When I am going over food logs or discussing health/fitness with my clients, I tend to uncover some common misnomers or "a-ha" moments that seem to come up quite a bit. So I'm going to quickly name off the most popular of these and maybe it will be something that you didn't realize that will help you in your everyday life.
1. I am not big on eating snacks such as chips, corn chips, etc. But, if you have a need to eat something like that with a sandwich (every so often), did you know that there are "baked" options that can be healthier alternatives. Now when I say healthier, I don't mean chalked full of nutritional value. What I mean is that they have less cholesterol and saturated fats then there un-baked counterparts. So instead of Doritos or Lays, why don't you try Baked Doritos or Baked Lays.
2. Just because a bread says wheat on it doesn't automatically make it a healthier choice. To make it truly healthy (compared to other breads), it should say "100% Whole Wheat" or "100% Whole Grains." Otherwise, the regular wheat breads are just colored white bread.
3. If you are using ground meat for say tacos, don't assume that ground turkey is better than ground beef. You still have to look at the nutritional label to see how much fat is in there. If you see them proclaim a ratio like 85/15 or 90/10 on the package, that isn't ideal. If you want a lean ground meat, regardless if it is beef or turkey, look for "93/7 or higher."
4. Ice cream is "not healthy." Some of you laugh, but I get this argument every so often. Even "natural" ice cream made with real ingredients and milk is not healthy. You can get your calcium from other foods that don't have nearly as much sugar in them as ice cream. Even low fat ice cream is not good. You don't want to know about the special ingredients they add to the ice cream to make it taste good.
5. You deplete all nutritional value of a potato if you load it up with toppings. Cheese, sour cream, butter, and bacon aren't wise choices for a potato if you are eating healthy. Use some of those butter flakes or be very conservative with the amount of butter you put on, but that is it. The same goes with a salad. If you put all those great vegetables in a bowl to eat, don't drench them with a fatty ranch dressing. There are a few good fat free dressing out there that can make a salad taste good. Yes, they have some sugar in them, but it is better than the saturated fat of the other dressings.
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