Article Review: "Happy April Fools' Day: 12 'Health' Foods Fooling Us All"

While the premise of Happy April Fools' Day: 12 'Health' Foods Fooling Us All from the The Huffington Post is definitely on point and I'm all for articles pointing out unhealthy foods that masquerade as healthy options it falls short in focusing on processed food options. I definitely agree with the article that all of the options presented are touted as healthy and that all can have drawbacks or are just plain awful food choices. If made at home these foods would be perceived as a healthy but showing unhealthy mass produced items from giant corporate chains won't fool us all.

I thought the article would be fairly informative since it starts out with granola. I do enjoy granola occasionally but you definitely need to read the label and check the serving size and ingredients. It is very easy to over indulge in calorie dense foods and granola is a perfect example of this. You can definitely find healthy granolas but you will most likely want to avoid most store bought options and try and make it at home.

All of the drink options presented: vitamin water, sports drinks, and smoothies/pureed fruit snacks are definitely healthy living landmines. If you are extremely physically active then grabbing a sports drink makes sense but very few people are depleting their body to the point where this will ever be a regular necessity. If you need more vitamins than you get in your diet it is better to turn to a supplement then to grab a vitamin water. I like an occasional homemade smoothie but any store bought option will contain more calories than some of your daily meals. More and more people have difficulty maintaining a healthy weight and one of the best options is to restrict or eliminate liquid calories. Fresh squeezed juice can be okay to drink but pureed fruit snacks are just another calorie adding problem. These options were some of the better "health foods" called out by the article.

I was a little surprised that cold cuts and muffins were included in this. Do people actually think these are health foods? I feel these items were thrown in there as filler and take away from the article much like the inclusion of items from Burger King, Starbucks, and McDonald's. Yes a turkey burger, oatmeal, or egg white wrap could all be very healthy if prepared in your home or from certain restaurants but I think it is a bit odd to include them here. I do understand pointing out that seemingly healthier options on a fast food menu are far from healthy but health food and fast food are not concepts that share space in my mind. I did find the  inclusion of Kind Bars interesting and thoughtful though. I'm not very familiar with them but I do generally with any company that makes bars reading the labels is extremely important.

The best slides from the article aren't food items but the words "natural" and "gluten free". I've been fooled before by the natural label and I think it is deceiving for many people. So many unhealthy things are natural and there is no guideline for labeling a product as such. Anymore it might actually be good advice to avoid any product touting itself as natural. The article points specifically to gluten free sweets but I would go as far as to include any product that includes gluten. People who have gluten allergies have been greatly helped by this influx of products but it doesn't make sense to spend hard earned money to avoid gluten if you don't have an allergy. One can make a case for avoiding breads and other calorie dense items containing gluten but if you are planning on eating a dessert there is no reason feel that gluten free is healthier if you don't have a gluten allergy. Being gluten free won't mean it is low in calories or sugar and it isn't an indicator that it is healthy.

I definitely liked the premise of this article but wished it would have excluded the processed and fast foods from the list. I know knowledge on healthy food various widely person to person but many people are already aware of the short comings of these kinds of foods. The article definitely did a good job pointing out that some trendy health buzz words are products of advertising and not of nutrition information. I hope you enjoyed my review and I look forward to your comments.