Want more tips to improve your diet? Check out this guide to healthy fast foods.
As a moderately health-conscious woman, I always check the labels when I go grocery shopping. Well, almost always.
For some reason, when I head into health food stores like Whole Foods, I just assume that everything in there is healthy, so I don't need to waste my time reading nutrition facts -- I can just toss whatever I want in my basket. And really, when half the products have some form of "organic," "all natural," or "gluten-free" on the packaging, can you blame me?
I'm not totally off base with my reasoning. Whole Foods promises on its website not to sell any products with "artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats." So I already know I don't need to check the labels for any of those.
But, just because an item is in a store like Whole Foods and free of all that artificial stuff doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. There are plenty of unhealthy health foods out there ready to help me pack on the pounds. To find out which so-called health foods are the worst offenders, I asked a team of nutritionists to head to their local Whole Foods stores, scrutinize food labels, and report back on the items they'd never drop in their carts.
Some of their picks (like the vegan cookies I chow down on almost daily) I had to admit I knew weren't good for me. But there were other health foods I was shocked to learn were actually really unhealthy. Keep reading to see what I mean and be prepared to re-think how you shop at Whole Foods and other health food stores.
