Tis' the season for most of us who are thinking - WOW its almost summer time and I still have not started my new years resolutions in loosing weight and inches before summer comes along!
Here are 10 foods that most of us eat and think that we are being healthy BUT in fact we are not here is a closer look into the realm of diet food!
The Sugar-Packed Snack: Yogurt
Brace yourself for culture shock. Plain yogurt naturally contains about 16 grams of sugar per cup. But if you eat flavored yogurt, you could be downing 15 or more additional grams of sugar, which is like shoveling in four extra teaspoonfuls.
The Tricky Treat: Sugar-Free Cookies and Candy
Don't fall for the no-sugar scam: When manufacturers remove the sweet stuff, they often add fat. One popular brand offers chocolate-chip cookies that each contain 160 calories and 9 grams of fat, so why not eat the real thing? You might save calories with sugar-free candy, but many contain sorbitol, which can cause bloating and diarrhea.
The Backpack Bad Guy: Trail Mix
Store-bought versions of this hiking staple should take a hike. A 1-ounce handful of banana chips packs 10 grams of fat (they're usually deep-fried), and yogurt-covered raisins are coated with partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, which contains saturated and trans fats.
The Mediocre Munchie: Veggie Chips
The rainbow-hued chips are no better than their potato counterparts. While both may boast a little vitamin A or C, your hips won't know the difference: The salty snacks have about 150 calories and 9 or 10 grams of fat per handful. And that bag may contain plain old chips in disguise; sometimes manufacturers simply add food coloring to potato flour.
The Cereal Saboteur: Granola
Pancakes drowned in syrup, eggs swimming in hollandaise sauce -- is there a healthy option on the brunch menu? Granola seems harmless, but it's no breakfast of champions. One cup contains up to 560 calories and 28 grams of fat before you add milk.
The Fishy Take-Out: Sushi
Say sayonara to the trendy American-style sushi rolls. They're stuffed with high-cal ingredients like cream cheese, mayo, and shredded cheese. And remember that tempura is simply another way of saying "'battered and fried."' One shrimp tempura roll (just six pieces of sushi) contains about 500 calories and 20 grams of fat.
The Liquid Lunch: Smoothies
Sure, you'll get your fruit servings. You'll also fit in a meal's worth of calories, and in some cases, way more fat than you think (17 grams in one popular chain's 16-ounce chunky strawberry smoothie). Even if you substitute one for breakfast, you're pushing your calorie limit: Some smoothies weigh in at 500 calories.
The Sneaky Sip: Diet Drinks
That can of zero-calorie soda glued to your palm may be your waistline's worst enemy: Research from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that people who drink artificially sweetened beverages gained more weight than those who didn't, possibly because the sweet flavor may trigger cravings for the real thing. In another study, soda sippers were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions including high blood pressure and ab fat that raises heart-disease risk.
The Villainous Vinaigrette: Fat-Free Salad Dressing
Without fat, your salad is dressed for diet success, right? Wrong. Your body needs fat to absorb certain nutrients in veggies. In a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who used fat-free dressings didn't absorb any lycopene or beta-carotene, two health-boosting antioxidants.
The Foul Fowl: Ground Turkey
It seems like a no-brainer for burgers and lasagna, but ground turkey often includes fat and skin. A 3-ounce serving can contain 13 grams of fat -- almost triple the amount in lean ground beef. With 40-plus percent of your day's worth of cholesterol, regular ground chicken is no better.
