Note
The following is an excerpt from my post “Healthy” Trap Foods, in which I made a detailed list of foods that I believe to deceptively unhealthy. I’ve broken that list down into easier to digest categories based on what food they are. Linked below are all the individual posts:
- Trap Foods - Breakfast
- Trap Foods - Drinks
- Trap Foods - Fruits & Veggies
- Trap Foods - Grains
- Trap Foods - Meals
- Trap Foods - Savory Sauces
- Trap Foods - Snacks
- Trap Foods - Sweet Spreads
Introduction
I wanted to put together a list of foods that people consider to be healthy, but are really just either a product of good marketing or misinformation. These foods are typically referred to “Trap Foods”, or “Fake Healthy Foods”, as they can lure customers into thinking they’re making better decisions, when in realty these “healthy” alternatives can be just as bad, if not worse.
TLDR (Too Long; Didn't Read)
- Extensively read ingredient labels
- Avoid ultra processed foods, especially ones containing refined sugar, refined grains, and vegetable/seed oils
- Don't believe marketing claims
- Prioritize nutrient dense whole foods or minimally processed foods
Disclaimer
I’m not saying you should absolutely never eat any of these foods. Moderation is key, and the dose makes the poison. Most of the foods on this list are treats, and should be treated as such, but it’s healthy to enjoy treats every once in a while. Don’t eat them all the time, but don’t forbid yourself from having anything. Find a proper balance.
List of Foods
Low Fat Options
Ah low fat. The glorious health craze of the 90s, where the food pyramid was in and eggs where the worst thing for your health. In hindsight, this one didn’t work out very well. This era caused the spawn of low fat products, from yogurt to peanut butter. To preface, fat is essentially and definitely healthy, but is also very calorie dense and very easy to overconsume. That being said, both full fat and non fat options have their place when done correctly.
For example, let’s look at dairy. When you remove all the fat from yogurt or milk, it doesn’t taste as good. As such, the food industry pumped it full of sugar instead to make up for the lack of taste. This is a very common story across the grocery store; replace potentially healthy fats with cheap inflamatory and addicting sugars. I will say that I personally buy skim milk and plain nonfat greek yogurt, both of which are dairy products with little to no fat. The main part however is the “plain”. This means unflavored, and thus unsweetened. Definitely stay away from any flavored milks or dairy products, like vanilla yogurt, strawberry yogurt, or chocolate milk. All low fat, all pumped full of sugar.
Let’s look at another; here we have reduced fat peanut spread. To be classified as peanut butter, a product needs to contain at least 90% peanuts; this only contains 60% nuts. This spread contains 4 less grams of fat, and instead has 4 g of added sugar, as well as corn syrup, sugar, hydroginated oils, and a laundry list of additives you can’t pronounce. Stick to the natty stuff: just nuts and salt. It’s cheaper, tastes, better, and much better for you. Win, win, win.
Let’s quickly rapid fire some low fat or fat free foods you should avoid. All of these are filled with some combination of hidden sugars, hydroginated oils, ingredients you can’t pronounce, artificial colors, or artificial flavorings:
- Flavored yogurt cups
- Fat free half and half
- Reduced fat ice cream
- Light butter
- Light mayo
- Low fat salad dressings
- Low fat cookies
- Cereal
- Cereal bars
- Flavored oatmeal packets
- Flavored applesauce
- Canned soups
- Crackers
- Chips
- Pretzels
- Rice cakes
- Fruit snacks
- Gummy bears
- Jello
- Dried cranberries
- Jelly </ul>
- Olivcado Salad Dressing
- Holy Guacamole
- Five Minute Salsa (No Garlic/Onion)
- Tomato Burger Spread
- Peanut Chili Salad Dressing
- Unsweetened BBQ Sauce
- Creamy Pesto Dip
- Or any of my varieties of hummus
- Mediterranean 3 Bean Salad
- Grilled Eggplant and Chickpea Salad
- Mediterranean Sweet Potato Salad
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Hummus
- Guac
- Salsa
- Hot sauce
- Mustard
- Soy sauce
- BBQ sauce
- Ketchup
- Relish
- Mayo </ul> Some of these storebought ones can easily fit into a healthy diet, being fairly minimally processed and containing a small list of nutrient dense ingredients. These would include hummus, guac, salsa, hot sauce, mustard, and soy sauce. The only things to really look out for in these is the amount of seed oils in storebought hummus, or if the mustard or hot sauce have any added sugar. Soy sauce is very salty, so it's better to opt for low sodium whenever possible. Most of these can be made fairly easily at home too, which often tastes better and are better for you. I have some homemade condiment recipes that won't dissapoint:
- Any of my varieties of hummus
- Holy Guacamole
- Five Minute Salsa (No Garlic/Onion)
- Red Jalapeno Louisiana Hot Sauce
- Greek Yogurt Hollandaise Sauce
- Any of my varieties of hummus
- Lightened Up Spinach Artichoke Dip
- Greek Yogurt Hollandaise Sauce
- High Protein Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Low Fat French Onion Dip
- Creamy Pesto Dip
- Olivcado Salad Dressing
- Simple Pasta Sauce
- Lightened Extra Virign Olive Oil Pesto
- Creamy Pesto Dip
- Avocado Pesto - Vegan and Oil Free
- Cottage Cheese Alfredo Sauce
- 'Mac' & 'Cheese'
- 10 'Healthy' Foods That Are Worse Than You Think
- Yogurt to salad dressing: Top 10 trap foods and how to avoid them
- What foods are commonly mistaken as healthy?
