A “healthy food” label is usually for a few shop shelves where they sell goods that doesn’t deserve that name. And some of these food stores we call “healthy food store” by habit. It’s the label that most of the shopkeepers will hang outside of the store, but…

What “healthy food” stores actually keep on the shelves?

Personal or virtual tours may occasionally bring some surprises. Once I was on the website of a well-known “healthy food” store and I saw there a eulogy written about Ghee (purified butter), for which it is sad that it is an “exceptional meatless food”. I agree that the butter is exquisite food, but it is not clear how the removal of lactose will make something with animal fat completely lean? This mess can ruin your fasting if you decided to fast, and if you don’t have a bit of experience. Because there are those labels and inscriptions that can destroy not only your slim line, but also your health.

Did you ever think about most unhealthy foods that goes by the label “healthy”?

First you will flip out when you walk into most of these stores, the biscuits and cookies will literally jump on you. Those glass shelves that are stacked with biscuits generally have the label with their composition and nutritional value. Part of them usually make hydrogenated vegetable oils (margarine), of which harmfulness we already wrote.

Intimidation with saturated fats has a long history, in which the natural saturated fats are persistently put into the same basket with artificial and factory-made trans-fats. But God only knows that after the History of obesity and text on trans-fats we are ready to make at least a step forward to distinguish them. There’s no anything good about trans-fats, and never will be.

However, trans-fats are the main ingredient of the best-selling products in “healthy food” stores and are included in every “integral and diet biscuits.” Why something that will make you insulin resistant is called “diet” (because that’s basically what trans-fats are doing to our organism) even today remains a mystery which not even Scully and Mulder could solve.

If margarine has no trans-fats and it is said that “margarine is without trans fats” – you shouldn’t buy it, even when the doctor from Military Medical Academy recommends it.

Another ingredient of biscuits is fructose. Usually it is written on the cookie box that they are “for diabetics” and that they may “contain fruit sugar,” which conjures associations such as “we take care of nutrition” and “it is natural”. Fructose is harmful and it is not a good substitute for sugar.

The most famous expert who deals with this topic is Dr. Robert Lustig, expert for obesity in children. His lecture, which I recommend to watch is “The bitter truth about sugar,” which explains in detail the difference between the metabolism of glucose and fructose.

Silly commercials never end, so now they are singing praises to the puffed grains. These are those fluffy, puffy cereals, which are made under great pressure and high temperature – and then they are topped with either oil or sugar to be crunchy and retain their fluffy form. Such grains are in muesli and rice galetas, and are described as healthy, because sellers are giving them properties of unprocessed grains from which they originated. To make matters worse, the dressing is usually not sugar, but fructose syrup and such expanded grains can be found in every country. An ode goes roughly like this:

“Puffy cereals are healthy dietetic foods rich in vegetable fat, fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. If you want to maintain a slim figure and be healthy, and not starve in doing so, we advise you to you start using galetes of puffy cereal instead of bread.”

This is exactly the same as if you would put sugar syrup on wicked witch from “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” and start calling her “cute little”. 😀

A similar situation will welcome you in all departments for “health food” in supermarkets. There you can find a bunch of plates and bars of cereal with honey and dried fruit. And of course intrinsic with hydrogenated vegetable fats.

A product that has cereals, dried fruit and honey is most certainly sweet. It’s full of sugar like any other product made from sugar and flour (because starch flour is at the end nothing more than glucose, sugar). The fact the yellow sugar and flour are integral does not change the situation. If you decided to buy yourself a sweet, you are at the right place and that’s OK. But if you want to eat healthy food, you better go back to the department of store that contain fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, nuts and dairy products.

Next you will see what actually a muesli is. If you eat muesli in the hope that the 50 grams of cereal and a cup of low-fat milk is a good breakfast and that you can “drive” on the ridiculous 200-250 calories to the lunch, good – it’s your choice. In reality it is not enough even for a child. If you have already decided to buy it, look for those with no added hydrogenated vegetable oils and high fructose syrup. Manufacturers know that there are consumers who read the composition of the product, so this kind of muesli can be found. Muesli without added sugar still costs a bit more, so it makes more sense to make it yourself.

For a real domestic muesli, instead of grinding, blend ingredients to keep them a bit bigger (though is not required, just do according to your taste). If you want you can add oatmeal.

If we talk about salty snacks, the situation is identical to sweet snacks. Hydrogenated vegetable oils are the same thing that are the commonest ingredient of breadsticks made from white flour, so fiber intake through integral grissini is a bad idea. A little calcium from sesame seeds that are pasted on margarine will not strengthen your bones, because even if linen tiles have more salt and margarine they are not a source of omega-3 fatty acids. Don’t forget: Milled flax our stomach cannot even digest.

