10 Healthy Foods That Are Not That Healthy After All

 

A glass of juice for breakfast, a chicken grill sandwich for lunch and a prepared salad for dinner… Seems as if you are having a healthy meal, right? Well…check it out again. Some foods that sound healthy actually aren’t. The word ‘healthy’ is a very subjective term. What most people do not realize that all healthy foods are not created equal. Many people rely on low fat or fat free foods, but these foods may also conceal some nasty surprises. Here, we have listed 10 manipulative foods that sound healthy, but actually aren’t.

 

Prepared salads

 

Just because your meal contains the word ‘salad’ in it does not mean it is healthy. The biggest mistake that most people make while trying to lose weight or become healthier is that they assume that all salads are healthy option. Pre-prepared tuna salads, turkey salads and chicken salads are full of hidden fats. The low fat dressing that you sprinkle on your salad is also loaded with calories in the form of sugar. Mayonnaise, French dressing and salad dressings are full of calories.

 

The thumb rule is to make your own salads by using fresh ingredients. Instead of readymade dressings, prepare your dressings using basic and light ingredients such as lemon, vinegar or olive oil.

 

Smoothies

 

Smoothies are healthier option if you prepare them using fruits and low fat milk. However, traditional smoothies contain high amounts of sugar, ice cream and at times fattening yogurt. Skip the store-bought and make your own smoothie instead. Next time before you guzzle that ‘low fat’ smoothie or that bag of ‘fat free’ chips, don’t forget to read the list of ingredients.

 

Flavored yogurt

Just like smoothies, flavored yogurt can contain high sugar and dairy ingredients. Plain sugar-free yogurt is actually healthy for you, and is a good source of calcium. However, flavored yogurt contains sugar, which actually slows down the process of absorption of calcium in the body.

If you are looking for sweetness in your yogurt, add honey or all fruit spread to your plain low fat sugar free yogurt. You can also opt for fat-free Greek Yogurt, which is low in fat and sugar and loaded with proteins.

 

Granola bars

 

Many people eat energy bars or granola bars as mid-meal snack. However, what they do not realize is that these energy bars are loaded with sugar, saturated fat and high fructose corn syrup. Some energy bars are also called protein bars as they provide you good amount of proteins (and calories too). This does not mean you should completely avoid all bars. Look out for low-sugar and low carb variety that you do not consume hidden calories.

Diet soda

For those watching calories, diet sodas are a good substitute for their high calorie siblings. However, several studies have found that diet sodas actually cause you several health risks if you are not careful. The artificial sweeteners like aspartame are mainly responsible for causing health related issues of diet sodas. Therefore, next time you feel thirsty, drink plain water or coffee for a quick energy buzz.

 

Lean cuisines

 

Just because the word ‘lean’ is associated with your food does not mean that it will help you lose fat and achieve healthy weight. Most of the lean meat or frozen foods are loaded with high sodium content. This substitute ingredient, although low in fat, is detrimental to health when taken in high quantities. Instead of picking ‘Lean Cuisines’ from grocery store, choose fresh produce.

 

Juice

 

Many advertisement tout juices as a healthy way to start your day. No doubt, fruits and vegetable juices are healthy, but only when they are prepared fresh at home. Readymade juices contain concentrated amounts of fructose syrup, which is responsible for several metabolic disorders.

 

Margarine

Many people have this misconception that margarine is a healthier option than butter as it contains less amount of fat. But, margarine contains trans fat (saturated fat), which can lead to several heart diseases.

 

Bran muffins

 

Whether it is bran muffin or white flour muffin, muffin are miniature cakes that are high in butter and sugar. Though you can substitute traditional muffins with bran ones, but watch out the quantity.

 

Sports drinks

 

Sports drinks or energy drinks like Gatorade are rich source of electrolytes, and also contain high amount of calories. So, if you are not working out, skip sports drinks and take healthier options.

