A "healthy" food that is actually NOT healthy!

There are all sorts of marketing schemes you are exposed to every single time you walk down a grocery aisle. Claims that this is “heart healthy” or “lowers cholesterol” or “a fat free food”, etc. Did you know that almost all of these labels are actually just purchased by the food company to be allowed to be placed on their packaging and actually require NO nutritional or scientific data to support this label (case and point, the “hearth healthy” label, sugary cereals have this label yet they are made up of over 50% sugar, which is actually inflammatory and directly linked to heart disease related medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes). Here is a food that you may have always believed to be “healthy” but actually is not:

OATMEAL

Most oatmeal that people consume is processed, instant, oatmeal, so many of the healthier properties have been stripped away by this processing. Most of the instant, boxed oatmeal you purchase at a grocer has added sugar, and because of these two things, oatmeal happens to be a high glycemic index food, meaning it spikes your blood sugar (Here is a study with these findings http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/103/3/e26). HIgh glycemic foods create a fat storage reaction in the body and a sudden drop of blood sugar, which sends signals to the body that you are hungry …even though you may have eaten as soon as a few minutes ago! Along with making you hungry sooner, the study found that people who consume oatmeal instead of eggs for breakfast were found to eat 81 percent more food during the day (those who ate steel cut oats ate 51 percent more, than those who ate the omelet, this being a less processed version of oatmeal). What was also found is that those who ate the oatmeal were found to have higher levels of insulin, blood sugar and stress hormones (cortisone and adrenaline), all of which wreak havoc on our metabolic systems and create inflammation (which, guess what, is NOT heart healthy).

Bottom line is, just because a food is labeled with a claim, doesn’t mean this is actually true or that the food manufacturer has to meet any standard to meet this claim. Stick with foods that mainly don’t have any labels at all or need to make a claim (like meat, produce, and dairy). Things in a box or a package have to make claims to get your attention and to convince you that it’s food, when you should be sticking to eating mainly foods that don’t need fancy labels or health claims.