10 Foods That Aren't as Healthy as You Think
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Alright girl, does this sound like you…“I’ve been working out and eating healthy, so why I am not seeing results?!” Believe me, I know how frustrating it can be, especially when you think you are eating healthy. But let me repeat: when you THINK you are eating healthy. I think we need to chat about these "healthy" foods you are eating because it might just be these foods that are holding you back from reaching your goals.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I share ten common foods (and perhaps a bonus food) that may be hindering your progress, am I'm guessing many of them will shock you! This is an important episode to pay attention to if you’re striving to reach a fitness goal, as nutrition accounts for 80%, if not more, of your results. So let’s get your nutrition in check so you can begin to see the results you want, girl!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode I dish show a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get and let's go.
Hello and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so grateful that you are here. I just feel like I am sitting at a table with you. We are chatting. And today's topic, I'm going to be talking all about food. Do you love food? I love food. If we both can agree that we love food, we're BFFs. Stick with me. I think this episode is really going to help you. And we're going to be chatting all about foods that you might think are healthy but are actually holding you back from reaching your goals. And it's kind of a loaded title. So I want to preface this episode with if you've been following me for any length of time, you know that I'm a firm believer in not labeling foods as good or bad. I don't think any food inherently is bad. I think that you can and should eat any and all foods in moderation. I think that the moment that we start to label foods as good or bad or thinking that this one's better than the other one, that can cause some serious mental disorders in our mind when it comes to nutrition. And with nutrition being the key component in actually seeing results, it's important that we are just educated in this realm.
So today I'm going to be sharing with you some foods that I know for me just seven short years ago I thought were 'healthy' and yet it was the over consumption of them or the lack of knowledge with them that was actually leading me to not see results. So if that's you, if you are in that place where you just feel like you've been working out and you're eating healthy but you're still not seeing results, I know how frustrating that is. And I want to try and help troubleshoot this problem with you.
But before we dive into the episode, I just wanted to read the review of the day, and it comes from Dara Jones. She says, "Love. I have been struggling with the way I see myself for years, probably since my junior year of high school. And that's been seven years. I binge listened to this podcast in two days and it completely changed my view. In just two days I still work every day on continuing to grow to love myself and the tips that are given in this podcast have helped me more than anything ever has. Every word that is said in this podcast is something that someone has said to me over the years, but I didn't want to believe them. I just thought that they said those things because. I didn't want to trust them. But hearing the words as loved ones and hearing the words I've told myself coming from a complete stranger that has never seen or heard my thoughts really resonated with me. I look forward to every episode, and I cannot wait to hear new tips and I have planned to go back and re-listen to others. Thank you Julie for being strong and encouraging and wanting to encourage other women."
Thank you so much Dara Jones. If you have not rated and reviewed the podcast, it would mean the absolute world to me. If you do, please be sure to screenshot it, post it up, or DM me privately, juliealedbetter. I will personally send you a voice memo back. I just love connecting with you guys and that really does help get the message of this podcast out.
All right, so without further ado, let's talk about 10 foods that you might be eating that might be holding you back from achieving your goals. So number one is yogurt. Yes, yes. Yogurt is a great source of protein, especially Greek yogurt. Contains a lot of probiotics. It's great for digestion, great for gut health. But yogurt is super deceptive, especially when it comes to marketing. So I really want you guys to be educated on this. And before I dive into the rest of the other foods, I want to note that it's super important that you know how to read a nutritional label. Not because I want you to become obsessed about it, but because it's very important that you are looking at the nutritional label and you know how to read it. And you know what it means when it says serving size and all the things. Because in order for you to feel your best, you have to fuel your body optimally. And in order for you to do that, it's important that you know what is actually going into your body.
So with yogurt, it can be very sneaky because they can say high protein. So you think that when you're creating a meal you're like, "Okay, I'm getting my protein from yogurt." Well, unless it's Greek yogurt that's plain, which is kind of [inaudible 00:04:23] in my opinion, unless you kind of spice it up with other things, which we'll talk about in a second. Oftentimes you're actually having a yogurt that is higher in carbs and fats, and lower in protein. So at the end of the day when you think that you've had enough protein, if you don't really know for sure, it can be super sneaky.
One of the biggest things that I recommend is getting some sort of Greek yogurt. There's tons of different ones out there. I personally just like getting plain Greek yogurt because I can spice it up with strawberries or blueberries, just to make it more nutrient dense. Sometimes add a little bit of Truvia to make it a little bit sweet. But I can save so many more macros by doing that.
