Healthy Diet Foods: An Oxymoron?
Just when you finally decide to lose some weight and go on the proverbial ‘diet’, up pops the issue as to whether the diet food choices are really healthy or not! Who would have thought that, in order to drop some pounds in order to get healthy, the diet you are about to embark on may not be so healthy?! Regardless, if you truly want to both lose weight and get healthy, making right food choices is an important part of the process.
Just because a food may be deemed ‘healthy’ doesn’t automatically guarantee it to be so. Even though the foods may be low in calories, that doesn’t always equal healthy. As a matter of fact, those healthy foods so-called can actually be full of additives with names you can’t even pronounce, much less know what they are.
Here’s a measurement that can be used to decide whether that food choice is good for you or not. If you can’t pronounce it, you probably don’t want to eat it! If you doubt this, take a quick trip onto Google and enter those unpronounceable names for a real eye opener.
In addition to the possibility that all diet foods do not necessarily equal healthy diet foods, the same could be said for diet sodas. Again, to confirm this, simply check the labels to see what we mean. As an alternative to these diet drinks so-called, you might try herbal teas and flavored waters instead.
Healthy should mean it’s good for you, nutrient rich and hopefully loaded with vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and all of those good things. ‘Diet food’ implies that it’s low in calories. So, when you’re looking for healthy diet foods, you want to become a label-reading expert. Healthy should also mean no trans-fats, low in sodium and sugar, those favorite ‘taste enhancers’ so beloved of the commercial food processors. They should also be rich in nutrients and fiber, as applicable. Once you start reading the labels, you’ll find that the most direct path to healthy diet foods lies in the ‘fresh’ or ‘fresh frozen’ columns.
When you shop for foods to compliment your diet, buy only what you’ll use within the next several days; especially when it comes to fresh produce. Produce loses some of its nutritive value as it oxidizes and when cooked, so minimize this loss with more frequent purchases, storing the fruits and veggies in paper bags in the frig and eating raw vegetables whenever possible.
You also need to consider what proteins to consume during your diet. When it comes to healthy diet foods in meat, we all know about choosing lean cuts and adding lots of fish for those Omega-3s. However, there is a caveat here as well. Animals raised for meat are often fed a variety of antibiotics and hormones, which find their way into your system – unless the meat is labeled ‘organically raised with no antibiotics and hormones’. You’ve got to get a little nit-picky when defining what is truly healthy diet food.
If you choose a diet that allows a certain amount of carbohydrates, make sure you choose whole grains, which are far healthier than those made with refined flours and try to steer clear of any artificial sweeteners as well, especially fructose.
One last thought: Instead of using your regular cooking oil when preparing food, consider using olive oil as an alternative. Even though olive oil is pricey, it takes less to cook with, and it’s really a bargain in the end, with health benefits for your heart not provided in most other oils. It also adds a delicious flavor.
So, there you have it! Now you can both lose the weight and gain back your health through healthy food choices.
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