Another day, another health trend. With new health fads popping up faster than you can say “kale”, it’s become virtually impossible to separate fact from fiction and make healthy choices :(
Should you give up bread completely or carbo-load? Should you stop snacking or eat seven small meals a day? Should your biggest meal of the day be breakfast or dinner? Should you stand on your head everyday for thirty seconds or jump up and down for ten? Ok - we made the last one up, but you get the point.
It’s time to stop wasting your time on trends that just don’t work. That’s why we’re bringing you the Facts Behind the Fad - because clear eyes, full stomachs, can’t lose!
“Natural” Foods Are Healthier:
The term “natural” has become practically interchangeable with “healthy.” But are foods labeled as natural actually better for us? Turns out this word is way more confusing than it sounds. In the US, the FDA doesn’t regulate foods labeled as natural. Yep, that’s right. That means that just about anyone can slap this word on a label – regardless of whether the product is infact ‘natural’. Supposedly, “natural” labels identify foods that don’t contain artificial colors or flavors, but that doesn’t mean they’re free of preservatives or additives. So next time you go grocery shopping, read food labels carefully and don’t assume that something is healthy just because it’s labeled as “natural.”
Wraps Are Healthier Than Sandwiches
There’s nothing more classic than sliced bread. But recently, we’ve seen bread bullied into hiding by the new kid in town - the wrap. In a single hipster second, the wrap dethroned bread as the king of the food court, where it now presides over sandwiches everywhere #RIP.
Because wraps are thin and delicate, they’ve quickly developed a reputation as a healthier alternative to stocky and strong looking bread. In this case, we’d like to remind you to never judge a book by its cover.
Most wraps - the ones that wrap so easily without breaking - are loaded with equal or more calories and carbohydrates than bread. They’re also made using added fats, like soybean oil or hydrogenated oils. We hate to break it to you, but it’s all of that extra oil, not magic, that makes them wrap so smoothly. Think of a wrap as a compressed version of sliced bread – suddenly it doesn’t sound quite as healthy does it?
High Fructose Corn Syrup is Worse For You Than Sugar
It’s no secret that sugar is bad for you, but is it better for you than high fructose corn syrup? HFCS is processed from corn and modified to mimic the flavor of sugar. It reared it’s ugly head in the 1970s when the price of sugar was high and the price of corn was low. Because it’s not as heavily processed, It’s commonly believed that sugar is somehow healthier than high fructose corn syrup. Sadly, just because we want something to be true doesn’t mean it is. Sugar and HFCS are both processed by the body in almost identical ways - and neither do your body much good. Our suggestion: put the cupcake down and back away slowly.
