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3 So-Called Healthy Foods That Aren't

Shape — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:58:20 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape by Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, here on FitSugar.

This morning I visited The Early Show to talk to host Erica Hill about healthy imposters - selections that seem nutritionally superior, but really, not so much! Here are a few examples:

Veggie Sticks or Puffed Veggie Snacks

They may look like dried veggies but the first ingredient in many of these snacks is potato flour with veggies far lower in the ingredient list (which means they make up a smaller percentage of each bite). They also tend to have more sodium - up to twice as much - and you only save about 30 calories and 3 g of fat per serving compared to their traditional counterparts. Stick with good old fashioned potato chips, as long as the only ingredients are potatoes, pure vegetable oil, and salt. They're much more natural and potatoes are a good source of potassium and antioxidants. 

Reduced Fat Peanut Butter

 Reduced fat PB can pack the exact same number of calories per serving and usually more sugar than regular PB. That's because they aren't able to take the fat out, so they have to add sugar or carbs to displace the fat content. Plus, the fat in peanut butter is "good" heart healthy monounsaturated fat (or MUFAs), which has been shown to reduce belly fat. Stay true to all natural regular PB or other natural nut butters, like almond, cashew, pecan, etc.

Keep on reading to learn one more food to avoid.

5 Not-So-Healthy Health Foods

FitSugar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:00:00 PDT

When it comes to "health" food, many seemingly healthy foods rely on reputation. Check out these five foods that seem healthy, but that actually fall a bit short.

Source

Nighttime Fasting: A New Way to Lose Weight?

Shape — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:09:52 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health.

If you couldn’t let anything cross your lips from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., but you were allowed to eat anything you wanted for eight hours a day and still lose weight, would you try it? That’s the apparent bottom line of a rat study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which recently stirred up the weight loss pot.

Top 50 Summer Diet Foods for Weight Loss

Scientists put groups of mice on different diet regimens for 100 days. One group of rodents ate healthy food while animals in two of the groups chowed down on high-fat, high-calorie feed. Half of the junk food eaters were allowed to munch whenever they wanted to while the others only had access to feed for the eight hours they were most active. The conclusion: even though they ate a fatty diet, the mice who were forced to fast for 16 hours were almost as lean as those who ate the healthy fare. Interestingly, the round the clock junk food eaters became obese and developed health problems, even though they consumed about the same amount of fat and calories as the time-restricted junk food fed mice.

See if a nutritionist thinks nighttime fasting works after the break!

One-Minute Slimming Food Tricks That Work

Prevention — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:34:33 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

By Sarah Robertson, Prevention

Here are successful strategies to cut calories and burn fat that take 60 seconds or less. With about 1,000 waking minutes in every day, you'll find plenty of opportunities to slip these tips into your routine and watch the scale go down. If you've already begun your weight loss, these tricks can maximize your efforts and speed results.

Sip green tea before a walk
The caffeine frees fatty acids so that you burn fat more easily. And the polyphenols (antioxidant compounds) in green tea appear to work with caffeine to increase calorie burn. (If you have high blood pressure, skip this tip.)

Dip your bread
Use olive oil in place of butter. It's healthier and may also help you eat less. In a recent study, dippers ate a total of 52 fewer calories on average than those who used butter.

Seven Reasons Your Diet Isn’t Working

Learn more one-minute diet secrets after the break!

Our (Yummy, Guilt-Free) Lunch With Jillian Michaels

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:16:25 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

Ever wish you had a personal chef to deliver diet-friendly meals right to your home? Us, too! That’s why we had to catch up with Jillian Michaels at her recent event at the W Residences in Hollywood to get the skinny on her new partnership with Freshology, a food delivery program that brings gourmet, calorie-controlled meals straight to your door.

"I've been wanting to get involved with something like this for a long time, but either the food sucked or it was packed with unhealthy preservatives," says Michaels. "It's not just calories - the quality of the food matters when it comes to health and weight loss, which is why I really clicked with the Freshology's commitment to fresh, clean food."

