Thursday, July 2, 2015

Diet Food Healthy or Not Healthy: The Shocking Truth About "Good" Foods

If you call food meal plan, it becomes almost free in the eyes of some people. They think that low fat equals low calorie and feel free to devour everything down. The same goes for the lower sugar or any of the other confusing labels on our favorite food or healthy diet.

 Learning to read a label is probably one of the first steps to take to make sure you have the right foods to add to your diet as well as a better understanding of what we, as a nation, we consume.

Diet: healthy or not? The statistics do not lie


Shakira, the ball four Latin American waters singer, sing a song called "My hips do not lie." Unfortunately, most people do not lie hips or statistics. The average person in the US consume more processed foods than fresh foods: 56% more to be exact. An international study that was completed in collaboration with the USDA showed that the average American consumes only 369 pounds of food per person per year.  


This figure breaks down to 124 pounds of fruit, 117 pounds of meat, poultry and seafood, 92 pounds of vegetables, 30 pounds of eggs, nuts and peanuts and vegetables 6 pounds. The same study showed that the average American consumed 576 pounds of processed foods (including healthy choices such as dairy products) per person per year.

 Distribution of this number: 198 pounds of dairy products, 97 pounds of sweeteners such as sugar, corn sweeteners, honey and syrups, 78 pounds of baked goods including muffins, breads, muffins and more, 54 pounds soup, pasta and other canned products, frozen processed food £ 47 and dried, 43 pounds of snacks and candy, 43 pounds of refrigerated foods and ready meals and 16 pounds of sauces, condiments and seasonings (Source: Fitness Magazine, September 2010).

Diet Food Healthy Strategy: Know the Label Meanings

The Food and Drug Administration, more commonly known as the FDA sets guidelines for what can and can not put on a food label for a reason. Without regulation, food manufacturers could make wild claims that they wanted on their labels without having to make copies of any of them at all.  

They could also skip the ingredients that prefer not to focus on. FDA regulation on labeling of foodstuffs guidelines include words such as low fat, low salt and no added sugar.

- Zero-fat or fat-free: should contain less than ½ gram of fat per serving
- Low-fat or reduced: You must be at least 25% less fat per serving than the regular version of the same 

   food  at the same serving size
- Low fat: You must have less than three grams of fat per serving
- Lite: must contain a third of the calories or half the fat per serving of the original version to the same portion

   size
- Zero no-calorie: must be less than five calories per serving
- Low in calories: they must have a third of the calories of the original version to the same portion size
- Sugar Free: must have less than ½ gram of sugar per serving
- Zero Conservatives should have no chemical or natural preservatives
- No added preservatives: can have natural ingredients, without added preservatives
- Low Sodium: must have less than 140 mg of sodium per serving
- High fiber content should be 5 grams or more of fiber per serving. These foods should be low fat or get the

   grams of total fat next to the number of fibers on the label.
- Good source of fiber: it should be between 2.5 to 4.9 grams of fiber per serving
- Plus or High Fiber: You must have at least 2.5 grams of fiber per serving


(Source: FDA)


Why reading labels can be as important is simple: Food manufacturers are not always as honest and open as they should be. Health magazine author Karen Ansel Women, dietitian, considered several foods that have been labeled as healthy, then looked at the reality. The results:


Some green tea with ginseng and honey is sold in a box that investigators leads most people to assume that it is a unique part of the lot. This tea contains particular is almost 3 full servings with 70 calories per serving. While it has the antioxidant EGCG, tea was also 12 teaspoons of sugar per can 3.


Crisp potato chips were misleading for a number of reasons. First, because they are made of dried apples, most people think they are healthy diet of foods, but this is not entirely true. The bag itself has more than two parties, the equivalent of 12 of these chips. 


 Each serving contains 150 calories, so if you eat the whole bag, you eat more than 300 calories for a snack. That's the same amount of calories as a bag of chips. And with fleas, you do not get the sugar is added. It is also not getting the fiber they would have received to eat the first apple.

The packaging container mandarins were two portions of a small plastic container at 70 calories each. However, the problem is not with oranges, but they are absorbed. Most are packed in pear juice, which is high in sugar.


A brand of ice cream labels one of your options as a "personal" container, but not a single serving container. According to the label, is actually two servings with 170 calories per serving. Not only the amount of calories you get, but the 16 grams of fat from both parties murderer, too.


The list goes on and on but the point is clear: Make sure you read the labels not only in front but the back too. If something is small, do not assume it is one that serves food. And do not blindly pour food in a bowl or on a plate. Measuring, weighing, or learn that in addition to taking a look at what you do eat more than you need.

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