Very important: all these sweet and savory biscuits you can prepare for yourself, using margarine instead of butter or coconut oil. The internet is full of recipes…

Selection for sugar substitutes is rather colorful. As for fructose we’ve gone through. Honey, malt and maple syrup are decent if you’re building a healthier sweet with dried fruit, coconut oil, and nuts and whole wheat flour. And of course it is better to prepare for your kids something like that, since they are running like crazy from dusk till dawn, instead of buying them cookies with margarine and corn syrup. So in some sense, instead of all this add more dried fruit, without any sugar replacement or sugar at all.

You should think three times before you give money to an expensive sugar replacement, because in most cases this is all just simply sugar with a little makeup. I was not talking about artificial sweeteners, but the sugar substitutes that have calories. It is up to you to evaluate whether the benefit / cost for you is good. Those on a diet should reconsider Stevia and take good care of what they buy!

I do not have much to comment on soybean products. My idea is that the soy is extremely harmful food and it is only good for avoiding. My thoughts are the same for organic soybeans. The only thing I buy is tamari sauce (the liquid remaining from the production of miso paste, which is usually a mixture of barley and soybeans, fermented for years) and usually spend one bottle in a few months.

If it’s cheap, manipulated, perhaps GMO, tasteless, and controversial and if I believe authors who write about the harmful effects of soy – a decision of not eating it is nothing but logical.

Soy in America came in the 1930s. Whatever you think of soybeans today, dedicate a little of your attention and time to this topic, because this is in every food product. Even the already mentioned margarine is often made from soybean oil. This is the reason why you must have a personal conclusion on soybeans and that your conclusion is not based on advertisements in newspapers, but on that time that you set aside for research no matter what you conclude at the end.

A special marketing gag represents soya lecithin:

“Modern understanding of the lecithin has shown that it has positive effects on regulating cholesterol levels in the body and has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system. Soybean lecithin is a natural mixture of phospholipids and oils, constituents essential for the metabolism of the liver, fat absorption, regeneration of cells in the nervous system and maintaining the vitality of the organism.”

Is this the truth? Body makes enough liver lecithin, which is why its supplemental intake is totally unnecessary. Even worse is the case of soy lecithin, given that it is the waste from the processing of soybeans in which are the reserves of aluminum and pesticides, as well as all chemicals that remain after processing soybeans. The product still has a use value: you can always buy it and give it to someone you really hate.

You should pay additional attention to the purchase of plant powdered milk, even if it is soy, oat or rice. They are full of a given sugar.

Pay attention to how much they love to put “no cholesterol” label on the plant products, especially to those with margarine. Margarine, hydrogenated vegetable fat is mostly polyunsaturated vegetable oil of vegetable origin, so it is logical that there is no cholesterol. Cholesterol can be found only in foods of animal origin. This label is not a reason to not buy the product, because the “no cholesterol” label is today completely redundant.

Cholesterol from food is not harmful.

Can “healthy food” lead you to bankruptcy? Here is how to avoid that!

One of the products that made my skin crawl is labeled as “the good oatmeal.”

It says that these ingredients will help reduce cholesterol and improve health, “Oat flakes 48%, vegetable fat, corn syrup in a dry form, soybean oil, naturally identical aroma, fructose, corn starch, chocolate chips 3% (sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, emulsifier soya lecithin, aromas), cocoa, flavorings, salt, vitamin complex “.

In this so called “good oat” they put so much sugar that is better if you have gone to pastry shop. So, if you want this for breakfast, better to make it at home.

If you have a blender, put oatmeal in it, add a little oat bran, ground almonds and dried apricots. Dried apricots are perfect for blending when they are inserted in machine together with oat flakes. In the same way you can insert a piece of large and well-chilled dark chocolate. And here’s homemade oatmeal, for less money and with definitely less sugar. I’m sure that you already have a jar at hand, so you can make this and it will last for a few days.

We will now talk about flour and grain, which again collide with a new label: “gluten-free products”. Gluten is a protein in wheat, a lot of people have celiac disease, an allergy to gluten. According to some authors, 60 and even up to 80% of people have a lesser or greater sensitivity to gluten! So it is not an allergy, but discomfort and intolerance.

For example, let say that gluten-free flour costs $ 5, and gluten-free corn-flex costs about $ 4! The box of muesli without gluten of 375 grams is $ 7. That’s horrible!

Corn, rice, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth don’t have gluten. But who has celiac disease cannot just buy corn or rice flour. Problem with flour which do not have “gluten free” label is the possible contamination of wheat in the production process, because they use of the same mill for plant and gluten and gluten-free grains. So, without these tags, purchase of the ordinary corn or rice flour can be a risk for people allergic to gluten.

