Thursday, July 7, 2016

Read the Fine Print

"No, boo-ba, water, not juice." 

"But juice is healthy."

"Sorry, it isn't."

"Give me my juice, woman!

Probably one of the biggest barriers to doing better is the knowing better part. Plenty of us rely on ancient misconceptions about food, and chances are a good chunk of those "oh, wow" studies will be overturned in short order. 

But no need for extremes. There can still be balance in the Force. 

I'm surprised how many use terms like "healthy" for a food item that kinda isn't. Like frozen yogurt. I've checked out those labels myself; some even have more sugar than ice cream does.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/95/22/86/95228694a6f8c250a5fa43d0a86cb0ec.jpg

As Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz report, often the everyday American doesn't know what the nutritionists know. Granola boasts the widest disparity—despite that green wrapper and ads showing young fit beautiful things hiking while dreamily munching in the sunshine, no, it is not a superfood.

Give that nutrition label an eyeball. Yeah, I know.    

2 comments:

Daniel Saunders said...

I have to say, as a layman, it does feel with health stuff (not just healthy eating) that everything is in a constant state of flux and it is hard to know what the latest accurate ideas are. I've seen it from the opposite side, as my sister has worked for various health research charities and she gets very annoyed at the "X causes/cures cancer" stories that constantly circulate in the press, mostly based on the tentative findings of single studies, all blown out of proportion by the story-hungry media. Someone did a search through the Daily Mail, a particularly notorious newspaper, for all the stuff they said causes and cures cancer; apparently, according to the Mail, drinking coffee both causes AND cures cancer!

Princess Lea said...

I was pushing more for "eat real food," not processed.