- 68 'Healthy' Foods That Are Terrible for You
- Fake Healthy Foods: 6 Foods We Think are Healthy
- 9 Health Benefits of Eating Oats and Oatmeal
- 8 Health Benefits of Nuts
- Added Sugars
- The truth about juice
- What does caffeine do to your body?
- Every Starbucks Coffee Drink - Ranked by Sugar Content
- 5 Ways That Drinking Milk Can Improve Your Health
- Does microwave popcorn cause cancer?
- Here are 17 Snacks You Never Knew Were Vegan
- Is White Rice Healthy or Bad for You?
- 5 of the Healthiest Flours for Every Purpose
- Whole Wheat vs. White Flour
- Irish Supreme Court Rules That Subway Bread Has Too Much Sugar to Count as Actual Bread
- 7 Proven Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate
- Dark chocolate health benefits? The good and the bad to this sweet treat
- What are flavanols?
- 8 ‘Healthy’ Sugars and Sweeteners That May Be Harmful
- Habitual Fructose Intake Relates to Insulin Sensitivity and Fatty Liver Index in Recent-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Patients and Individuals without Diabetes
- Coconut Sugar: A Healthy Sugar Alternative or a Big, Fat Lie?
- 6 Reasons Why High-Fructose Corn Syrup Is Bad for You
- Low Dose of Sucralose Alters Gut Microbiome in Mice
- What Are Sugar Alcohols, and Are They a Healthy Sugar Swap?
- Everything You Need to Know About Stevia
- Monk Fruit Sweeteners: Good or Bad?
- Is Allulose a Healthy Sweetener?
- Sucralose (Splenda): Good or Bad?
- 12 Low-Fat Snacks That Are Actually Unhealthy
- 10 ‘Low Fat’ Foods That Are Low In Nutrients
- Seed Oils: Are They Actually Toxic?
- Are Vegetable and Seed Oils Bad for Your Health?
- Margarine or Butter: The Heart-Healthiest Spreads
- Trans fat is double trouble for heart health
- Are Cold Cuts Healthy? Here's What a Dietitian Has to Say
- Processed meat and cancer: What you need to know
- Sodium Levels of Processed Meat in Australia: Supermarket Survey Data from 2010 to 2017
- The 18 Best Protein Sources for Vegans and Vegetarians
- 7 Health and Nutrition Benefits of Potatoes
- 6 Surprising Health Benefits of Sweet Potatoes
Seed Oils
I'm going to keep this brief, as it's a very contested topic. Some people are adamant that seed oils are the worst thing ever, and some say they're perfectly healthy. I probably land somewhere in the middle. Let's start by going over what seed oils are. Also known as vegetable oils, they are oils made of mainly mono and poly-unsaturated fats from plant based sources. The term refers to the following oils: canola, sunflower, grapeseed, cottonseed, corn, soybean, safflower, rice bran, and peanut.
Much of the long term science is unclear, as these oils are fairly new, but here's what is known. Seed oils have a higher Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio than more natural oils (such as extra virgin olive oil and unrefined coconut oil). Omega-6 fatty acids are still essential, but the standard American diet contains far too many Omega-6 fats, largely from these oils. These types of fats are pro-inflammatory, and are present in most ultra-processed food products on the market. Moreover, vegetable oils are often marketed as being "heart healthy".
