You are probably well aware that cutting junk food from your diet is essential to lose body fat. However, some “healthy” foods contain much more calories, fat and sugar than you would think. These tricky “diet destroyers” can limit your ability to lose weight and stay healthy.
Explore our guide of these 20 foods and don’t let them ruin your diet.
1. Yogurt
Plain yogurt is a perfect healthy choice with only 100 calories. However, yogurt can be also loaded with sugar. One serving of a typical yogurt with fruit at the bottom of the cup contains 26 grams of sugar.
Is it a lot? Daily recommended value for women is only 25 grams and 37 grams for men. So, with just one yogurt you may have consumed your daily intake of sugar!
Healthy choice: Always check ingredients when purchasing yogurt. Avoid flavor additives and sugar. The general rule is – the less ingredients the better.
2. Veggie Burgers
Veggies are healthy. And vegetable burgers are healthy too, when prepared properly.
However, restaurants often do unhealthy things to veggie burgers when preparing them. The burgers are loaded with oils, butters, fried onion rings, mayonnaise and cheeses. As a result, you may consume more fat and cholesterol than when eating a traditional beef burger.
Healthy choice: When your order your veggie burger ask for fresh, unfried vegetables, no mayo and go light on cheese.
3. Smoothies
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Smoothies can be extremely healthy. But some food chains market the high sugar smoothies as a healthy food. Chocolate, artificial flavored syrups or frozen yogurts when added to a smoothie may diminish healthy benefits of other ingredients.
Healthy choice: Watch out for ingredients in your smoothie. A healthy smoothie may contain only natural fruits and vegetables, plain yogurt, ice, milk or protein powder. Make sure there is nothing artificial in it.
4. Avocado
Avocados are superfoods loaded with antioxidants, nutrients, fiber and healthy fats. However, people watching calories should be careful with avocados.
A single avocado contains over 350 calories. Many people eat en entire avocado or more as a snack, without realizing how high in calories it is.
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Healthy choice: Leaving half of an avocado for the next meal might not be appealing. Avocados tend to turn brown when oxidized. If this happened, simply scrape off the top layer and eat the green part. To avoid this, cover your avocado with clear plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.
5. Whole Milk
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Milk can be good for your body. It is a great source of calcium, protein as well as vitamins A and D.
Be careful with whole milk. One glass of milk may contain 8 grams of fat and 150 calories!
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Healthy choice: Opt in for the skim low fat milk. You will cut your calorie intake substantially while keeping the healthy benefits.
6. Cheese
Just like milk, cheese is dairy and can be a great source of calcium and protein.
However, cheese contains a lot of fat and is high in calories. One ounce (28 grams) of cheddar has 9 grams of fat and over 100 calories.
Healthy choice: Reduce your portion size. Go for cheese like feta or goat cheese. They contain fatty acids that will help you feel fuller and burn fat.
7. Whole Wheat Bread
This one is probably one of the most surprising. There are a lot of whole wheat breads that are just as processed as bleached flour white bread.
Why these breads are bad for your body? You digest processed grains easily and your blood sugar spikes. As a result, the calories are being stored as fat instead of muscles.
Healthy choice: Look for ‘100% Whole Grain’ breads.
8. Tofu
Many vegetarians like tofu. Similar to veggie burgers, it is healthy on its own. However, many recipes require fatty oils to cook it. As a result, you consume a lot of calories and fats.
Healthy choice: Cut on oils when preparing tofu.
9. Burritos
Burritos are convenient. You can get a lot of healthy ingredients into your wrap.
However, you need to remember about calories in the tortilla, which can reach up to 300 calories. In addition, you may get calories from sour cream, cheese and a fatty meat.
Healthy choice: Opt in for a burrito bowl instead of the tortilla. Otherwise, choose a whole grain option tortilla. Also, choose lean chicken meat, black beans, brown rice and veggies.
10. Cereal
The selection is critical when dealing with cereal… You may get a perfect meal with fiber, protein and whole grains. Or you might fill your stomach with sugar and sodium.
Healthy choice: Read the list of ingredients and nutrition facts on the cereal you intend to buy. Stay, if possible, under 8 grams of sugar per serving and make sure the cereal contains at least 3 grams of fiber. Whole grain is always a better choice.
11. Sushi
Raw fish is a great source of protein and is low in calories. Most of the fish is very healthy.
However, if you order the “special” sushi rolls, it will likely contain white rice, fried shrimps, mayonnaise or cream cheese. If you combine all these ingredients and cover them with too much soy sauce, you will get the opposite of a healthy meal.
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Healthy choice: Try sushi with brown rice and avoid the unhealthy ingredients.
12. Coffee
Coffee is considered to be healthy in moderate amounts. As a matter of fact, coffee contains antioxidants beneficial for your health.
But, when you add whole milk or flavored syrups, your coffee can become very unhealthy. A cup of latte with whole milk can contain up to 300 calories and 15 grams of fat. It will get worth if you opt in for artificial sweeteners.
Healthy choice: Drink black coffee if you like it. It contains only 5 calories. Otherwise you can add skim milk.
13. Salad
Vegetables and leafy greens are great ingredients for a healthy meal. However, when you order your salad at a restaurant, it might be not as healthy as home made.
In your salad you can find shredded cheese, fat dressing or other high calorie foods. These salads are usually marketed as a “healthy choice”.
Healthy choice: Use olive oil for salad dressing and avoid fried additions.
14. Frozen Fruit
Fruits are very healthy, so should be frozen fruits. In fact, they stay healthy even frozen. But pre-packaged frozen fruits often contain added sugar.
Healthy choice: Read the list of ingredients and nutrition facts when buying frozen fruits at grocery stores. Also, you might want to freeze fresh fruits yourself. Use an air-tight packaging for that.
15. Energy Bars
Energy bars are commonly marketed as healthy snacks. However, they are not as healthy as you might think.
These snacks provide you with a fast boost of energy, but it comes from carbs and sugar. As a result, you get a spike of blood sugar and your energy will diminish again shortly.
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Healthy choice: Choose low fat, whole grain bars. Or keep some other healthy snacks with you, like nuts or fruits.
16. Tuna Salad
Tuna is generally is a healthy choice. It contains a lot of protein.
But a typical tuna salad goes with mayonnaise, which is bad for your health. Just one table spoon will add 10 grams of fat and almost 100 calories to your meal.
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Healthy choice: Use greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise.
17. Trail Mix
Trail mix is often accepted as healthy food. However, many producers add sugar and chocolate to otherwise healthy snack.
Healthy choice: Read ingredients list and make sure there is no added sugar.
18. Red Wine
Red wine is known for its health benefits. It is high in antioxidants which help to fight diseases.
But only moderate consumption of alcohol can be beneficial. Regular, excessive consumption of red wine or any other alcohol can lead to serious health problems.
Healthy choice: Limit your alcohol consumption. Watch out for those giant wine glasses, as they can trick you.
19. Nuts
Nuts are a perfect source of protein, fiber and fatty acids. However, they also contain a lot of calories. A quarter cup of almonds contains over 130 calories.
Healthy choice: Measure your nut servings before eating.
20. Dried Fruits
Fruits are super healthy. They are loaded with vitamins and high in fiber and nutrients. The same applies to dried fruits.
Dried fruits, however, may be tricky. Because they don’t contain water, they are roughly 6 times denser than fresh fruits. That means that if you eat a cup of raisins, you will consume 6 times more sugar than eating a cup of fresh grapes.
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Healthy choice: Similar to nuts, watch out how your servings of dried fruits. Limited portion is a one of the best solutions on the road to fat loss.
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