Over the years, many types of food have been sold to us as health foods, making us believe that choosing them over a more obvious, unhealthy alternative would help us lose weight, stay healthy, and feel better.
Nevertheless, research has shown that not all health foods are as good for us as they’ve been marketed to be. Including these three surprising ones:
Breakfast Cereals: Although many of us know that certain chocolatey or sugary breakfast cereals are unhealthy, fewer of us realise that even those supposedly healthy alternatives are full of sugar. Granola and muesli, for example, actually have a lot of sugar and fat! The same applies to granola bars, too!
Sugar Alternatives: Agave syrup, rice, syrup, and maple syrup are not as healthy as some people make them out to be. In fact, they usually contain more or less the same amount of sucrose, just in different forms.
Rice Cakes: While often touted to be a great, healthy snack, rice cakes are chock-full of empty carbohydrates, which make your blood sugar levels spike. Even more worryingly, the process used to puff the rice produces a chemical called acrylamide, which many studies have shown to be carcinogenic. Finally, they can also contain some arsenic, which is definitely not healthy.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to get sick from having rice cakes or gain 10 kilos from eating granola. What it does mean, however, is that it’s important to be aware of what’s in the foods we’re eating and to only consume them as part of a balanced diet.