Teaming up with Freshology’s five-star chef, Michaels used her nutrition principles to create a total weight-loss plan that delivers healthy, wholesome, and delicious food with no preservatives, no hormones, no artificial sweeteners, and no trans fats. On the program, you’ll receive a twice-weekly delivery stocked with daily meals totaling 1,400 to 1,800 calories: breakfast (240 to 475 calories), lunch (230 to 470 calories), dinner (303 to 536 calories), and a dessert. The 28-day rotation ensures you’ll never experience taste bud boredom. And all the food is precooked, chilled, and ready to go, so at the very most, all you have to do is zap it in the microwave. For added "thinspiration," you’ll also get Michaels’s fitness DVDs, texts to keep you motivated, and a copy of her book, Master Your Metabolism.

Keep reading to see if Freshology passed our taste test.

Foodie Friday Link Time: Healthy Pizza and Mac and Cheese? Yup!

Michele Foley — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:57:55 PDT

5 "healthy" foods that contain just as much salt as soy sauce - Shape
Guilty pleasures like apple pie and mac and cheese get a healthy do-over - Self
Picnic time? Make sure to steer clear of these unhealthy food choices - Health
The spiritual benefits believed to be tied to sage - Mind Body Green
Go ahead‚ get brunchy! 30 healthy recipes to celebrate the weekend - Fitness
Doing the bridal bootcamp? Foods you should probably divorce now - The Stir

12 Items You Should Not Buy in Bulk

Emily Co — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:50:34 PDT

When grocery shopping, there are certain items you should buy in bulk to get that discounted price that will save you money. However, if you pick the wrong items, you may end up wasting cash if you don't use them up before their expiration date. Here are a couple of items you should refrain from buying in bulk:

Baking powder. If you don't bake all the time, you might want to skip out on buying baking powder in bulk, as it lasts up to six months to a year.
Beer. If you're buying beer in bulk for a party, know that the beverage lasts for just three to six months. You might want to limit yourself and make sure that you're not buying too much.
Bleach. Don't buy too much bleach at one time, as this cleaning agent has a relatively short shelf life of three to six months. It starts to degrade after the six-month mark and loses its effectiveness.
Brown rice. People assume that brown rice has a long shelf life and can be stored for as long as possible. In actuality, brown rice doesn't last too long - just six months - because of its oil content.
Candy and unhealthy snacks. Although you may save money buying candy and unhealthy snacks in bulk, having a lot of these items around may cause you to overeat, which will be a detriment to your health. Saving money is not worth the cost to your health.
Cooking oil. You'd be surprised to learn that cooking oil has a shelf life of about a year. Oils and fats tend to go bad really quickly, so that's a factor to keep in mind when shopping. If you buy too much cooking oil, some of the oil may go rancid, which is said to cause increased rates of heart disease, cancer, and other health problems. You definitely want to make sure the oil you have is fresh.

Read on for more items not to buy in bulk.

13 Health Gimmicks You Can Stop Wasting Money On

Business Insider — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:15:21 PDT

Consumers have a tendency of falling for the next big health gimmick. Save your money on health duds with these Business Insider tips.

No matter how many times we're told otherwise, Americans' obsession with get-healthy-quick schemes will likely never die. Too bad most of these fads aren't worth their weight in salt - or your hard-earned dollars. We've put together a list of some of the worst budget-sucking health trends that still persist today.

Coconut Water

Coconut water may be nature's version of Gatorade but some brands have already caught fire for over-hyping its nutrient content. Vita Coco agreed to settle a $10 million class action lawsuit over an independent study that showed the drinks didn't pack near as many electrolytes as advertisements implied. Some coconut waters are also loaded with added sugar, which will do nothing to help your waistline.

