11 worst 'healthy' foods in the supermarket

Watch out! These nutritional imposters could be sabotaging your diet


11 not-so-healthy foods
By Dave Zinczenko and Matt Goulding
If there’s one lesson to learn from the supermarket, it’s that the front of the package never tells the whole story. When researching the "Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide," we spent a lot of time investigating the pantries of average Americans.

What we found inside the cupboards and refrigerator doors were foods rich with the healthy buzzwords of the day: multigrain bread, fat-free yogurt, and all-natural granola. While these might seem like the virtuous foods you should be bringing home to your family, many of these are the exact foods that are silently sabotaging the diets and expanding the waistlines of millions of Americans each year.

Here’s the good news: By hunting down just three health food imposters cluttering your cabinets and ice boxes and replacing them with truly nutritious foods, you could lose over 25 pounds this year alone - without changing any of your other eating habits.

We’ve highlighted 11 of the worst not-so-healthy health foods in the supermarket and supplied you with a list of first-class foods you should be eating instead.


Worst 'healthy' pastry
Pop-Tarts Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon (2 pastries)
400 calories
14 g fat (4 g saturated)
5 g fiber
28 g sugars
Whole grain ain’t the whole truth. There’s also a glut of vegetable oil and seven types of sugar stuffed inside. In this case, the costs definitely outweigh the benefits.

Eat this instead:
Sun-Maid Raisin English Muffins with Cinnamon
170 calories
0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
2 g fiber
13 g sugars

Worst frozen 'healthy' entree
Healthy Choice Complete Selections Sweet & Sour Chicken (340 g)
430 calories
9 g fat (1 g saturated)
600 mg sodium
29 g sugars
Why would fried chicken cloaked in sugar ever be considered the "healthy choice"?

In fact, this one frozen chicken entree has as much sugar as you’d find in two scoops of Breyers Reese’s Peanut Butter cup ice cream.

Eat this instead:
Kashi Southwest Style Chicken
240 calories
5 g fat (0 g saturated)
680 mg sodium

Worst yogurt
Yoplait 99 percent Fat Free Cherry Orchard (1 container, 170 g)
170 calories
1.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
27 g sugars
5 g protein
Think those 27 grams of sugars come from the cherries? Think again: After milk, sugar is the first ingredient on this list. And there’s as much of it in there as you’ll find in two scoops of Breyer’s All Natural Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.

Go Greek instead; Stonyfield skims their line of Oikos yogurts of the watery whey, leaving you with a cup of ultra creamy yogurt that packs less than half the sugar and three times the protein of the Yoplait disappointment.

Eat this instead:
Oikos Organic Vanilla Greek Yogurt
110 calories
0 g fat
11 g sugars
15 g protein

Worst 'healthy' bread
Arnold Whole Grains Health Nut (2 slices, 86 g)
240 calories
4 g fat (0 g saturated)
4 g fiber
Don’t fall for the label braggadocio. For as calorie-dense as this bread is, there’s just not enough fiber to justify it in your diet. Look for this unsuspecting potato bread, instead, which is one of the best loaves on the shelf. In addition to a boast-worthy fiber load that doubles that of the Health Nut, it also packs an impressive 12 grams of protein.

Eat this instead:
Martin’s 100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread (2 slices, 70 g)
140 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
8 g fiber

Worst cereal
Quaker 100 percent Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins (1 cup)
420 calories
12 g fat (7 g saturated)
6 g fiber
30 g sugars
For the record, granola, for all its reputation as a beacon of breakfast virtue, is one of the worst ways to start your day. That’s because it takes an awful lot of sugar to keep those clusters glued together, making a single cup as sweet as two bowls of Cocoa Pebbles and as calorie-dense as 8 chicken wings. Even scarier, with the Cocoa Pebbles, you’d get more fiber and save about 60 calories in fat. Go one step further and swap the Granola for Kashi GoLean. Do this every day this year and you’ll save 29 pounds!

