Tuesday, May 12, 2009

What? "Healthy" foods may not be?


Melinda Beck, who writes the Health Journal in the WSJ, says food manufacturers may be woofing us on what is really healthy—this at a tme where people need to withstand stress and still not spend a lot.

The average American, she writes, eats 90 lbs of chicken a year, but a third of that is really pumped with salt water.

If you are trying to cut salt, don’t go to a salt “substitute” without asking the doc—many contain another electrolyte that makes your heartbeat—namely, potassium. You want sodium and potassium in balance to stay alive.

If you chew gum, you may save 10 cals on nonsugar gum, but sorbital may give you the runs.

Even products labeled No Trans Fat (ooo, arteries hate this stuff) may contain some—manufacturers can “round down.”

Wheat bread may look wheaty (brown coloring) but if it says “enriched wheat flour,” it isn't "whole."

Added fiber in those powders may help lower cholesterol and all those other good things—theoretically—but fiber from foods is better.

Yogurt…yipes. Those cultures are supposed to be active—meaning fight diarrhea.

Those "super waters" aren’t swift. Most Americans don’t need the vitamins they contain.

Forget Omega 3 fortification—eat some fish a few times a week.

Do judge a food by its cover—and by your BS detector, which better be in good working order these days.

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