Folks, there are so many companies out there trying to mask things as "healthy," and really, they're just helping you get fatter, zap your energy, and making you feel worse, when you're trying to do the right thing.
Lately, the topic has come up through this New York Times article on McDonald's Oatmeal. The fact of the matter is, the best oatmeal you can eat, is the quick oats you mix up with water or milk in your own kitchen, period. Sure, there are a lot worse breakfast options you can have, but did you really think that McDonald's is cooking up something good for you? Heck no, that would cost a lot more than cooking up something that looks good, but is full of cheaper filler, rather than actual oatmeal.
Other oatmeal pedlers aren't much better. Caribou, Starbucks, & Jamba Juice, they're guilty too. Caribou's oatmeal with berries on top has 400+ calories. The oatmeal I make at home: a half cup of quick oats, mixed with a half cup of skim milk, and topped with a half cup of frozen mixed berries adds up to 278 calories. So, what is Caribou putting in their oatmeal? Well, the second line in the ingredients reads: salt/sugar, so there you go.
My point is, read before you eat, investigate. I hear people say all the time, "but I'm eating a Lean Cuisine for lunch, and those are good for you!" Again, WRONG! The first thing a nutritionist told me was that microwave diet meals are high in sodium, and offer little nutritional value, plus with their carbs to protein ratio, they leave you more hungry.
I give a lot of credit to Panera, who now lists the calories for their items right on the ordering board, as that place often seemed to mask itself as healthy, when a lot of their food packs a mean punch to the waistline.
So, after ranting, and ranting about what NOT to eat. I promise that my next post will be some good things I've found to help in healthy eating. Good recipes, cheap and easy snacks, etc.
Also, myself, I'm going to try and start eating more of a clean diet, less processed, more vegetables, fruits, meats and nuts.
6 comments:
Great post, Alexa! More people need to know that making food at home is almost always better for them. Also, California just passed a law requiring that fast food restaurants post the calorie contents of their food on their menus. Also good, but at the same time most people that eat at fast food restaurants probably don't care all that much about calories.
I like bacon better...
Great post! I tease my husband all the time about his "healthy breakfasts" from Caribou. As much as I appreciate Panera for being straightforward, the calorie content is always for a "half" and it is funny, when you ask for the "half" Turkey on Country they are super irritated by the request and lecture you "For just 20 cents more, you can get the whole" or something stupid like that. Can't they just let a half be a half? Annoying.
hmm.... granted if you only ate 3lean cuisines a day, your calorie count would be very low and you would most likely loose weight. You of course would not being getting many nutrient and you would never feel full. Or at least I never do if I have one for lunch.
Ruby, you MAY lose weight, or your body may go into starvation mode and actually gain weight because of the lack of nutrients, and that fact that it will then hold on to everything your body gives it.
Cait, thanks for following!
Grateful for sharing this post
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