You’ve cut back on chocolate, chucked out the biscuits and raided
your nearest health food store, so why aren’t you losing those pounds?
Unfortunately, even with the best intentions, you could be sabotaging
your weight loss with the wrong foods. They might look and seem healthy,
but that’s not always the case. Check out the top 10 diet foods that
could pile on the pounds.
Juices and smoothies
When totting up our daily intake of calories, many
of us forget to take into account those that come in liquid form.
However, the drinks you consume throughout the day can vastly contribute
to weight gain. While smoothies and juices count towards your daily
intake of fruit (and swapping fry-ups for a morning smoothie would
certainly do wonders for your waistline!) supplementing meals with these
sugary fruit drinks could add hundreds of extra calories on to your
daily intake. Smoothies and juices contain more sugar but less fibre
than whole fruit, making fresh fruit a much better snacking option.
Cereal bars
Many of us believe that cereal bars are the perfect healthy snack and
breakfast-on-the-go. However, most breakfast bars are packed with cane
sugar and corn syrup, not to mention high levels of fat. In fact,
despite their healthy image, cereal bars can contain as much fat, sugar
and calories as an average chocolate bar, and can cause crashes in blood
sugar levels which will leave you craving more food.
Dried fruit
As with smoothies and juices, dried fruit has many
beneficial properties and counts towards your daily intake of fruit.
However, due to the concentration of sugars that occurs when fruit is
dehydrated, it is also very high in calories and sugar when compared to
the same amount of fresh fruit, and is much lower in fibre and
nutrients. On top of this, many brands add sugar to dried fruit to
improve the flavour, which boosts the calorie content even further.
Diet drinks
Many of us turn to sugar-free versions of our
favourite drinks to help stay trim, yet diet drinks may actually be
causing you to pile on the pounds. Research by the Texas Health Science
Center at San Antonio found that those who consumed diet drinks daily
experienced a 70 per cent greater increase in waist circumference than
those who drank none, while a previous study showed that obesity risk
increased by 41 per cent for each diet drink consumed. A suggested
reason for this is that artificial sweeteners trigger appetite, and they
may also inhibit the brain cells that make you feel full.
Salads
When eating out or buying food on the go, salads are
generally presented as the “healthy option”. However, often this is not
the case. While salads contain vegetables and other healthy
ingredients, these are often buried under a layer of oily, sugary
dressings which can be high in both fat and calories. Many salads do
contain good fats that can help with weight loss (such as in the case of
avocados and olive oil), yet this is not always so. Avoid those sneaky
calories by drizzling your salads with a light dressing such as balsamic
vinegar, or skipping the dressing entirely.
Soup
While soup can be the perfect weight loss food when
prepared correctly, not all soups fall into the diet food category. In
fact, many soups can rack up a significant amount of fat and calories,
particularly those containing dairy products such as cream or cheese. On
top of that, many soups are very high in salt, which can lead to
bloating. To help stay trim and cut calories, try purchasing (or better
yet, making your own) vegetable-based and cream-free soups.
Dips
Hummus is often perceived as the perfect
diet-friendly dip. However, while the healthy snack is undoubtedly
nutritious, it is also packed with calories and fat from its principle
ingredients of oil and tahini. Another dip for dieters to watch out for
is guacamole which, while traditionally packed with nutrients and good
fats, often contains calorie-laden double cream. While most dips can be
eaten in moderation, if you want to splurge guilt-free go for a homemade
tomato salsa which is packed with nutritious ingredients and is almost
fat-free.
Vegetable crisps
Many people view vegetable crisps as the “healthy”
alternative to the potato variety. However, while some vegetable crisps
contain slightly more fibre and vitamins than potato crisps, this is not
always the case and the difference is generally very slight, with most
of the vitamins derived from fresh veggies being lost in the process of
making them into crisps. On top of this, vegetable crisps are often just
as high in fat and calories as potato ones and contain just as much
salt.
Popcorn
Air-popped popcorn is a great nutritious, high-fibre
and diet-friendly snack. However, when butter is added into the
equation, the tasty snack can quickly lose its healthy credentials.
Store-bought and cinema popcorn can be extremely high in fat and
calories due to its liberal coating of butter and/or sugar, and is often
also served in large quantities. Furthermore, as the TV-friendly snack
is often eaten in front of a screen, we can easily consume far more than
we intend to due to mindless snacking.
Granola
It’s marketed as a health food, is sold in health food stores and
even looks remarkably healthy, so it must be a diet food, right? In the
case of granola, sadly the answer is no. While granola is undoubtedly
nutritious and full of fibre, it also contains high quantities of sugar
and oil, making it extremely high in fat and calories. To help save your
waistline, try eating granola in small portions or, better yet, switch
to a lower fat sugar-free muesli which will deliver the same health
benefits without the calories.
Source: Realbuzz.com
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