make all those salubrious claims.
Cereal processing is damaging to both vitamins and fiber, so much of what exists naturally in the grains -- which may not be a whole lot to begin with -- often doesn't survive the journey to your breakfast bowl. To compensate, manufacturers add fiber ingredients and sprinkle in the equivalent of a multivitamin.
2. Subway sandwiches
Subway has done an outstanding job of promoting itself as the "fresh" and healthy alternative to fast food, and to some extent, these accolades are deserved. Much of the chain's food has fewer calories, fat and sodium than what you get at McDonald's and the like. But unless you're getting a sandwich with nothing but veggies, there's very little about it that's "fresh." Even though Subway bakes its bread inside the stores, it's definitely not Grandma's homemade loaf going into those ovens.
The dough is produced in one of 10 large, industrial factories around the country, where it's loaded up with additives like DATEM (short for diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides), sodium stearoyl lactylate, potassium iodate, ascorbic acid and azodicarbonamide. That last one -- azodicarbonamide -- is known to break down into a carcinogen when heated and is a chemical used in the production of foamed plastics. When a tanker truck carrying this substance overturned on a Chicago highway several years ago, city fire officials had to issue their highest hazmat alert and evacuate everyone up to a half mile downwind. Mmmmm, fresh!
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Gluten-free snacks and baked goods
The booming trend of gluten-free shows no signs of abating and food companies are riding the wave. And while gluten-free products are eagerly welcomed by those who suffer ill effects from eating wheat, there's often a nutritional tradeoff. Gluten-free products can be little more than concoctions of refined grains and sugar since it's very difficult to make gluten-free products with whole grains and still make them taste good.
But without whole grains, your gluten-free bread isn't going to have any (naturally occurring) fiber, B vitamins or antioxidant compounds. For healthy gluten-free foods, look for packages of gluten-free products that list a whole grain, such a brown rice flour, as the first ingredient.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/seven-foods-you-think-are-healthy-but-arent.html
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