Most people have a dilemma: we love to eat but we also have to eat healthy. We often listen to the nutrition and dietary experts who sometimes get it wrong. For example, fats were the cause of obesity, heart disease, and almost anything that caused our short and long term illnesses.
We know now that all fats are not bad for you. In fact, some fat is necessary is out diets to maintain our health. Yet for many years no small amount of information was publicly spread that said fat is bad for your health. In reverse, we have been told certain foods are healthy for us that should be taken in small doses.
Here are seven foods that are not as healthy as you may be led to believe.
1) Vegetable oils – This is a group of cooking oils that includes corn, peanut, sunflower, safflower, and soybean. They only have been introduced to our diets since the 1950’s. The movement away from trans fats have restaurants and others using vegetable oils more. However, medical research is showing that people who consume high levels of these oils have a higher incidence of gallstones and various types of cancer. During cooking, these oils change to create some toxic oxidation by-products, particularly when these oils are heated over a long period of time.
The Better Alternative: butter, lard, coconut oil, tallow, and olive oil. These oils do not oxidize as easily and have not been linked to coronary disease.
2) Skim milk – The reason behind this being a necessity in your diet is because the fat in skim milk was required to properly digest the vitamins present in the milk. Certain vitamins, even when present in vegetables – among them A, D, E, and K – require fat to be properly metabolized in the body. Also calcium, a mineral, cannot be absorbed into the intestines without fat, and will leave behind a calcium soap in the intestinal tract.
The Better Alternative: whole milk, because it contains the natural fat necessary to assist with the absorption of these vitamins and minerals.
3) Low fat foods in general – This is a carbohydrates vs. fat issue. Since fats give food flavor and texture, processors of food removed the fats but replaced them mostly with carbohydrate fillers known as “fat replacers.” So when you eat peanut butter, yogurt, cookies, ice cream, or even salad dressing, the chances are you are taking in additional carbohydrates and sugars. Comparing a low-fat coffee cake with a regular coffee cake, the low-fat version may have you eating as much as 50 grams more of carbohydrates in the form of sugar – the equivalent of 2 Hershey’s chocolate bars. The non-fat free version will have less than half the amount of sugar.
The Better Alternative: Whole fat and high fat foods are to be preferred because they do not add sugars to your diet, and fewer carbohydrates will keep your weight at an even keel.
4) Fruit – A surprise item on this list, fruit has a high concentration of fructose, especially in pineapples, grapes, watermelons, and assorted dried fruits. Fructose present in fruit has the same high powered sugar boost as high fructose corn syrup – it goes directly into the liver creating high levels of triglycerides and other toxic lipids that can negatively impact your metabolism and cause heart disease.
The Better Alternative: Cheese and nuts are good substitutes, but do not cut out the fruits. Just be selective about your diet choices.
5) Whole grains – What needs to be understood about whole grains is that all carbohydrates, even those high in fiber, are converted into glucose by the body’s production of insulin. Whatever is not used by the body is stored as fat. Major diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity are a result of eating too many whole grain foods.
The Better Alternative: Substituting fish, meat, eggs, and dairy products in place of many whole grain foods will keep your body in balance.
6) Chicken – The question is not why not chicken but how much should you eat. Actually, because chicken is not a good source of nutrients compared to red meat, you can eat more and get less healthy when compared to equally sized portions. Chicken lacks essential vitamins and minerals such as B6, B12, selenium, and iron.
The Better Alternative: Besides the sometimes substitution of red meat for chicken, you can add sweetbreads or liver to the substitution list. There is no medical evidence that the fats and cholesterol in these foods contribute to heart disease.
7) Olive oil – Much hype has been given to olive oil, in part because it has a long, ancient history and in part because it is supposed to be a heart healthy food. But there is no research that reveals any evidence of having heart healthy ingredients, and though used by the Greeks and Italians, its primary use was external to anoint the body.
The Better Alternative: While olive oil can be used in salads and other foods at room temperature, for cooking use butter, lard or coconut oil which do not oxidize when heated.
Source : mindbodygreen