A Healthy Eating Guide:

Many advertising campaigns and slick marketing slogans are working hard to undermine public health in the name of profits.  Public confusion and misleading marketing work together to take advantage of the public’s trusting nature to purchase products that are marketed and labeled as “healthy”. If there were one true healthy eating guide, the truth would be  there are many food products on the market that aren’t healthy at all.  Here are five surprising culprits that can derail the best intentioned efforts to eat a healthy diet.

Soy – Soy seems to be everywhere, and many companies would have you believe that eating soy will cure nearly anything.  Studies, however, are painting a much different picture.  Soy has been linked to immune system problems, allergies, thyroid problems, infertility, and other health issues.  Add to  these issues that much of the soy on the market is a product classified as being a “genetically modified organism.”

Soy is one of eight in a group of the most common genetically modified foods that are flooding the market.  Though GMOs have been shown, conclusively, to cause sterility in rodents within just three generations.  But a powerful lobby has managed to make it illegal even to label a food as containing GMOs.  Like fructose corn syrup (another GMO product), soy is a common ingredient used in a variety of processed foods.

States Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder of the popular health website Mercola.com, “It’s ironic that soy has become so accepted as a health food when, as Dr. Kaayla Daniel, author of the groundbreaking book “The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, states, thousands of studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility – even cancer and heart disease.”

The soy debate centers around processed forms of soy, such as tofu, soy milk, and other processed foods containing soy.  Fermented and organic forms of soy such as Nato, Miso, and Tempe are considered by health experts to be safe.

Protein Bars – Many protein bars contain more chemicals than food, while also containing a lot of soy, sugar, and calories.  Many protein bars are just well-disguised candy bars, with few health benefits and a lot of processed ingredients.  Large amounts of sugar are used to offset bland ingredients to make them palatable.  Cost effective and healthier versions can be made by using raw oats, nuts, unsweetened coconut flakes, raisins, or dates and a small amount of raw organic honey.

Splenda – Splenda is marketed as a healthy, safe way to avoid sugar.  Splenda, though, is yet another chemical substance.  Manufacturers try to forge a difference with misleading ads claiming that Splenda is “made from real sugar,” yet it negatively impacts your health.  Splenda has been linked to disrupted sleep patterns, sexual dysfunction, cancer, MS, Lupus, diabetes, and even weight gain.  It also contains chlorine, and the Splenda manufacturers haven’t revealed how much – if any – gets flushed out of the body.

According to an article published on The Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health website, Splenda contributes to obesity, destroys beneficial intestinal bacteria, and can also prevent prescription drugs from being absorbed.  Many health experts recommend using natural sweeteners as a safe sugar alternative, such as stevia, which is made from leaves of the herbal stevia plant.

Vitamin Water Type Drinks – Vitamin waters are produced by the major soda companies. Though they are made with distilled water and do include multi-vitamin ingredients, they also contain 13 grams of sugar or more per serving, and each bottle contains multiple servings, which can add up to the same amount of sugar as a soda.  Some bottles contain more sugar than a Snickers bar.  For those who consume multiple bottles per day, it adds up to a high intake of sugar and calories.  In a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the quickest and most reliable way to lose weight is to cut down on liquid calorie consumption.  The healthy eating guide would say the most sensible way to accomplish this is to reduce or eliminate beverages that contain added sugar.

Yogurt – Many people are under the impression that frozen and refrigerated foods labeled as “yogurt” can be considered a healthy food choice.  Unfortunately, these foods are little more than processed milk products that contain high amounts of sugar with a smattering of yogurt powder.  All yogurts that aren’t organic also contain hormones and antibiotics as well.

Many people are shocked to discover that the coloring in most strawberry yogurts comes from an ingredient cleverly disguised as “carmine”.  Carmine is literally made from dried, ground-up red beetles.  There aren’t any health risks from carmine except in the rare case of severe allergies to beetles.  However, many people are sensitive to dairy products due to lactose intolerance, which is believed to affect up to 75% of the world’s population past the age of three.

All of these foods march into the hall of shame, joining all foods labeled “low fat,” “low calorie,” and “low carb.”  More and more it is becoming clear – there is no way to cheat.  Drinking pure water and eating organic foods, fruits, vegetables, beans, ad other lean protein choices is the surest path to improved and sustainable health.  The healthy eating guide reminds us to be suspicious of any marketing campaign that labels a processed food as a health food cure-all.