Eng Gin Moe

To Eat or Not to Eat

In this century, there has been an explosion of nutritional advice. It seems that now all people are being pressured to eat healthy and live better. Thousands of products have popped up in markets worldwide, promoting their benefit to your health. Now, millions of Americans are switching foods that have been deemed “bad” by nutritionists to foods that have been advertised as advantageous to your health. However, how truly healthy are the “health” foods you are eating?

In an article by Peter Jaret called “Top 10 Food Mistakes”, he discusses popular health foods and how healthy they really are. A favored substitution to regular white bread is multigrain bread or cereal. Foods labeled 7-grain or multigrain give off the impression of being the healthiest, especially since new studies are showing that a diet abundant in whole grains can protect you against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. Unfortunately, many foods are only pretending to be rich in whole grains. Cynthia Harriman, the director of food and nutrition strategies for the Whole Grains Council, said that, “Take a closer look at the labels and you many find there’s not a single whole grain in them. Companies can write on their labels that their products contain grains, even if the products are vacant of all of their fiber and nutrients. The reason for this is that white flour is also made from grain though it is not as nutritious as whole grains. Instead of this phony whole grain bread and cereal, reach for products that say 100% whole grain and you’ll be sure to get all the enriching nutrients you need from it. In addition to that, be wary of products labeled multigrain because these products could contain no whole grain at all.

Some people buy bottle water full of vitamins because they think that the enhanced water will help them get more vitamins. One of the leading brands of vitamin water informs that it provides half of the daily requirement for some nutrients but if you drink the whole bottle, you are drinking 125 empty calories. Also, you only get 6 of the 40 plus essential nutrients you need. Instead, choose the choice that has been with us for years; water which has zero calories. And for your daily supplement of vitamins, just take a multivitamin.

Another example of a food mistake is choosing snacks “made with real fruit”, hoping that eating those snacks will fulfill a daily serving of fruit. The law does not require companies to write exactly how much fruit is in their product on its labels. Therefore, companies can put that their product is made with real fruit when really it only contains a small amount of fruit juice. Concentrated fruit juice really just means fruit sugars and water and because of the copious amounts of sugar these “fruit” products contain, they have as many calories as candy. A 25 gram serving of Fruit Gushers have 90 calories, which is the same amount of calories that a handful of Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gopstopper jawbreakers. Also, few of these fruit snacks provide any fiber and also some of these snacks even contain hydrogenated fats that can block your arteries. A solution to this food mistake is to eat these foods sparingly. Treat these snacks “made with real fruit” like candy and eat actual fruit instead.

These are just three examples given in Peter Jaret’s article. In his article, he outlines seven other types of foods that society has believed to be healthy but really may not be. For more food mistakes, visit: http://health.yahoo.com/nutrition-healthyhabits/top-10-food-mistakes/prevention--23365.html



		Eng Gin Moe To Eat or Not to Eat In this century, there has been an explosion of nutritional advice. It seems that now all people are being pressured to eat healthy and live better. Thousands of products have popped up in markets worldwide, promoting their benefit to your health. Now, millions of Americans are switching foods that have been deemed “bad” by nutritionists to foods that have been advertised as advantageous to your health. However, how truly healthy are the “health” foods you are eating? In an article by Peter Jaret called “Top 10 Food Mistakes”, he discusses popular health foods and how healthy they really are. A favored substitution to regular white bread is multigrain bread or cereal. Foods labeled 7-grain or multigrain give off the impression of being the healthiest, especially since new studies are showing that a diet abundant in whole grains can protect you against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. Unfortunately, many foods are only pretending to be rich in whole grains. Cynthia Harriman, the director of food and nutrition strategies for the Whole Grains Council, said that, “Take a closer look at the labels and you many find there’s not a single whole grain in them. Companies can write on their labels that their products contain grains, even if the products are vacant of all of their fiber and nutrients. The reason for this is that white flour is also made from grain though it is not as nutritious as whole grains. Instead of this phony whole grain bread and cereal, reach for products that say 100% whole grain and you’ll be sure to get all the enriching nutrients you need from it. In addition to that, be wary of products labeled multigrain because these products could contain no whole grain at all. Some people buy bottle water full of vitamins because they think that the enhanced water will help them get more vitamins. One of the leading brands of vitamin water informs that it provides half of the daily requirement for some nutrients but if you drink the whole bottle, you are drinking 125 empty calories. Also, you only get 6 of the 40 plus essential nutrients you need. Instead, choose the choice that has been with us for years; water which has zero calories. And for your daily supplement of vitamins, just take a multivitamin. Another example of a food mistake is choosing snacks “made with real fruit”, hoping that eating those snacks will fulfill a daily serving of fruit. The law does not require companies to write exactly how much fruit is in their product on its labels. Therefore, companies can put that their product is made with real fruit when really it only contains a small amount of fruit juice. Concentrated fruit juice really just means fruit sugars and water and because of the copious amounts of sugar these “fruit” products contain, they have as many calories as candy. A 25 gram serving of Fruit Gushers have 90 calories, which is the same amount of calories that a handful of Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gopstopper jawbreakers. Also, few of these fruit snacks provide any fiber and also some of these snacks even contain hydrogenated fats that can block your arteries. A solution to this food mistake is to eat these foods sparingly. Treat these snacks “made with real fruit” like candy and eat actual fruit instead. These are just three examples given in Peter Jaret’s article. In his article, he outlines seven other types of foods that society has believed to be healthy but really may not be. For more food mistakes, visit: http://health.yahoo.com/nutrition-healthyhabits/top-10-food-mistakes/prevention--23365.html