And when I say save macros, I say that because it's important that I am aware of what I'm eating at each meal if I'm wanting to have something later in the day for example. I love, love, love my dessert at night. So I'd rather have a little bit less macros in the morning time so that I can save some macros for dessert. Keep in mind I'm not saying low calorie, right? I'm not saying limit your calories at every meal. I'm saying just being super aware of that.
And then another thing I remember when I was just seven years ago, I remember being like, "Frozen yogurt is healthy." So I would load up my bowl of frozen yogurt and I would think that it was better than ice cream. And no food is better than the other. It's just that frozen yogurt still has a caloric value. And oftentimes once you're done loading up your frozen yogurt with the Reese's topping, and the M&M'S, and the sprinkles, and all the things, you're actually eating more calories than you would just getting an ice cream cone. So it's all about educating yourself and knowing the different things and learning how to read that nutritional label.
Number two, oatmeal. Same as yogurt. Oatmeal is awesome. It's an extremely nutrient dense food. It contains a lot of fiber. And fiber is great to make sure that you feel full and satiated. It's great for fueling your workouts, it's great for post-workout. I love oatmeal. I have oatmeal not every day, but I have it often. But if you're not careful, it can be a very nutrient dense food in terms of a lot of carbs. Because a lot of oatmeal, you look at it right? And you do a half a cup and you're like, "That's not that much." So you keep on adding a little bit more. And this is why I love having a food scale. I think that a food scale is hands down, the easiest way to know how much you're eating rather than just a measuring cup. But that's a whole nother podcast that we'll talk about.
But with oatmeal, I think oftentimes same with yogurt, you can have a base of oatmeal. So you could do oatmeal and then do brown sugar, and then add chocolate chips, and then add strawberries, and all the things. By the end of you making the bowl, the oatmeal could be 800, 900 calories. And if your goal is, I currently eat about 2,000 calories per day. That's almost half of my daily intake. So if you're not careful, you can easily make a very, very large bowl. A lot of times people will add just tons of unnecessary stuff to oatmeal that won't actually make you feel fuller. So just be mindful of that. I love topping my oatmeal with fresh fruit because that always gives me more fiber and also allows me to just feel more satisfied.
But another trick that I have when it comes to oatmeal, because oatmeal is a very carb dense food, is adding protein into the oatmeal. So the specific protein that I use is PEScience. It's a protein for oats. It's specifically formulated for oatmeal. And that's amazing because number one, I don't need to have as much oatmeal to have this same amount of food in my bowl simply because the protein adds more dense to the oatmeal, if that makes sense. And it allows me to get my protein intake in the oatmeal as well without even really noticing it. I have one that's peanut butter and honey. So I don't even need to add honey, and I add less peanut butter than I would because I'm already getting that flavor from protein. So tons of different ways that you can make oatmeal delicious and be mindful of it.
One thing that I love is getting the single serving packs. I get those because it just helps me with portion sizing. Again, I feel like oatmeal is so easy to just keep pouring, especially dry oatmeal, right? It's like you don't see how much it is until you actually cook it. So the single serving packs just help me with portion control. I love to add cinnamon to it. Sometimes I add unsweetened dark chocolate chips. The protein again is great. And then sometimes I add a little bit of Truvia. And I will typically get plain oatmeal, and then I personally like to add a little bit of Truvia to it myself just cause I know that's a stevia and I prefer the taste of that better. So second food is oatmeal. Just be super mindful of it again. It's a very nutrient dense food.
Side note with oatmeal is oftentimes I think people say like, "Well I'm having oatmeal with a little bit of granola." Little do you know that your granola might be literally 40 grams of fat in one serving, so just be super mindful of that as well. Again, this is where having the knowledge of the nutritional label is really important because that will just allow you to overall create meals that will make you feel satisfied and also help you reach your nutritional goals daily.
Number three is salad dressing, right? The reason I bring this up is because most people when they first start and they're wanting to eat 'healthy,' the first thing they think of is salad. And they think of especially even at restaurants, this is a huge thing. They'll say, "Well I'm just going to go light tonight." So they get a salad and the salad has lettuce, and tomatoes, and cucumbers, and carrots, and red pepper, and chicken, and it's delicious. And then the secret ingredient that can easily bring the salad from 300 calories to 1,500 calories seriously is salad dressing. I know in particular one restaurant, I will leave anonymous, I got a salad and then I just decided to look at the nutritional information for the honey mustard. And the side of honey mustard that they gave me for that dinner salad brought the meal up by almost 1,000 calories. Just the one side of honey mustard was 850 calories.
