Hidden Facts about Diet Food

The first thing and probably the worst thing that many people do when starting a diet is gravitate toward the ‘diet food’ aisle, of the grocery store. I was guilty of this myself, until I saw how high-priced everything… or almost everything was.

The diet food industry is a multimillion dollar business. They want dieters to believe that the only way to lose weight and be healthy is to purchase their product. Yes, there are prepackaged diet foods that are really quite good and for the most part healthy. But unfortunately, there are others that we would probably all be better off without.

What you have to remember is that ‘low-fat’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘low-cal’. Take diet candy, for example. Normally when the fat content is removed from candy much of the taste goes with it.  To make up for the lack of flavor, manufacturers add more sugar.

So in a nutshell, the calories that are eliminated when the fat is reduced are simply replaced by the ones contained in sugar. Bummer, huh? I guess the moral of the story is to eat regular candy but eat a whole lot less.

If you eat a great deal of salad, chances are you will find this interesting. The majority of dieters prepare their salad using iceberg lettuce. It’s usually the least expensive choice. But, iceberg lettuce is not as nutritious as darker or even mixed salad greens.

One serving of iceberg lettuce, which is about 1/6 of the head, is terribly lacking when it comes to vitamin A, iron and fiber. It only has 4%, 2% and 6% respectively.

On the other hand, one serving of raw spinach, which equals about 2-1/2 cups, contains 70%, 20% and 19% respectively. That is a huge difference. Maybe we should all consider eating more spinach.

When it comes to choosing the bread that is healthiest for you, opt for whole-grain.   Some people think that wheat bread is basically the same, but it isn’t. Wheat bread is usually just white bread with a bit of wheat flour thrown in. Whole wheat bread has actual whole-grains baked in.

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July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Diet, food | 12 Comments 

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