Eating Healthy or Not

Lately, going by social media at least, it appears that more Nigerians are making more effort to be health conscious. All of us have realized that we must try and live healthy. Many of us have made the necessary changes in our dietary patterns to lead a healthier life. More people are switching over to health foods and cereals, energy bars, diet sodas, and touted low-calorie foods. However, how many of us know if the health food we eat is in fact good for us?

Walking through the aisles at the supermarket, we notice all the food that is low in calories, but many times forget to check if it has low sugar content. How then do we know if this low-calorie food is good or bad? What many people fail to realise is that weight gain results more often from saturated sugar concentration, than increased calorie intake. Saturated sugar or fructose is not easily broken down and converted to simple sugar or glucose that is required for energy production. Instead, it gets stored in the body and increases insulin insensitivity which in turn is responsible for weight gain. However this does not mean that all sugar is bad and should be shunned. The body requires small quantities of fructose like those present in fruits.

Let’s have a look at some of these deceptive foods that we have been eating instead of avoiding?

1. Artificial Sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners are the worst food choice you can make. While artificial sweeteners do not contain actual sugars, and hence cannot add to your weight, the sweet taste of artificial sweeteners send signals to the brain’s pleasure sensors, thereby making you hungrier and you end up eating more. So, when you are taking more artificial sweeteners in your diet, your body craves more for the actual sugar. Eventually, your body loses control over its ability to control calories and you overeat which leads to weight gain.
2. Frozen Yogurt: Aha, this is a good one. The sweet sweet Froyo which is all the rave lately. Frozen yogurt is marketed to weight watchers as the go-to desert since they are ‘low-cal’, and you do not have to worry about putting on weight. What they do not tell us is that every 20g of frozen yogurt contains around 20g of sugar, which amounts to 30-35 calories. So, a large serving of frozen yogurt would mean around 300 calories and 100g sugar, minus all the sugar in the various toppings. Flavoured frozen yogurt contains even more saturated sugars for better taste and increased sales. So if you have been avoiding ice-cream because #FitFam,, you should know frozen yogurt is not much better.
3. Diet Sodas: Neither diet sodas nor energy drinks are good for you. They might make up for liquid sugar in the short term, true, but they also contain artificial sweeteners that induce overeating in the long term. A research at the University of Texas Health Science Centre, in 2011, found that drinking diet soda increased heart risks by 50%. Another study the University of Texas conducted over a decade, found that the waistlines of diet soda drinkers increased by 70% as compared to those who do not drink diet soda.
4. High Fibre Cereals: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and many of us believe cereals are a great substitute for quick, easy, fibre and nutrient-rich breakfast. But how true is this. High fibre cereals are undoubtedly rich in fibre, but they do not contain as many nutrients as we would like to believe. Many of these boxed cereals contain just fibre and high sugar concentrations. A high fibre diet is known to prevent heart diseases, but plenty of sugar in your diet is sure to increase your blood sugar level, which is very unhealthy.
5. Fast Food Salads: Sometimes you go to a fast food joint, and you want to make sure you’re repping #fitfam, so you pick up the salad instead of the donut/meatpie because salads are vegetables, so they should be good for you, and they are. However, it is also what goes on the salad that adds up. The salad dressing is usually filled with carbohydrates and fats. Readymade salads may have croutons, shaved cheese, fried meat, and crisp noodles as topping, which are all very unhealthy. With all these additions sometimes a salad can pack more calories than a big, plate of jollof rice.

It is very good to be conscious of what we eat, but sometimes even we overlook food nutrition due to marketing gimmicks. So, the next time you go shopping for food items to fit into your new healthy lifestyle, make sure you check the nutrition chart at the back of every product. It is important not be fooled into thinking you are on a healthy diet because these apparently “healthy food” products eventually have health risks, which are better avoided.