Maybe to a person with celiac disease is more profitable to buy the mill and purchases buckwheat, corn or rice and examine them before grinding. Judging by the prices of some of the mills, the availability of different models tells us that in this state where sickness lasts until the end of someone’s life – he should reconsider the profitability of such purchase.

Functional food is a blend of ingredients that positively affect health. In fact they are the most “bang” of flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, vegetable fiber from the bran and the like. This is totally cool thing that has essential fats, fibers, often vitamins and minerals.

The first of this kind costs about $ 20! For $ 20 buy you can buy coffee grinder and make this for yourself. I tell you that because if we look at the composition value is shouldn’t cost more than $ 3! The composition is of a good quality but the price considering the composition is pure madness!

There are two good reasons to read the product labels: copying and saving!

What is healthy in these stores?

Whole grains and flour, with a home bakery or bread mold, are certainly a much better choice of bread and pastries from a bakery, where they are made from white flour and often with bunch of additives. If you still want to reduce the gluten in the diet, opt for rye and oat flour because they contain less gluten (however, to those who are allergic that does not mean anything). Less gluten is when you make rye bread with a mixture of flour from buckwheat and rice.

In case you still want to eliminate gluten from your life, be careful when you grab a package of buckwheat pasta and crust. Buckwheat, is not sticky because of the absence of gluten (English word for glue and gluten resemble), and pasta is usually a mixture of buckwheat and wheat. Saying “buckwheat noodles,” is true, but it can be insufficient. For those no-gluten people there are rice’s pasta, but they cost a little crazy.

Bran, they are a good source of insoluble dietary fiber, but if you have already bought whole grains, you don’t need that much insoluble fiber. Leave some room for the soluble from fresh vegetables.

In most stores you can find unleavened bread. In some stores you can buy them at once but in some you must order in advance. Prices are pretty decent, so this is one OK products. You can prepare it for yourself as well.

In these stores, in addition to the abovementioned deception, there are enough good ingredients to make your own bread, pasta, and oatmeal – no fructose corn syrup and margarine – at normal prices.

What else is worth buying?

Algae – arame, nori, wakame – are sea plants full of minerals. If you are a beginner in the use of algae, which may have a strong taste for some, buy aram. They are of gentler flavor.

Mushrooms – the most famous is shiitake. As for other (chanterelles, porcini, black trumpet) is worth checking out in these stores, but your chances are higher if you search for them in

Organic and healthy vinegars – rice, umeboshi, organic apple, sometimes even those more exotic like raspberry, blueberry and cherry vinegar.

Natural salt like Himalayan salt or coarse sea salt.

Organic legumes – especially red and black small beans, which are known as strong antioxidants.

Unroasted nuts – hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts…

Unroasted seeds – flax, sunflower, pumpkin.

Dried fruit – but ask whether it is dried naturally or with added sugar, especially those exotic.

Tapioca – starch Brazilian plant that has no gluten.

Products from goat’s milk – although cheeses favorable in dairy sheds in markets and there is a greater choice look for yogurt and sour milk.

Organic fresh vegetables and fruits – it is worth checking on sales.

Quail eggs and organic eggs – often more favorable than in markets.

New teas and blends of herbs.

Organic olive oil – where they also like to stick that “lean” and “cholesterol free”. Luckily only affects the nerves, but not the quality of the oil.

Another cold pressed unrefined oil seeds (polyunsaturated).

Here I have to make a small delay due to the polyunsaturated oils! They are very unstable.

Omega 6 is a little more stable than the omega 3 oil, but again both are insufficiently stable. For these reasons, this oil should not be exposed to light, because the light makes them oxidize.

The Omega 6 – oils of sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, corn, soybean, grape seed, and the like.

The Omega 3 – fish and flax.

Never buy these oils in transparent bottles. Never buy milled flax, which is in a transparent bag. Buy whole flax, grind it at home in a blender or coffee grinder (it is better) and immediately close the opaque glass jar or wrap the jar in foil and refrigerate. In the same way, never buy flaxseed oil in a transparent bottle.

With these precautions, oil selection is very interesting, although some of them can be quite expensive to be regularly purchased.

The bottle in which we keep the oil should be as dark as a seed from which the oil is removed, because the color / dark is for a natural protection.

Peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds or nuts are also great products but with two disadvantages:

After all mainly polyunsaturated oils, butter is sold in a transparent jar. Because of this I don’t really believe that there are no preservatives inside.

They cost a fortune. For $ 4 you can buy 450g of walnuts or 200g of butter or nuts. Butter is made so that the seeds are first inserted into the chopping machine and after that grinded in the mill for poppy. In the grinded mixture pour 1-2 tablespoons of a cold pressed unrefined oil. Put in an off-jar and that’s it.

Mill poppy can be found via the Internet and costs around $ 8. A butter from pistachio or hazelnut is great both as food and as a gift.