There are types of people who eat healthy to lose some weight, while there are also others who just want to take good care of their body. Age expectancy is also one of the motivations for people to keep a healthy lifestyle, and these motivations make us smart consumers! We check the label and purchase the healthiest food possible, or so we think.

People’s attitude towards wellness makes them more vulnerable to marketing strategies. Just put “non-GMO” on that pack of chips and everyone is already buying it. Same is true for products with organic, sugar-free, and low-fat taglines. We are easily convinced by these products even if we say we are not. Just take these foods listed below, commercials and advertisements say they’re all “healthy”. Well, healthy is now just a word to trigger consumerism if we are not careful enough to do our own research. So the next time you go to the supermarket, better stay away from these products that have been branded “healthy”.

Fruit juices

Boxed fruit juices are also high in High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Fruits are generally healthy, that’s why others consider fruit juices healthy. Yes, it is, but not those we buy in cartons. If you have been habitually purchasing these tetra-packed juices as a replacement for soda, then it’s just a hopeless case. Fruit juices, no matter the claims are, if it’s not freshly squeezed, they are certainly not good for you. It has the same quantity of sugar that is present in your favorite soda. If you just can’t stand living without fruit juices, go to a healthier alternative- freshly squeezed fruits. It’s way healthier and more beneficial for you, not to mention the cartons and plastics you are going to save if you stop purchasing them.

Low-fat foods

At some point in our lives, we can attest to buying food that says “non-fat” or “low-fat”, especially if those are the food that is just hard to resist (e.g., ice cream). These products are just scamming us and taking advantage of our motivation to be healthy. Foods like yogurt, milk, and other dairy products, get its flavor from fat. If we take those off, we now have a food that tastes bad and nobody will buy those. So what the manufacturers do is they put alternative flavors to compensate for the reduction of fat. Hence, low-fat foods are usually higher in sugar.

Granola bars

You can buy the most expensive granola bar in your local supermarket but it still not an assurance of being healthy. Most often than not, granola bars are loaded with so much sugar and so little nutrients. Yes, you can probably see some whole nuts, raisins, and fruits on it, but they’re all processed. You are not just consuming a bar of sugar, but you are also buying it at a more expensive price. If healthy snacking is your reason for getting these bars, might as well stick to buying nuts and fresh fruits.

Most granola bars are made up of sugar, starch, and artificial flavoring

Sports drinks

They say that sports drinks help our body recover fast during workouts. The most common marketing strategy for these sports drinks is the capacity to replenish our bodies with electrolytes that we lost when we sweat hard. What they refuse to tell us is that one bottle of sports drink contains sugar and salt. Let’s take Gatorade as an example, one bottle of it contains 30mg of sugar, and we should only consume 25-38mg per day. That means, if you’ve already drunk one bottle of it, you have to stay away from other sugary foods so you will not exceed from your daily sugar allowance. The salt is also added to infuse the drink with more electrolytes, and our bodies don’t need that extra salt. If you came from a workout, it’s best to just stick to drinking water.

Microwavable popcorn

The chemicals found in the packaging is linked to increased risk of lung cancer

Most people opt to snack popcorn since it’s light and full of nutrients but consuming microwavable popcorn is not as healthy as you might think. The packaging itself is integrated with chemicals to make it microwave-friendly, and these chemicals can pollute the food inside. The artificial flavoring found inside your popcorn can also trigger diseases according to recent studies. Better stick to the traditional popcorn popping the next time you decide to watch Netflix and chill.