Eat this instead:
Kashi GOLEAN (1 cup)
140 calories
1 g fat (0 g saturated)
10 g fiber
6 g sugars

Worst snack bar
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Raspberry Cereal Bar (1 bar)
140 calories
3 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
13 g sugars
2 g fiber
With a name like that, you’d think these Kellogg’s breakfast bars were the healthiest food on the planet. Too bad the very first ingredient is high-fructose corn syrup. That’s right, most of that delicious fruity goodness is actually synthesized sugar. Not all Nutri-Grain products are equally unsavory, however. Choose the Nutri-Grain Cranberry, Raisin & Peanut bars and at least you’ll be getting a dose of healthy nuts and real fruit.

Eat this instead:
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Cranberry, Raisin & Peanut fruit and nut bar (1 bar)
120 calories
3.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
11 g sugars
3 g fiber

Worst dip
Dean’s Guacamole (2 Tbsp, 30 g)
90 calories
9 g fat (2.5 g saturated)
170 mg sodium
This “guacamole” dip is comprised of less than 2 percent avocado; the rest of the green goo is a cluster of fillers and chemicals, including modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food coloring. Dean’s isn’t alone in this guacamole caper; most guacs with the word “dip” attached to them suffer from a lack of avocado. If you buy guacamole at the store, make sure avocado is the first of no more than six or seven ingredients. Or make the dip in three minutes at home by mashing together a few ripe avocadoes with minced onion, garlic, fresh cilantro, and the juice of a lemon or lime.

Eat this instead:
Wholly Guacamole Classic (2 Tbsp, 30 g)
50 calories
4 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
75 mg sodium

Worst juice
V8 Splash Mango Peach (8 fl oz)
80 calories
0 g fat
18 g sugars
This juice is closer to Coke than regular V8. The first two ingredients are water and high-fructose corn syrup, and it contains only 10% juice. Go for the real deal instead; the V-Fusion Light will provide you with a full serving of fruits and vegetables for nearly half the calories and sugar.

Drink this instead:
V8 V-Fusion Light Peach Mango (8 fl oz)
50 calories
0 g fat
10 g sugars

Worst butter substitute
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original (1 Tbsp, 14 g)
90 calories
10 g fat (2 g saturated, 2.5 g trans)
90 mg sodium
Stick margarine is the absolute worst. To make it solid, it has to be stabilized with partially hydrogenated oils, the source of trans fat. What unsuspecting slatherers are left with is a single tablespoon of yellow goop that contains more than a full day’s worth of a fat that’s been proven to increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Stick with real butter instead; Organic Valley Whipped Butter has just two ingredients: sweet cream and salt.

Eat this instead:
Organic Valley Whipped Butter (1 Tbsp)
50 calories
6 g fat (3.5 g saturated)
40 mg sodium

Worst protein drink
Naked Protein Zone Banana Chocolate (15.2-oz bottle)
456 calories
3 g fat (1 g saturated)
67 g sugars
This drink packs 30.5 grams of protein, but is that really worth the sugar and calories? It’s the sugar equivalent of 5 Breyers Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches, and you’d need to lift weights for more than two hours to burn off those calories. Catch a similar protein surge for a fraction of the calories and sugar by opting for the Bolthouse bottle instead.

Drink this instead:
Bolthouse Farms Perfect Protein Vanilla Chai (16-oz bottle)
320 calories
42 g sugars

Worst 'healthy' frozen treat
Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark (1/2 cup, 70 g)
210 calories
13 g fat (2 g saturated)
16 g sugars
Tofutti claims “no butterfat” and “no cholesterol,” and both are technically true, but they paint a false sense of security in the person looking for a healthy indulgence. Ignore front label claims (Tofutti is not made with dairy, so by definition it can’t have butterfat or cholesterol) and flip the package for the straight scoop; here you’ll see that this ice cream substitute still has more sugar and fat per serving than most regular ice creams. If you want to skip the dairy, It’s Soy Delicious is your best bet every time.

Eat this instead:
s Soy Delicious Chocolate Almond (1/2 cup)
140 calories
4.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
12 g sugars




Updated: 5:03 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2009

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URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28799225/