Source:  http://www.fitnea.com/10-healthy-foods-that-are-not-that-healthy-after-all/

Dangerous Food Additives That Sound Safe

Tricky Food Labels: Dangerous Food Additives That Sound Safe

March 1, 2013

Certain food additives may sound safe—but actually can be dangerous.

 

A bottle of Gatorade sounded like the perfect thirst quencher to 15-year-old Sarah Kavanagh on a hot, humid day in her Mississippi hometown. But this teenager, a committed label-reader, was surprised to learn from an Internet search that the popular sports drink contained brominated vegetable oil, an ingredient that comes with a long list of possible side effects, including changes in thyroid hormones and function and neurological disorders.

 

The additive, used in some citrus-flavored drinks to keep the fruit flavoring evenly distributed, does not sound ominous—how bad could it be with “vegetable” in the name? But Kavanagh, whose story was told in The New York Times, had done her research and started a petition to convince Gatorade-maker PepsiCo to change the drink’s formulation.

 

Other food additives (some even healthy-sounding) that are bad for us—along with some scary-sounding additives that are good for us.*

 

ADDITIVES TO AVOID

 

Cottonseed oil. Made from the seeds of the cotton plant, cottonseed oil is used to thicken food or add texture. Cottonseed oil is found in many fried snack foods, especially potato chips, as well as in salad oil, sauces, marinades and baked goods.

 

Some individuals are allergic to cottonseed oil. Cotton crops also tend to be genetically modified and grown with high levels of pesticides.

 

Diacetyl. This additive, which provides a buttery aroma and flavor, is most often found in micro-wave popcorn. And its pairing with hydrogenated fats, also typically found in microwave popcorn, equals an extremely unhealthy combination that increases LDL “bad” cholesterol and lowers HDL “good” cholesterol.

 

In addition, a preliminary 2012 lab study suggests that consuming diacetyl may worsen the effects of beta-amyloid accumulation, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein. This meaty-tasting flavor enhancer, classified as a “natural flavoring” on some labels and used in soups, meats, sauces and stews, often masks the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG). Found in many canned, packaged and prepared foods, MSG is known to trigger headaches and may lead to weight gain.

 

MSG is sometimes also a hidden source of wheat, which should be avoided by people who are sensitive to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

 

Potassium bromate. Potassium alone is an essential mineral for health, but potassium bromate (found in bromated flour) has been linked to cancer in lab animals. The threat is strong enough to have prompted all European countries as well as Canada and China to ban bromated flour, an additive that helps dough rise. In the US, the FDA has stopped short of such a measure, instead only encouraging commercial bakers to voluntarily stop using it.

 

Many national manufacturers of baked goods, such as Arnold and Pepperidge Farm, switched to nonbromated flours years ago, but others have not. Check the label.

 

ADDITIVES THAT ARE SAFE

 

Alginate. It may sound like it comes from algae, but seaweed is the source of this additive, which serves as a thickener in jellies, salad dressings, custards, ice cream and soups. Its ability to trap cholesterol in its gel-like structure may lower cholesterol, and some studies suggest it also can help us feel full.

 

Canthaxanthin. Healthful food colorings are difficult to find, but this orange-red pigment—found in crustaceans, fish and mushrooms—is an antioxidant. Canthaxanthin is sometimes added to fruit spreads, syrups and drinks and may have benefits similar to those found in other antioxidants such as beta-carotene.

 

Dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate. This food stabilizer and thickener is known for its stool-softening and laxative properties. The white, waxy solid, which is added to dairy-based cheeses, beverages and sauces, has been researched extensively in animal studies and is considered essentially nontoxic.

 

Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). Just trying to pronounce this additive scares some people away, but don’t let it deter you if you spot it on a food label. FOS are plant sugars derived from such healthful foods as asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes.

 

FOS, typically added to certain dairy products such as some yogurts and ice cream, act as healthful “prebiotics,” which promote the production of “good” bacteria in your gut.

