#4 Why Eating Refined Foods, Even from Organic Sources, Can Keep You Overweight!
The truth about “health foods”
Most health foods on the market are refined foods with alternative looking “healthy” packaging. Some should actually be classified as “junk food,” because they are merely manufactured foodstuffs made from ingredients that were perhaps once organic; originally whole and natural, but aren’t anymore.
Lots of overweight, often unhealthy people live on health food! Breakfast cereal is the classic example. I literally eat cereal when I want a junk food dessert these days, meanwhile millions of people eat "organic cereals" touted as rich in antioxidants etc… are really just dead food. As the saying goes, there’s more nutrition in the cardboard box they came in!
A client once told me that she loved a popular “whole-grain” breakfast bar “because it tastes like pie, and it’s good for you!” Her “whole grain” bar was loaded with trans fats and refined sugar and was nothing more than a candy bar.
I had to break the news to her that if her intention was to eat pie, she was right on target. But if her intention was to eat in a health promoting way, she was being duped. She “was” eating pie – and she needed to know that!
Whole foods are real foods that are nutrient rich and promote your health! Health foods are often, not always, junk foods that are “healthier”. And what we call “junk foods” aren’t food… they’re outright junk!
This is one of those traps you may need to stay in for a bit, and have some flexibility around, as you transition to real, whole food. Given where most of us are eating in the food spectrum these days, you may need to eat “healthier” health food for a little while.
Learn the ins and outs of “transitioning” from a nutrient poor diet to eating predominantly nutrient rich foods. Understanding this subtle, hard to see diet trap will make all the difference in the world!
The next trap is the "Get Lots of Protein/Calcium" Trap: Why Our Misguided Quest for Big Muscles and Strong Bones Compromises Our Health.