So that's something that so many people often overlook, right? They have this delicious salad and then they just put tons and tons of dressing on the salad. And ultimately again, no food is good or bad. It's just in moderation. And if you're not aware of salad dressing, that can easily take a salad from three to 500 calories all the way up to 1,500 calories, which is well over what one meal typically is for a person unless you're just eating one or two meals per day. Right? So be really mindful of that.
A great hack for salad dressing that I personally love is yogurt based salad dressing. So I personally love Bolthouse dressing. They have tons and tons of delicious dressing. So it's B-O-L-T Bolthouse. And you can pretty much get it at any grocery store. I've seen it at Target, I've seen it at Sprouts, I've seen it at Whole Foods, I seen it at King Soopers. So I would just look it up online and see. That is a great option because I know for me it's really hard to just stick with two tablespoons. I don't know about you, but I love dressing. So for me, I like to look and opt for kind of a lighter dressing.
Another option for you if you do love salad dressing and you want to make your own, there's tons of different ways that you can make a lighter option of your salad dressing. Can dilute it in water. And then also another thing that I love doing in terms of salads, just to make sure I'm not adding an unnecessary amount of calories to my salad is use hummus. I love hummus in place of salad dressing. I feel like it gives me that denseness. Again, got to be mindful of the hummus because I could literally eat an entire container of hummus. So just being super mindful of that. And then also balsamic vinegarette is also a great option. Lemon juice, tons of different options there when it comes to just giving more flavors to your salad. But that is one that you definitely need to look out for.
Number four is smoothies or juices. We are living in a very juice dense populated world. And I love juice. I think juice is delicious. But I also think that there's a really big misconception when it comes to smoothies and juices thinking that their, "It's quick snack," or they are super healthy. And while some of them have so many things in them that you don't even realize that this green smoothie actually has 15 to 1,700 calories.
There is one smoothie that I was drinking, and it was crazy. It was so good. It was I don't know, spinach something smoothie. And I'm not going to say the place, but I was drinking and I was like, "This is so good. Oh my gosh, why have I not had this before? This is delicious." It was called the green goddess or something. I don't remember the exact name. I was drinking it, and I just decided to look at the nutritional information. And I realized that there was 70 grams of carbs in that specific drink that I was having. It was 16 ounces. 70 grams of carbs. Now, I'm not saying that having 70 grams of carbs in one meal is bad. I do that for dinner all the time, but I typically get those carbs from eating pasta or eating bread, or eating sweet potatoes or whatever it is.
But the thing for me was that I was thinking that this was just a quick drink, a quick snack. And I wasn't aware that there was literally, it was two apples and a half a banana. And there was so many other things in there that are 'healthy' foods. They're great, fruits are great. But it was an excess amount. So just be super mindful of smoothies. Again, lot of them can have a ton of nut butter, things like that. So even if the menu will say, "This smoothie only has 300 calories." But if you look at the fine print, it says for half the smoothie. No one's to drink half the smoothie. So just keep that in mind. Be super mindful again of the smoothies and the juices that you're drinking. Again, they're not bad inherently. It's just that I prefer to get my calories and my carb intake from actual food versus just drinking it. And this is something again, that it's just like regular soda or an energy drink or things like that. You drink it, you don't really feel full or satiated. But it's those calories, and that's carbs and fats that you're giving your body. So at the end of the day when you're still not feeling full or satiated, you're more likely to overeat than what your body needs simply because you've been drinking your calories.
All right, food number five, high protein. 'High protein.' You see this on so many foods, high protein. Because it's a high protein pancake, it must be really healthy. Because it's a high protein cookie, must be really healthy. And not that it's not healthy. It's just that don't get caught in these marketing schemes. Don't get caught in these marketing tactics. Just because it's high in protein, it still means that it's a food, right? So it's a high protein cookie. It's still a cookie. Be very mindful of that and also be very mindful of the amount of protein, carbs, and fats that it has. Ask yourself if this is something that you truly would feel satisfied with. I know for me, I like to ask myself before I eat it. Is this something that I'm craving? Is this something I would feel satisfied eating? And if the answer is yes, I eat it and I eat it guilt-free. If the answer is, "Oh no, I'm just telling myself that because it says high protein that it's healthy," then I have to rethink it. Again, going back to being educated about the nutritional label is so, so important. The same thing goes for gluten free, organic, vegan. That's great. If it's gluten free and you have a gluten intolerance, that's great.
Just know that because it just says gluten free, that doesn't mean that it's healthier. It doesn't mean that it is magically going to have less calories or more calories or whatever. It just means that it's gluten free. If it's organic, same thing. If it's vegan, same thing. A vegan or gluten-free muffin is still a muffin. Vegan ice cream is still ice cream. So just be mindful of that. And again going back to the nutritional label and learning how to read those is really important so that you don't just eat them and think that it's okay and that those calories or whatever that you're eating, they don't count in your body. Just be mindful of that, because that could easily add up to excess calories.
