Hello readers. Most of us would say we know what we should be eating in order to have a healthy diet. Stay away from junk food, high fat, sweets, and refined flour. Eat more fruits and vegetables. However, as a society, we are more overweight and vitamin deficient than anytime in history. I have often wondered, given all of the research and information out there in our modern civilized society, why this is the case; so I did a little of my own investigating into the food industry, and what I found going on, frankly, made me angry.

In my profession, my clients' accountability is a big deal. Taking responsibility for one's actions (or lack thereof) and not blaming other factors is a huge and necessary hurdle for success in, not only fitness, but several avenues of life. So, when I see a client that struggles with diet and nutrition take solid and rationale actions to improve his/her behaviors, I am very proud and excited about their newly adopted lifestyle. Unfortunately, what I have been finding popping up more and more frequently are foods disguised as healthy when they literally have the nutritional value of a candy bar or potato chips. Now, if someone knowingly eats junk food items, that is their business, but when they think they are eating wholesome food which are not, due to deceptive labeling, that is just WRONG! Let me give you some hints and red flags to look for when shopping to weed out the "junk" health food.

• The first one infuriates me more than just about anything else. Hundreds of items are called wheat (Wheat Thins Crackers being one example) when their first ingredient listed is enriched wheat flour; translation: white flour void of nutrients. Nothing is more false advertising than this! Please ignore the front of the box, turn over the package and look at the ingredient list. The first three are vital in that they include whole wheat flour and nothing with the word refined, enriched or sugar for this is not truly a whole wheat product. When whole grain is refined it is stripped of its nutritional value and essentially turned into sugar.
• On the same note, beware of multigrain labeled products as opposed to multi WHOLE grain products (this one was even unknown to me). A multigrain product can include refined grains in its "multi" title.
• Watch out for fat-free and reduced fat items. What these products lack in fat is often times replaced with gobs of sugar. There is nothing wrong with a small amount of fat when the protein content is high and sugars are low. Protein and fat are great appetite suppressants while sugar is an appetite stimulant. A huge offender in this department can be certain types of yogurt. Some varieties of yogurt have more sugar content than two scoops of ice cream! Avoid the yogurts that have fruit added in the bottom and add in your own fresh fruit.
• Also, remember those SnackWell's cookies that had no fat so it was OK to eat the whole box instead of just having one of a normal cookie? Yeah, not recommended.
• Protein/Energy bars are a huge industry. These can also be a culprit as the nutrition labels of many compare quite closely or even worse than your standard candy bar (and they rarely taste as good anyway!). Check the sugar and fiber content of your bar and again try to ignore the front of the package claims.

There are many more tricks out there to watch for, and this website is very helpful: www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index.php

Hopefully, you can use these hints to arm yourself in the battle of the bulge and help you to know when you are truly eating healthy foods.