These are 10 foods that are sold in Indian market under the umbrella of healthy food/ drinks:
1. On
top of the list comes the Real juices, B natural, Tropicana, Minute Maid, and
other juice brands. They all are packed with sugar and salt making it
unhealthy for a person who is physically inactive.
In the picture above, please note sugar and
salt in its ingredients. Sugar and salt is not “real fruit” and it is the sugar
and salt that makes it delightful to our taste buds but very unhealthy for our
body.
(Quick Tip: Consume the fruit, or make
juice in your home)
2. Instant
noodles (Patanjali, Maggi, Horlicks, Yipee, Knorr)
Maggi comes with a tagline “Health bhi,
taste bhi” (Health as well as taste). Patanjali thinks that they are
synonymous with health. It is just that Patanjali noodles is lesser of the
evils.
If you see closely, Patanjali has not mentioned sodium in the nutritional
information. It uses refined wheat flour, which is not as healthy as Patanjali
sounds. There are other ingredients such as E627, E631, E415, and E330 that
have raised concerns.
(Quick Tip: Even Atta Noodles are
unhealthy. Stay away from noodles)
3. Instant Masala Oats (especially Saffola,
Kellogg’s, Quaker)
Oats are great to control weight and are
good source of carbohydrates, and dietary fibre but Masala oats are packed with
salt, sugar and flavour enhancers that are not good for your health if you are
consuming it on daily basis. It is not a smarter way to stay fit. Rather you
will be living in a fool’s paradise.
(Quick tip: Buy natural oats. Check
ingredients before purchasing oats)
4. Soup
(Knorr, Bambino)
They are not healthy at all as they portray
in their advertisements.
It has hydrolysed vegetable protein
(basically for enhancing flavours), edible vegetable oil, salt, sugar, which
are not healthy at all.
(Quick Tip: Make soup at home)
5. Subway
It is your choice of bread and sauce that
make it unhealthy. Comparatively, it is better than eating at McDonalds, Pizza
Hut, Dominos, KFC etc.
(Quick Tip: Go for honey mustard, mustard
sauces and multi grain bread)
6. Bournvita, Boost, Horlicks, Complan
Although they say to enhance the milk
nutrients, but in reality, they actually have sugar and sodium in it. Bournvita
writes that they have whey protein in it and it indeed has but it a low quality
protein: soy protein. It also has sugar and sodium in it. So, here is my
preference: Bournvita=Boost<Horlicks<Complan<<Protein
X<<<Whey Protein Concentrate
7. Brown Bread (especially Indian made)
Whole wheat bread and brown bread are not
made up of 100 percent whole wheat. They are made up of 40 to 50 percent of
refined wheat flour, which is again not good for you if you are not working
out.
8. Britannia NutriChoice Digestive Biscuits
(and other similar biscuits)
Although they are better than other
biscuits out there in the market, they don’t deserve to cost as much as they
do. It is so because if you see the ingredients 43% is the refined wheat flour
(maida), which is a white carb/ bad carb. Other than this, it has edible
vegetable oil in its ingredients list.
9. Lassi (especially meethi Lassi)
:
No matter how much Punjabis brag about the
health benefits of Lassi especially in summer, Lassi is unhealthy because it
contains sugar. Moreover, you are getting milk fat, which is not healthy fat.
It increases bad cholesterol. Packaged Lassi are even worse.
10. Popcorns (especially
in movie theatres)
I used to think that popcorns are healthy.
At least popcorns that you buy in movie theatre are not. That enchanting smell
is actually a chemical called diacetyl, a synthetic butter flavoring. Diacetyl
is harmless when consumed, but when heated to high temperatures, diacetyl
vaporizes and becomes toxic. Even Act II popcorns are not as healthy as you
think. Act II popcorns are great if you do not mind extra calories once in a
while due to edible oil. Act II popcorns do not have diacetyl in it.
There are so many food items that are perceived as healthy but are unhealthy in reality. Do let me know if you want me to extend this list. Healthy eating!
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