 

*To research potential health risks of food additives, consult the Web site of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, www.CSPInet.org.

 

Source: Deanna Minich, PhD, CN, a Port Orchard, Washington–based nutritionist and author with more than 20 years of experience in nutrition, wellness and healing. She has written four books on nutrition and health, including An A-Z Guide to Food Additives (Conari), in which she gives an “A to F” safety rating for widely used food additives. www.FoodAndSpirit.com

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/diet-a-exercise/tricky-food-labels

Gatorade Removing Controversial Ingredient

Gatorade Removing Controversial Ingredient But Denies It’s Because Of Teen’s Campaign

Fri, 01/25/2013 - 16:00 EDT

A few weeks after a 15-year-old started an online petition to tell Gatorade to get rid of brominated vegetable oil, an ingredient linked to flame retardants, its parent company PepsiCo says it’s pulling the controversial ingredient from the sports drink. But not because of that petition, says the company. Nope, because of everyone else who was complaining.

A spokeswoman made sure the distinction was clear, saying the company began “hearing rumblings” in the past year from consumers concerned about the ingredient, reports the Associated Press. She reportedly said it was not a response to the Mississippi teen’s Change.org petition. Because she’s not a consumer that rumbled in the past year?

The teen’s petition highlighted the fact that brominated vegetable oil has been patented as a flame retardant and is considered unsafe for consumption in Japan as well as by the European Union. As of today the petition she started had more than 200,000 supporters.

PepsiCo’s spokeswoman says its’ used as an emulsifier so that flavoring doesn’t get clumpy. It’s also used in other drinks like Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola products like Fanta and some Powerade flavors.

She says the move is not because the company thinks BVO is unsafe, but to address concerns expressed specifically by Gatorade customers. Again — not, ostensibly, the Mississippi teen’s concerns. Just everyone else’s.

As for the teen, named Sarah, she said via a press release from Change.org that she’s excited about how things have turned out.

“When I went to Change.org to start my petition, I thought it might get a lot of support because no one wants to gulp down flame retardant, especially from a drink they associate with being healthy,” she said. “But with Gatorade being as big as they are, sometimes it was hard to know if we’d ever win. This is so, so awesome.”

“Companies like Gatorade put so much thought into marketing,” she added. “As someone who loves to drink their products, I’m so glad they’re making strides to put as much consideration into their customers’ health.”

She started her petition after researching the ingredients in a Gatorade she was drinking, and was inspired in part by a Scientific American article that linked BVO to ill health effects, especially in children.

http://www.bullfax.com/?q=node-gatorade-removing-controversial-ingredient-denies-it



Gatorade to remove controversial ingredient

Candice Choi, Associated Press5:37p.m. EST January 25, 2013

The sports drink is replacing brominated vegetable oil, used to distribute flavoring evenly.
 



Gatorade is removing brominated vegetable oil, which is used as an emulsifier.(Photo: Michael Keating, AP)

Story Highlights

• Firm: The move has been in the works for the past year
• The ingredient is listed in other drinks, too
• FDA has not banned the ingredient

NEW YORK — PepsiCo Inc. is removing a controversial ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, from its Gatorade sports drink in response to customer complaints.

A spokeswoman for the company, Molly Carter, said Friday that the move was in the works for the past year after the company began "hearing rumblings" from consumers about the ingredient. She said it wasn't a response to a recent petition on Change.org by a Mississippi teenager.

The ingredient is also listed in other drinks, including some flavors of Powerade, made by rival Coca-Cola Co. The Atlanta-based company did not say whether it would remove the ingredient from Powerade as well but noted that it takes customers' concerns into account when looking for ways to improve its drinks.

Ingredients in food and drinks have come under greater scrutiny in recent years, helped by the ability of consumers to mobilize online. The petition on Change.org noted that brominated vegetable oil has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the European Union. It had more than 200,000 supporters Friday.