Alternative: Pick up your own young green coconuts on the cheap from an Asian produce market. Just crack them open with a cleaver and pop in a straw.

"All-Natural" Foods

30 percent of Americans bought more natural foods in 2011, according to a Rodale study. But what are we really paying more for? There's no clear cut regulation on what makes food "natural," which means just about any company can slap that label on its packages, add a fancy green theme and jack up the price.

Says Andrew Schrage of MoneyCrashers: "Before buying any food that is touted as being 'all natural,' take a look at the ingredient list before you check out. Keep in mind that butter and salt are indeed natural ingredients. So stocking up on natural foods may not achieve anything other than increasing your grocery bill."

Read on for more.

Too Much Fast Food Can Lead to Depression, Study Says

Leta Shy — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:03:30 PDT

A fast-food meal may make you feel sluggish, but the effects don't stop there; a recent study found that there is a link between eating fast food and junk food and having depression.

The study followed almost 9,000 people for an average of six months; the participants had never been diagnosed with depression or taken antidepressants. About 500 were later diagnosed with depression or started antidepressant medication; all in all, the researchers found that those who regularly ate fast food were 51 percent more likely to develop depression (with the more fast food consumed leading to a higher rate of depression), and even those who ate just small amounts of fast food or commercially baked goods (like doughnuts or croissants) were susceptible to developing depression.

The study indicates that people who eat fast food regularly are more likely to have unhealthy habits in general, which can contribute to depression. But the link to even just "small quantities" of junk food and fast food was worrying enough for the researchers to warn against eating too much fast food because of the possible effects on mental health, among other health risks.

This isn't the first time a diet has been shown to affect mental health, both positively and negatively. What do you think of the latest news?

Source: Flickr User SteFou!

Here's Why "Shopping the Perimeter" at the Grocery Store Doesn't Work

Business Insider — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:53:12 PDT

When you're shopping at the grocery store, Business Insider recommends skipping the "shopping the U" strategy. Find out why.

Considering most grocery stores have fresh meat, dairy products and produce lining their perimeter, "shopping the U" sounds like a smart rule of thumb, and one that might help you save. Reduced health bills means more savings, right?
Your Money tapped The Grocery Game's Teri Gault for her take on this advice.
"I hear it all the time, you should go 'U-shaped shopping,' but seriously, who does that?" she says. Here, she offers three reasons you might not be getting the best deal by "shopping the perimeter":

1. The real savings are in the middle. There, we said it. "You save all your money on the inside of the store," says Gault because every single one of those items goes on sale once every 12 weeks. "That's just a general rule," she adds, and as we've written before, it's smarter to shop by sales rather than replenish whatever you've run out of. For example, the frozen food aisle is half-off on sale, and often cheaper than fresh produce. "You can make smoothies, put them in soups or casseroles," says Gault, "you don't have to pay full price for variety."

2. You can't avoid what you eat. Let's face it: "Everyone buys rice, honey, granola and oatmeal," says Gault, before adding that there's more to the middle aisles than unhealthy grub. For example, you'll find olive oil, herbs and spices, canned tuna and salmon and good old-fashioned beans. The canned goods may be high in sodium, but rinsing them under water can cut their content dramatically and make for some tasty, low-cost meals.

3. Not all foods are healthy along the perimeter. Whipped cream and hummus dip? Salami? Booze? Your health might take a nosedive if you make a habit of skipping the middle aisles, writes dietitian Shelly Rael in the Albuquerque Journal. "The meat section has many healthy options," she says, but "there are also not-so-healthy options such as the highly marbled meats (high saturated fat), sausages, and sometimes various parts of the cow and pig that I would prefer not to see, let alone mention."

Check out these smart Business Insider stories:

The Rise of Food Pouches Is Great For Consumers

Wasting Leftovers Spoils Up To $2,000 Per Year For Average US Families

Marketers Have Tricked Women Into Paying Way Too Much at the Drug Store

10 Tips to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank