Foods you might think are healthy (but aren’t).

April 28, 2020 admin 0

Everybody has their own ideas on what is healthy and what isn’t when food is concerned, but even foods considered and touted as ‘good for you’, often aren’t. We take a look at some of the most popular offenders here and offer you some reasoning on why they made it into this article…

 Fruit Juice.

By fruit juice, we are talking about the ultra refined and sometimes concentrated, orange, apple and grape products (and similar) that adorn the shelves of supermarkets and food stores. If you made a smoothie with whole fruits at home, that isn’t really the same thing as you are consuming most of the whole fruit still. Many fruit juices are a rich source of phytonutrients and vitamins, but it is seemingly negated by the downside of their consumption.So what is the problem with processed juices ? First of all, fruit was never intended to  have its juice removed and consumed in huge quantities. This is what happens example when you drink the juice of 10 oranges in one go. It isn’t just the fact you are getting a large dose of sugar, way above what you would get from eating an orange or two, but you aren’t consuming it with the fibrous flesh of the fruit or the skin (as in Apples case) and you are also consuming a whopping dose of fructose.In small amounts, such as eating a piece of fruit, fructose is rather insignificant. But when you start chugging back tall glasses of fruit juice the liver becomes engorged with it. Excess fructose ends up in the bloodstream as triglycerides (fat). High blood levels of triglycerides and the irregular blood sugar levels are documented to, over time, lead to an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and other associated metabolic disorders.One of the other issues with fruit juice, besides it not being a healthy food, is that manufactures and marketers often emboss their packaging with the ‘one of your five a day’ claim. Which, as fruit juice is inherently bad for you, and is nothing like consuming fruit properly is very misleading.

Olive Oil.

Olive oil can be purchased in several varieties. There is only one type that you should concern yourself with however : Extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is produced from the first pressing of olives  making it purer and less acidic than oils created in other ways. It is usually cold pressed to preserve the flavour and hence is more expensive. Like any oil it should never be heated and only consumed ‘raw’ on salads, in home made dips or drizzled over bread. If you get Extra virgin olive oil and only consume it raw you are pretty much good to go.So why is olive oil in this article ? Well regular old olive oil  is a blend of refined pomace oil and virgin olive oil. Pomace oil is obtained by processing the scraps of olives left over from the creation of extra virgin olive oil. It is also heated during processing for greater yield. This changes the molecular structure for the worst. Not only is regular olive oil devoid of the nutrients and undamaged mono-unsatured fats that extra virgin contains, it is also no better for you than any other refined vegetable oil. Cooking wise, other oils such as coconut oil have a higher smoke point, but I would never personally recommend cooking with any, as Udo Erasmus said, the only good oil for cooking in is water (he was  of course meaning don’t cook in oil at all).

Fish.

Many people catagorise fish for human consumption into two catagories, wild and farmed. It’s  quite common to presume (or market) ‘wild’ fish and sea caught fish as ‘healthy’ But any sea fish could have been swimming about a sewage pipe and be high in concentrations of toxic accumulatives like mercury.Whilst it is pretty safe to say ‘wild’ fish are less likely to have endured a concentrated diet of chemicals, processed feed, soya and antibiotics, they are more likely to have been exposed to pollution. For those that must consume fish, researching the least contaminated species and where they might be caught is a must. The association with certain types of fish with Omega 3 fatty acids is another marketing wheeze used to sell certain fish products. Whilst many cold water fish do contain Omega 3, there are plenty of other foods which contain more and you can enjoy these without the healthy dose of accumulatives, antiobiotics or pollutants.

Soy.

Soy and its derivatives, including texturised soy based proteins, have long been touted as great alternatives to meat and dairy. Marketers and proponents of soy used things like the isoflavone content as marketing tools and simultaneously many spurious studies  cropped up when soy became really popular in alternative foods. Two Soy isoflavones, Genistein and Daidzen were heavily promoted in the fitness industry as increasing thyroid function which was claimed to promote fat burning. They did do this, but that was still no good reason to be eating soy.But just like fruit juice, which is considered healthy by the uninformed ‘because it has vitamin c in it’, soy is regarded by many individuals (including alarmingly many medical doctors and dieticians) to be a valuable foodstuff, simply because it is an alternative to meats that could be considered unhealthy. In essence though, recommending soy as a healthy alternative to meat, is a bit like recommending smoking cigars and a pipe as an alternative to cigarettes.Also worth noting is that many soy products have genetically modified origins. Before the pro-soy lobby attempt to stone me, I would recommend anyone intrigued by this information to scout out the literally hundreds of epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies which demonstrate, often conclusively that soy and soy based product consumption can lead to digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, fertility issues,  birth defects, immune system suppression and cardiovascular disorders.  or If you want an articulate and properly referenced guide, check out The Whole Soy Story by Dr. Kaayla Daniel.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: antioxidants, food, healthy fats, nutrition, vegan