Number six, plant based milks. Now this is something like coconut milk, or almond milk, or soy milk, or oat milk. Or even like I saw the other day, dark chocolate almond milk. One of my family members, last summer we were on vacation. And he was like, "I'm just going to pick up the dark chocolate almond milk. You can have that, right? That's a healthier version." And it's very funny to me. And it also makes sense though, because I remember I was in this place where we think that because it's a plant based milk that it's somewhat magically healthier for us or it's better for us. Or we can eat more of it because of it. And again, just goes back to the nutritional value on it, right? Like for example, oat milk is very, very trendy right now. And that's great. If you like oat milk, that's awesome. If you prefer to get some of your carbs from oat milk, that's great. Just know that oat milk has a lot more carbs than unsweetened almond milk or regular milk. So just be super mindful of that. I think oftentimes we can get stuck in these trends, especially just following these things on like Instagram and we're like, "But they said the oat milk is the best." And when someone says it's the best, what does that mean? What does it mean when they say this is the best? Right?
So be very mindful of that when you're looking at just, this can even go for coffee creamers. Just because the coffee creamer says organic on it or it's organic heavy whipping cream, that's great. If you want to shop organic, do it. By all means. I applaud you. Just be mindful that that too has a nutritional information. So again, going back to that is really important.
Specifically an oat milk latte. Remember that oat milk is made from oats, and oats tend to be a nutrient dense food. So just know that if you were to get an oat milk latte, you would probably be drinking more carbs. Again, not bad. If you prefer to drink your carbs, totally fine. Just be aware of that.
Number seven, nut and nut butters. Nuts are probably the most deceptive thing when it comes to thinking how many you think is a serving versus how many is. And this is why I love food scales because food scales, they don't lie. Food scales will just tell you straight up, "This is 100 grams of almonds. This is what it looks like." Instead of our eyeballs saying, "This is what I think 100 grams of almonds looks like." And every day that 100 grams is going to be different because you're going off of your emotions. You're eating emotionally, right? So just be super mindful of that.
Again with the nut butters, I prefer to measure nut butters on a food scale simply because a tablespoon one day could be a really rounded tablespoon, which could easily add up another one to 200 calories. And if you're not aware over time you do that four or five, six times. That can be anywhere from 600 to 1,200 additional calories that you're eating that you're not even aware of. So being really mindful of these nuts and nut butters.
So when it comes to nuts, I know for me, I just personally love getting the single serving nuts. Because I don't know, sometimes if I'm on the go, I just don't like to always have my food scale. I don't like counting, "Okay, 14 almonds," or whatever. It's just easier for me to get the single serving pack. And then I know that that's how much the whatever, 100 calories is or 14 grams of fats is, or whatever it is.
So be mindful of nuts. They can appear to be very healthy, but they can easily add up just excess calories. It's not that they're not good, they're not bad. It's just that they could easily add up calories and they can be very, very sneaky.
Number eight, dried fruit. Oh my gosh. I grew up thinking that dried fruit was the best. And it still is. Dried fruit is so good. But the thing about dried fruit is that in the drying process, they shrivel up. So in order for you to feel fuller, you need more.
Like for example, I had a handful of I think it was banana chips or might've been dried mango. I can't remember. Banana chips or dried mango. I had handful of those. And then I had a handful of blueberries.
All right, so the handful of let's just say dried banana chips. The dried banana chips, handful that I had was equivalent to 500 calories. And the handful of blueberries that I had was equivalent to, I think it was 75 calories or something. It was, I want to say, I don't even know. It was less than 100 calories. But for the same amount of food in terms of the handful. Yes, I know that dried fruit would be more food. But even when you're eating those, it can be very, very addicting. Especially ones if you get them at the bulk in your local grocery store, a lot of them will be dipped in even more sugar, which will just make you want to eat more of them.
So just be really mindful when it comes to dried fruit. I remember even seven years ago, I was like, "Well, I'm eating dried fruit." But I wasn't aware that I was eating 1,200 calories of dried fruit in one serving because it was number one really addicting. And two, I just wasn't aware how much I was eating because they were so much smaller. So dried fruit is a sneaky, sneaky one.