These oils are highly processed, being devoid of any flavor or smell, leading to their main use as a "neutral" oil. Again, while these oils are a highly debated topic, it would seem intuitive that oils used for thousands of years from fatty sources like olives or coconut with minimal processing are probably healthier for you than these plant oils from products that aren't even fatty (does anyone describe corn, rice, or grapes as being high in fat?). That's just my two cents on the issue.
In general, definitely avoid deep frying (which creates trans fats), as that's when these oils are at the most dangerous. It's best to cook with less processed fats like extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, or unrefined coconut oil instead of highly processed vegetable oils. But a little bit here and there is probably okay; just try to limit your intake whenever possible. Cutting back your intake of ultra-processed foods would probably decrease the vast majority of vegetable oil in your diet anyway.
Margarine and Low Fat Butter
Margarine is a butter substitute typically made from vegetable oils. Popular brands include Country Crock and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. They're heavily processed, contain unnecessary additives, and even used to have trans fats until they were banned. Margarine is essentially hydroginated seed oils, turning them from a liquid to a solid. I'm not calling butter a health food, but I'd certainly opt for that over the fake butter substitutes.
Despite trans fats being banned in the US, most brands still contain trace amounts, as it can legally be rounded down to 0g if they contain less than 0.5g of trans fats. Trans fats in any amount are extremenly harmful to your health, raising LDL, lowering HDL, and lead to increased risk of heart attack or stroke. The process of partially hydroginating unsaturated fats is how trans fats are created (how margarine used to be made). Now, it uses fully hydroginated oils, which are instead saturated fats instead of trans fats. Research on fully hydroginated fats is minimal, as trans fats were only banned in 2018, but it's assumed that these fats are less bad, but not good. Always opt for whole food fat sources whenever possible instead, like nuts, avocado, fatty fish, and EVOO.
Salad Dressing
Salad is often thought of as a healthy food, but the dressing can make or break this. Most bottled salad dressings contain high amounts of vegetable oils, sugars, and sodium, and are very highly processed. The creamy dressings, like Ranch and Caesar are very calorically dense, containing mainly soybean oil, sugar, gums, and preservatives. On the other hand, the more oil based dressings like Italian and Vinaigrette have higher amounts of sugars to make up for less overall fat, in addition to artificial colorings.
Try to stay away from these preprepared bottles, as homemade is typically healthier and tastes better. Most of the time, I just add some hot sauce and mustard to my salad to act as my vinegar, as well as some avocado, nuts, or cheese to give some healthy fats. Don't be afraid to put things that aren't traditionally "dressing" onto a salad. Great examples of homemade dressings include:
Condiments
Condiments are types of sauces that can typically go on a sandwich, salad or toast, or be used in cooking. Here are some of the most common condiments that I can think of:
On the other end of the spectrum is mayo. Mayonnaise is simply oil emulsified with egg yolks, leading it to be essentially pure fat. It's very calorie dense, and typically store bought versions use soybean oil. It can be healthier at home with extra virgin olive oil, but it will still be very high in calories, which is something to keep in mind.
Creamy Dips
Most creamy dips are either mayo, sour cream, or cream cheese with slew of additional ingredients. These are all very calorie dense, being very high in saturated fat. These are typically not good for your health, increasing your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain. Store bought versions include Spinach Artichoke Dip, French Onion Dip, Thousand Island, Ranch, and Caesar. Plus, they're typically paired with chips, which can easily lead to too much consumption of Omega-6 fats, as both the deep fried chips and these dressings are high in inflammatory seed oils. Most of these can be made at home fairly easily by just swapping the mayo for plain Greek yogurt; check out some examples below:
Sauces
A lot of commercial pasta sauces are either full of hidden sugars or loaded with oils. Examples include marinara, pesto or alfredo. The below image shows just how much sugar there is in each serving of sauce. Note that tomatoes are sweet on their own, and these glasses include the natural sugars of the tomatoes as well. But it's apparent how much can be added without you even noticing. Marinara sauce is probably not the main source of added sugar in your diet, but it's something to be aware of. These jarred sauces also tend to also be highly processed and sodium dense.
Below are some of my homemade sauces. All are sugar and sweetener free, low in added fats, delicious, easy, and healthy:
Sources