Healthy Foods that Prevent Your Weight Loss

Healthy Foods that Prevent Your Weight Loss

When trying to lose weight, many people reach for seemingly healthy foods such as “low-calorie,” “sugar-free” or “low-fat” products in the grocery store. However this may be what is sabotaging your weight loss. There are certain foods that may appear healthy however are actually the reason that your jeans are getting tighter. Below is a list of food items to avoid when shopping in order to breakdown that weight loss barrier.

Sugar Free Products

Although sugar free products look tempting when trying to lose weight because of their low calorie and carbohydrate content, they are actually more harmful to your health than real sugar. Studies show that sugar free foods may actually be contributing to your weight gain because although it is sugar free, the substitutes are still causing your body to release insulin and store fat. Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has shown that diet drinks increase chances of getting type 2 diabetes by 66%. There have been no proven benefits to drinking these artificial beverages and no correlation with any weight loss.

Multi-Grain Products

Due to successful marketing tactics, when people think of ‘multigrain’ products, they associate it with healthy and natural foods. ‘Multigrain’ really just means many different grains, which often include refined and unnatural products. In order to make sure that you are getting the full nutritional benefit of whole grains, read the ingredients and make sure they do not include ‘unbleached enriched wheat flour’ and look for packaging that says ‘100% whole wheat bread. This way, you will be getting all of the vitamins and minerals included in whole grain and you do not have to cut out all breads in order to lose weight.

Energy Bars

Granola, protein, and all other kinds of bars are said to be a great snack in between meals when trying to lose weight. However, if you don’t read the ingredients, you could be snacking on the equivalent to a candy car. These bars are often filled with sugar and added chemicals in order to create certain flavors. When choosing your bars, make sure that they don’t exceed 250 calories, have a significant amount of fiber in them, no more than 2 grams of saturated fat, and have at least 10 grams of protein. Also, avoid bars with ‘high fructose corn syrup,’ ‘enriched white flour’ and chemicals. Remember, the fewer ingredients the better.

So, stop falling for these seemingly healthy marketing traps and make smart, organic, and natural choices in order to finally reach your goal.

If you’re interested in learning more about making the healthiest decisions to change your lifestyle and drop that extra weight, then come to Dawson’s Market this Thursday (4/2) from 6:30-8 pm for our workshop, tour, and tasting. Click here for more information about this workshop.

This blog post was written by Jillian Griminger, Nutrition Intern

 

Sources:

Schulze, MB, K Hoffmann, JE Manson, WC Willett, JB Meigs, C Weikert, C Heidemann, GA Colditz, and FB Hu. “Dietary Pattern, Inflammation, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Women.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 82.3 (2005): 675-84.

Ahmad, Madiha T. “Wheat Versus Multigrain.” Healthy Eating. SF Gate, n.d. Web. <http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/wheat-versus-multigrain-7688.html>.