'Healthy' Foods a Pitfall for Dieters
Kate Kowalczyk tossed out the junk food and stocked up on her idea of good-for-you staples like yogurt and low-fat cookies.Despite her persistence, the 35 pounds she was trying to shake wouldn't budge.
It turns out those "healthy" foods were just as fattening as the chips and soda they replaced: The yogurt was filled with Reese's Pieces and the low-fat cookies were brimming with sugar that kept her hunger on razor's edge.
I understand Kate's dilemma, though I'd never, even in my vending machine only days, would consider Reese's Pieces yogurt, er, healthy, I think she's on the right track. It took me a long while to even consider eating yogurt as snack and the kind I picked? Low fat or fruit flavored. Nowadays I'm ready to go for plain unsweetened yogurt. Why? So I can add my own fresh fruit.
As concerns grow over rising obesity rates, so does confusion about the difference between what is healthy and what aids weight loss _ with many believing the two are interchangeable."That's why so many people just give in and so many diets fail," said Christine Gerbstadt, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. [source]
I think the key is to not give up. Rather than look at my sugary, aspartame laced yogurt choice as a failure, I choose to see it as a step up from snacking on a Snickers bar. As I've been educating myself, now I know why plain, full fat even, yogurt is better. Despite the quick fix mentality lose 10lbs in 2 days diet industry, you soon learn this is all a journey of learning and growing vs. destination getting it right away.
Is there any food, you started off thinking was healthy and later found out wasn't all it was cracked up to be?
Next entry: Last Chance
Trackback Pings
TrackBack this entry: http://www.fatfighterblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/269
4 Comments
05.23.06 | iportion commented:
When I was 17 I goaled for the first time. I went off my healthy plan which was deal a meal and gained it back with low fat foods. After a while I gained it all back again.
Aspartame is only bad for people who have sensitivity to it. Aspartame can cause sever headaches but people can have reactions to even natural food.
05.24.06 | Midnight Raider commented: I mentioned this article in my blog, too. I think it's a really interesting note of how confusing information can be, especially related to diet and fitness.
Of course, there's always conflicting advice from "experts."
A friend of mine thinks that the key to weight loss is to eat nothing but green salad. Sure, green salad is "healthy." Sure, it's low-calorie. But very few folks are going to be able to sustain that type of diet for any length of time.
I think the "healthy" foods mentioned in the article--like nuts and granola--do have a place in even the dieter's plan, but moderation and portion control are key.
06.04.06 | catherine maize commented: Years ago, I, too, thought salad was the perfect weight loss food. Now I skip it for a sandwich made of %100 whole wheat bread, soy deli slices stacked with a cup of raw spinach and half a sliced tomato. Salads in restaurants are typically all iceberg lettuce, offering little nutrition, with a couple of tablespoons of shreds of carrot or cabbage and two slices of underripe tomato, deep fried croutons and fatty dressings.
Back in my counting calorie days, I skipped some healthier stuff to save up for a pop or a slice of pizza. Oddly, I still felt very deprived.
Note: Comments are closed. Please use this form to leave a message.
One reason WW didn't work for me was that I found myself bypassing things like bananas to save my points for stuff like Blue Bunny lowfat lowsugar ice creams. While these aren't necessarily a bad choice, I realized that if I were really choosing health (as opposed to quick weight loss), it's better to eat the banana. There are a lot of these packaged foods that are touted as "diet" foods, but minimally processed is always the better choice if you're going for healthy IMO.