These Five “Healthy Foods” Will Make You Fat

If you’re trying to establish better eating habits, you may need to reconsider all the foods in your refrigerator and pantry that can make you fat. Many stores all over the world, particularly those in Western countries, tend to market their products as “health foods”. These “health foods”, like most shelved products, consists of the added preservatives, artificial ingredients, and high sugar content that people typically consider to be unhealthy.

How do you know what not to buy, then? We have the solution. Here, you’ll find the five common “health foods” you must avoid when you grocery shop.

Healthy Foods That Make You Fat

Store-Bought Fruit or Vegetable Juices

While whole fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, store-bought fruit and vegetable juices often contain added sugar, artificial flavors, and removed nutrition content. These store-bought juices go through a pasteurization process, which not only strips them of natural enzymes and probiotics, but it also depletes the juices’ fiber content. The added sugar alone will make you fat, but these fruit or vegetable juices’ other properties will give you little to no nutritional value compared to their whole forms.

Low Fat Yogurt

For decades, experts claimed that higher fat content would make you fat. However, more recent studies have shown that removing fat from dairy products, like yogurt, only increases fat gain in people. The reason behind this is due to manufacturers often replacing fat with sugar to make the product taste better. These days, low-fat yogurt contains little to no fat content and high amounts of sugar, which keeps your stomach feeling less full throughout the day and your insulin spiking from the sugar.

Dried Fruit

Yes, this is a healthy alternative to most junk foods. Fruit will always be better than manufactured cheese balls. However, the high sugar content in most dried fruits will make you fat as well. Fruits itself can be high in sugar and carbohydrates (think bananas and grapes), and for people who are diabetic or insulin resistant, fruit in dried form is no better in nutrition value. In fact, dried fruits often lose vitamins and minerals in the dehydration process. Therefore, this “healthy food” can really be an unhealthy choice.

Organic Processed Foods

Don’t let the organic sticker on the box fool you—processed foods, no matter how high in quality, can still make you fat. An organic label is promising for the absence of genetically modified organisms and pesticide sprays in the processed food’s ingredients. Still, processed foods are dangerous because of how they’re made. They contain preservatives, unnecessary additives, food dyes, and they are shelved for long periods of time. And of course, several processed foods consist of different types of sugar to ensure better flavor for the products. These preservatives and added sugars are a prime way to make you fat, especially when eaten in large quantities.

Breakfast Cereals

As a go-to breakfast fix, breakfast cereals might seem like an obvious choice. On their label, a long list of vitamins and minerals are displayed to convince consumers of quality nutrition. However, most consumers don’t realize that nearly all of these vitamins and minerals in cereals are chemically added, which means they do not contain the same structural compounds as vitamins and minerals in their natural state. In the same line of many other “health foods”, breakfast cereals also comprise of high amounts of added sugar, one of the main unhealthy sources that will surely make you fat.