Per the WEGO health post prompt today, I’m ready to call “BS” on a few things.
Any health-world professional will tell you that there are too many ways to accomplish one goal –weight loss, health improvements, muscle toning…whatever it may be – some great, some ridiculous. Most people go for the quick fixes, while some are in it for the “long haul” (hello, life).
The fluctuating trends in nutrition and fitness are even confusing to professionals at times – your friend told you almonds do WHAT? you’re running backwards because of {insert new theory on gait-changing}? you bought that super-food for HOW much? – and we try hard to keep up! It’s anyone’s guess as to how these get started, but thanks to our friend the internet they spread so dang quickly.
Enter: blogs. Our space and time to speak without interruption! If I may, here are a few things I’d like to call BS on…
Low-caloriesnacks:
We all remember the craze of “100 Calories!” snack-packs, yes? I think they’re still around, but thankfully I see them less and less.
We all know that it’s pretty easy to only snack on 100 calories, right? And it doesn’t have to be in the form of depressingly small “cookie” discs? It can be a banana, a grapefruit, a large apple, a baked sweet/regular potato, a small handful of nuts, a spoonful of peanut butter or even few pieces of dark chocolate. The list goes on and on. Nobody needs to tell you exactly how many calories are in your snack – if they feel like they do, you should probably feel like there’s no need to listen.
Oil separation = a beautiful thing. Get stirring…
Reduced-fat peanut butter:
Let’s show peanuts some love! They don’t need anyone messing with them, and they certainly don’t need any sugar in their butter. Yep, reduced fat peanut butter is just sweetened and plumped up with additives (read: crap) to make up for the missing fat. It’s just an oil and it’s plenty healthy for you. Plus, some of those vitamins and minerals in there need fat for storage. They’ll thank you for going au natural.
Bacon-wrapped/flavored/infused-everything:
Clearly, as a meat-free eater, I’m biased here. And I’ll be the first to say there’s room for balance in all things – indulge, enjoy, balance, repeat. But the praising of bacon has gone a little bit far, especially when we consider what it is- cured pork meat, mostly fat. That’s it. There’s no rejoicing in the hidden nutritional content here! Nope, it’s just a lot of saturated fat, salt and protein.
If you’re a bacon-lover, enjoy a strip here and there with breakfast, or around a scallop or chocolate-dipped if you’re so inclined. But chew with caution!
Energy-drinks, “Full of B vitamins!”:
You’re a smart crowd – you probably know full well that energy drinks, with their crazy loud claims and 1980s-style commercials, can’t have anything good going for them. Serious health risks aside (important to note, though), they are not your ideal source of B vitamins.
You’d be surprised how many people seem to think otherwise, and are genuinely swayed to maybe believe these drink-makers for 1.2 seconds when they see the “nutrition” information. Wait, what?…1000% of Vitamin b12?!
No food/drink/product needs to provide you with 1000% of anything; aside from the obvious fact that this can’t be natural in any way, the body can’t absorb all of that! Your urine will be pretty amped up, though.
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I’m sure that list could go on forever, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
Health-enthusiasts (I’m looking at you) – what would you love to call “BS” on?