For Gatorade, Carter said the ingredient is used as an "emulsifier," meaning it distributes flavoring evenly so that it doesn't collect at the surface. She said it was used only in select flavors including such as orange and citrus. Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is still used in other drinks, including Coca-Cola's Fanta and PepsiCo's Mountain Dew.

A spokesman for competitor Dr Pepper Snapple Group was not available to comment on whether the ingredient is used in any of its drinks.

Carter noted that the ingredient is not banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that the decision wasn't the result of any health or safety concerns. She said it was to address concerns expressed specifically by Gatorade customers.

PepsiCo is replacing BVO in Gatorade with an ingredient called sucrose acetate isobutyrate, which will maintain the flavor and taste of the drinks.

PepsiCo's decision to remove the ingredient from Gatorade was first reported by the trade journal Beverage Digest.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/25/gatorade-controversial-ingredient/1865155/

Gatorade Drink Ingredient Gets a Look

James Edward Bates for The New York Times

Sarah Kavanagh, 15, of Hattiesburg, Miss., started an online petition asking PepsiCo to change Gatorade’s formula.

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: December 12, 2012

Sarah Kavanagh and her little brother were looking forward to the bottles of Gatorade they had put in the refrigerator after playing outdoors one hot, humid afternoon last month in Hattiesburg, Miss.
But before she took a sip, Sarah, a dedicated vegetarian, did what she often does and checked the label to make sure no animal products were in the drink. One ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, caught her eye.
      

“I knew it probably wasn’t from an animal because it had vegetable in the name, but I still wanted to know what it was, so I Googled it,” Ms. Kavanagh said. “A page popped up with a long list of possible side effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones. I didn’t expect that.”

      

She threw the product away and started a petition on Change.org, an online petition platform, that has almost 200,000 signatures. Ms. Kavanagh, 15, hopes her campaign will persuade PepsiCo, Gatorade’s maker, to consider changing the drink’s formulation.

      

Jeff Dahncke, a spokesman for PepsiCo, noted that brominated vegetable oil had been deemed safe for consumption by federal regulators. “As standard practice, we constantly evaluate our formulas and ingredients to ensure they comply with federal regulations and meet the high quality standards our consumers and athletes expect — from functionality to great taste,” he said in an e-mail.

      

In fact, about 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States contain brominated vegetable oil, including Mountain Dew, also made by PepsiCo; Powerade, Fanta Orange and Fresca from Coca-Cola; and Squirt and Sunkist Peach Soda, made by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

      

The ingredient is added often to citrus drinks to help keep the fruit flavoring evenly distributed; without it, the flavoring would separate.

      

Use of the substance in the United States has been debated for more than three decades, so Ms. Kavanagh’s campaign most likely is quixotic. But the European Union has long banned the substance from foods, requiring use of other ingredients. Japan recently moved to do the same.

      

“B.V.O. is banned other places in the world, so these companies already have a replacement for it,” Ms. Kavanagh said. “I don’t see why they don’t just make the switch.” To that, companies say the switch would be too costly.

      

The renewed debate, which has brought attention to the arcane world of additive regulation, comes as consumers show increasing interest in food ingredients and have new tools to learn about them. Walmart’s app, for instance, allows access to lists of ingredients in foods in its stores.

      

Brominated vegetable oil contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, used in things like upholstered furniture and children’s products. Research has found brominate flame retardants building up in the body and breast milk, and animal and some human studies have linked them to neurological impairment, reduced fertility, changes in thyroid hormones and puberty at an earlier age.

      

Limited studies of the effects of brominated vegetable oil in animals and in humans found buildups of bromine in fatty tissues. Rats that ingested large quantities of the substance in their diets developed heart lesions.

      

Its use in foods dates to the 1930s, well before Congress amended the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to add regulation of new food additives to the responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administration. But Congress exempted two groups of additives, those already sanctioned by the F.D.A. or the Department of Agriculture, or those experts deemed “generally recognized as safe.”

