Healthy Sounding Foods May Not Be As Healthy As You Think

When you’re trying to lose weight and get into shape, picking the right foods is essential for reaching your goals. Unfortunately, the prospect is not as easy as it sounds and it can be downright confusing. It sure doesn’t help that many foods that sound healthy turn out to be nothing more than junk.

If you’re fed up with hidden surprises in the foods you eat and want to see real results with your exercise and weight loss program, you are going to need to learn to be savvier about the foods you consume. While your trainer or the pros at your health club can guide in the right direction as far as meal plans go, you can benefit from brushing up on the bombshells to watch out for. The reality is many healthy sounding foods simply are not.

Here are some of the things to watch out for as you work on weight loss efforts:

• Canned soups – While it might go against the wisdom of your mother, canned soups are not always good for you. Many are high in preservatives and most have tons of salt. Sodium can hamper weight loss efforts and it’s just not good for your heart. Even if canned soups are low in calories and fat, the salt content can make them a very bad choice.
• Juice – Fruit juice is a great option in place of sugary sodas, but this is not the case if that juice happens to contain high fructose corn syrup. This is used in place of sugar, but has the same basic empty-calorie effect.
• Dried fruit – Although plain dried fruit is a great snack choice, many prepackaged products have some hidden ingredients. Sugar, trans fat and other unwanted ingredients might be lurking in those apricots or prunes. Read the label before buying just to be sure.
• Low, or no-sugar items – Take extreme care when buying products that tout themselves as low or no sugar alternatives. While a product might not contain “sugar,” it could have corn syrup, dextrose and a variety of other high-calorie sweeteners.
• Diet sodas – You won’t get a high sugar content with these, but you might end up with a few ingredients you didn’t bargain for. The synthetic sweeteners in diet sodas are not necessarily the best for the body. Many have actually been linked to weight gain rather than loss.

Eating right is essential for losing weight and getting into shape. Work with your trainer and you will find out just how important diet is. Unfortunately, making the right choice in foods is sometimes a loaded proposition. To get the most out of your meals and snacks, make sure to read labels and brush up on the pitfalls to avoid.