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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Shocking Diet Foods that Can Make You Fat

healthy apple
Some of the foods that you normally consider when dieting may actually be harming your waistline. Let’s run down some of your favorites that may be adding inches instead of taking them away, and look at healthier alternatives that are just as yummy.

Flavored Yogurt
Yogurt is good for you, right? Well, yes, but some brands/flavors are full of a ton of sugar (aka bad calories).  Plain yogurt contains around 16g of sugar per serving, but if you go for your favorite flavored variety, you may be consuming more than twice that amount! That’s an addition four teaspoons of sugar every morning. Instead of flavored yogurt, opt for the low-fat plain yogurt and add your own flavorings, like all-fruit spread, honey, or maple syrup. Or go for the gusto and try fat-free Greek yogurt which is not only lower in sugar but also provides you with twice as much protein – which means you won’t get hungry as quickly. And, it is creamy and delicious!

Sugar-Free Goodies
Cookies and candy that are marketed as having no sugar are often made more flavorful with fat, which undermines the purpose of eating the sugar-free version in the first place. And while some sugar-free candies will save you calories, they are also laden with sorbitol, a sugar alcohol which can cause you to have diarrhea and feel bloated. So instead of downing those sugar-free choices opt instead for graham crackers, which have an average of a teaspoon less sugar than most packaged cookies. You can often get your sugar fix with other low-calorie snacks – it just takes some planning and looking for better choices.

Veggie Chips
While this certainly sounds better for you than potato chips, veggie chips may not be as healthy as they appear. Most of these salty chips have about 10 grams of fat per serving, or they may not be vegetables at all; some of them are actually potato flour that is colored to look like a particular vegetable. Satisfy your chip craving with genuine veggie chips. The low fat Hurraw Totally Raw veggie chips that I like have a mere 40 calories per serving. Love to dip? Replace fat and calorie laden dips with spicy salsa. My favorite is Casa Sanchez low fat salsa– I prefer the hot variety but they also make mild and medium versions. This salsa is made from all natural ingredients and is available at Whole Foods in the extremely natural foods aisle.

These are just a few of the unhealthy “healthy” foods that you likely didn’t realize was keeping you from shedding those stubborn pounds. If you are looking for alternatives, check out some of my favorite low calorie food alternatives. Some of my favorite diet food alternatives are: frozen grapes, low calorie granola, pb2, coconut water, fiberful bars, laughing cow cheese, and pasta slim.

Enjoy!
Juliet

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Juliet, was doing a Google search about "oat groats" and other food-related topics when I remembered about your wonderful blog. Seeing you're back truly makes my day. This blog is a gem. Though ther's quite a few things I can't get my hands on living north of the border, I still enjoy looking at it all. I'm going to try getting some low-fat powder PB through the Internet, last time I tried they were BO. Anyways, glad to see you're back. Marco.

Anonymous said...

Juliet,

So even fat free flavored yogurts are bad? omg I love veggie chips!!and I eat 100 cal. packs of cookies too!! I'm scared cause thats what keeps me in check!

Elizabeth said...

Don't worry at all if what you are dong is working for you! :) Just insights for people who are trying to figure out what is going wrong, or what they should/shouldn't do to get things working for them. :)

Elizabeth said...

Also, Marco, send me an email and let me know what you are having trouble finding. I might be able to help out. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm totally hooked on salsa too, and it quenches my craving for Mexican....

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