Number nine, protein/breakfast bars. I have seen so many marketing tactics when it comes to a protein bar. And I just want you to be very aware of what to look for when it comes to a protein bar. Just because it says high in protein, or protein bar, or breakfast bar, doesn't mean that it's going to make you feel full. And it doesn't mean that it's going to be equivalent to a breakfast. So be really mindful of that. There's a lot of protein bars out there that claim to be a protein bar and they have 10 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs, and 20 grams of fat. Again, that's not inherently bad to eat. But that's not going to make you feel really full. And it's not going to be a balanced breakfast or a balanced meal. So when I look for protein bars, I tend to look for a bar that is around 15 to 30 grams of protein. And then around 12 to 25 grams of carbs and anywhere from five to 12 grams of fat.
So the bar that I absolutely love and I have daily ONE bars. You can get them pretty much anywhere. I get them at Target, you can get them at Amazon. There are some other bars. FITCRUNCH bars are great. Quest bars, they're good. They just have higher in fiber. So just be mindful of that. Because sometimes too much fiber can make you bloated and can make you feel really icky. So just be mindful of that.
But looking for a bar, when you go to a convenience store, looking for a bar that has anywhere from 15 to 30 grams of protein, 12 to 25 grams of carbs, and five to 12 grams of fat. Don't get sucked into, "It says breakfast bar. It says protein bar." Because some of them, they're just using that as a marketing tactic. So just be very, very mindful and looking at the nutrition information when you look at breakfast and protein bars.
And number 10 is veggie chips. I no joke remember when I thought that veggie chips were better than potato chips. And just because they were dyed the green, the orange, and the yellow color, I thought that they were better for me then baked potato chips. And the matter of the fact is they're just totally fine. That they're chips and they might be made out of some veggies. They claim it's a veggie chip that's made out of X amount of veggies. That's fine. Just know that those two have calorie content and it doesn't make it better or worse. So just be very, very mindful of the veggie chips. This is even for the light skinny popcorn, right? I've seen this like. There is one brand of popcorn, I think it's called BOOMCHICKAPOP. And even though it's a 'skinny popcorn,' your girl can literally eat the entire Costco bag if I'm not mindful of it.
So just being super, super mindful of these things. Again, it just goes back to portion control. A lot of these brands, they have the 100 calorie packs or whatever. And I'm not saying that you need to do that, but I'm just saying that being super mindful of the portion is very important. Because just because it's called a veggie chip, doesn't mean that it's better than just a regular chip. It still has the same nutritional information as most chips. In fact, sometimes the veggie chips actually have higher in fat because they use more oil in it. So that's very fascinating.
So yeah, I hope that this list and this kind of my input on it gave you some perspective. Maybe this was things that you knew, maybe it was things that you were not aware of. But again, like another perfect example, and I'll just do a bonus one. Is pasta alternatives, right? People avoid pasta all the time. They think it's going to make you fat. So as a result, there's been many, many companies and with the rising of people having more intolerances. They've been making chick pea pasta, and gluten-free pasta, and lentil pasta, and all of those things. Which is great. If that's something that you prefer, if you feel like it tastes better, if you like the ingredients better, whatever. It's still pasta. It's still going to have nutritional information. I know for me, I make a pasta bake with a red lentil pasta. I personally like the taste of that better. But I know that that pasta still has the same nutritional value as a normal penne pasta would that's just a regular pasta.
So just keep that in mind again, going back to really educating yourself about the nutritional label and how to properly read it in terms of serving sizes. And the protein, and the carbs, and the fats. I want to again, just remind you that I don't think that these foods that I said, I don't think they're bad foods. I just think that you need to be very mindful of them because they can easily lead to an over consumption of calories. And at the end of the day, the reason you're not seeing results is because you're most likely eating in a caloric surplus, more than what your body needs to function optimally based on your goals. It just all comes down to eating optimally for what your body needs and what your goals are. So if you're wanting to lose fat, then you need to be eating in a caloric deficit. Again, if this is something that you're interested in, I will link a free ebook that I put together that gives you step by step how to calculate your own customized macronutrients. So your protein, carbs, and fats based on what your body needs, what your goals is. I will link that in the show notes so that you can download that for free.
But it's really, really important at the end of the day that you know how much your body needs to be functioning optimally. Because you can absolutely, I went through all of these foods. You can absolutely eat all of these foods and still reach your goals. It's just a matter of eating them in moderation and knowing how much of the foods you're eating daily for your meals and things like that.
So I hope that this episode was helpful for you. I hope that it gave you maybe a new perspective or just reminded you of things that you already knew. If you have someone that would benefit from this episode, feel free to share this with them. I would love to see who's listening, so be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story. Tag me, juliealedbetter. I love, love, love connecting with you guys. And I will talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily, post-workout, real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.