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Some foods are constantly being switched back and forth between health experts. But do you know the truth about them? Let's look at some common beliefs and see if they have any truth to them.
- Kale is the healthiest green around. In a ranking of nutrient rich foods, kale didn’t even make the top ten. Even spinach and Romaine lettuce beat out kale for nutrient density.
- Diet sodas don’t make you gain weight. Sure, artificial sweeteners aren’t as poisonous for you as sugar, but they can cause strong food urges later in your day that are almost impossible to control. This means you’ll more than make up for the carbs you were trying to avoid.
- “Trans-fat free” means that they’re actually trans-fat free. Foods can say that they’re trans-fat free if they contain 0.5 grams of trans-fat or less per serving. But hey, if you have multiple servings, those are going to add up.
- Yogurts with “live active cultures” are better for your belly. This is only true if your yogurt isn’t packed with sugar. Most flavored yogurts have enough sugar to get rid of any benefit those cultures may have had.
- Bananas are your best option for potassium. Bananas only have an average of 422 milligrams of potassium, which is not even a little bit close to your goal of 6800 milligrams per day. Broccoli, apricots, and cantaloupe all have more potassium with less calories.
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- Comfort food can make you feel better. A study done on patients who were shown depressing movies and then given comfort food showed that the food made no difference in mood improvement. So comfort eating may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
- Wraps are more slimming than sandwiches. This would be true, only for a tortilla to have the structural integrity it needs for a wrap, it needs added fat and oils. That packs in more unhealthy stuff than regular bread.
Did you know the truth about these foods?
Photo Copyright © 2013 Sue Salisbury/Flickr