       

The second exemption created what Tom Neltner, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ food additives project, a three-year investigation into how food additives are regulated, calls “the loophole that swallowed the law.” A company can create a new additive, publish safety data about it on its Web site and pay a law firm or consulting firm to vet it to establish it as “generally recognized as safe” — without ever notifying the F.D.A., Mr. Neltner said.

About 10,000 chemicals are allowed to be added to foods, about 3,000 of which have never been reviewed for safety by the F.D.A., according to Pew’s research. Of those, about 1,000 never come before the F.D.A. unless someone has a problem with them; they are declared safe by a company and its handpicked advisers.

“I worked on the industrial and consumer products side of things in the past, and if you take a new chemical and put it into, say, a tennis racket, you have to notify the E.P.A. before you put it in,” Mr. Neltner said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “But if you put it into food and can document it as recognized as safe by someone expert, you don’t have to tell the F.D.A.”
      

Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for food and veterinary medicine at the agency, said: “From our standpoint, we do need to look at whether this regime established by Congress almost 60 years ago gives us the information we need. It would be desirable for F.D.A. to have more information on products being added to food.”

      

The F.D.A. is aware of the controversy surrounding brominated vegetable oil. It took the ingredient off its list of substances “generally recognized as safe” in 1970, after the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association revoked its approval of it. The group’s expert panel is the primary body for evaluating the safety of flavoring substances added to food; if it rules something is “generally recognized as safe,” the F.D.A. goes along.

      

John Halligan, senior adviser and general counsel to the organization, said that during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the expert panel was reviewing many older additives that had been grandfathered into “generally recognized as safe” status when the federal law was changed.

      

“They came to B.V.O. and there had been some new studies done which weren’t definitive,” he said. “The panel looked at data and said it doesn’t look like we have an adequate database here to conclude this substance is generally recognized as safe, so they revoked its status.”

      

Subsequently, Patricia El-Hinnawy, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A, wrote in an e-mail, the agency asked the association to do studies on brominated vegetable oil in mice, rats, dogs and pigs. She said that the organization made “several submissions of safety data” to the F.D.A. while those studies were going on, roughly from 1971 to 1974.

      

“F.D.A. determined that the totality of evidence supported the safe use of B.V.O. in fruit-flavored beverages up to 15 parts per million,” Ms. El-Hinnawy wrote.

      

That ruling, made in 1977, was supposed to be interim, pending more studies, but 35 years later it is unchanged. “Any change in the interim status of B.V.O. would require an expenditure of F.D.A.’s limited resources, which is not a public health protection priority for the agency at this time,” Ms. El-Hinnawy wrote.

      

Meanwhile, no further testing has been done. While most people have limited exposure to brominated vegetable oil, an extensive article about it by Environmental Health News that ran in Scientific American last year found that video gamers and others who binge on sodas and other drinks containing the ingredient experience skin lesions, nerve disorders and memory loss.

      

Michael F. Jacobson, co-founder and executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said some studies show that B.V.O. collects in fatty tissues, raising questions about what its effect might be during weight loss. Dr. Jacobson, who looked into the research on brominated vegetable oil after being asked about it by The New York Times, concluded, “The testing of B.V.O. is abysmal.”

      

He said the longest studies of the ingredient he could find covered only four months, while most food additives are usually tested for two years, making it impossible to establish a safe level of consumption.

 

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 14, 2012
An article on Thursday about new concerns over brominated vegetable oil, a common ingredient in many citrus drinks, described incorrectly Change.org, the Web site where a Mississippi teenager started a petition to persuade PepsiCo to remove the substance from Gatorade. It is a B Corporation, a sort of hybrid nonprofit/for-profit entity; it is not a nonprofit Web site. (The company’s online petition platform is supported by advertising.)

A version of this article appeared in print on December 13, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Drink Ingredient Gets a Look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/business/another-look-at-a-drink-ingredient-brominated-vegetable-oil.html