While wasting brain cells watching television, I was inundated with commercials full of marketing tricks. Multigrain Chips, Fiber Brownies, 100 calorie what?, "real" fruit smoothies, and frozen yogurt are a few of the culprits. Epic oxymorons to make our minds spin. With all these options, what should you buy?
One of my favorite quotes I use when it comes to discussing food choices is: "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck." It's really as simple as that.
Multigrain Chips. They go by many different aliases. Crisps, Thins, Pops... what's a "Multigrain Pop" anyway? What it all comes down to, unfortunately, is "If it smells like a chip, tastes like a chip, looks like a chip, it must be a chip." A chip with more natural ingredients is a better choice than a regular chip but... it's still a chip.
Fiber Brownies. Another method of creative marketing I suppose. Fiber Brownie sounds both delicious and healthy! WIN! Not so fast. Sure, the nutrition label reads "safe": 90 calories, 3g fat, 18g carbs, 5g fiber, 8g sugar, 1g protein, but if you're on a journey to developing a healthful lifestyle, this isn't gonna cut it. While it won't hurt you to eat one every once in a while, by replacing bad food on a regular basis with bad food chemically altered, you're not replacing any bad habits!
100 calorie what? On the same note as brownies, eating 100 calories worth of cookies as a daily snack isn't any better than eating 300 calories worth of cookies. Making a better snack choice will be more effective in developing a healthier lifestyle because, truly, no issues are being resolved here to fix any physical and emotional addictions to bad food if you're still eating cookies as a snack.
"Real" fruit smoothies. Fast food chains lately are all about fruit smoothies. Unfortunately, by "real fruit" they mean real fruit syrup with a few small chunks of fruit added in (if you're lucky). The answer to this trick is easy: unless you watch someone put fruit and water in a blender with nothing artificial, don't drink it!
Finally, plain ol' frozen yogurt. One classic marketing trick is to feed off of whatever the general public is afraid of at any given time. For a while it was fat, then it was carbs, so they started producing everything "fat free" and "low carb." In reality, fat free usually means more carbs/sugar while low carb means high fat. Frozen yogurt is a "low fat" product LOADED with sugar. You might as well use one of your cheat meals and eat real ice cream. At least real ice cream has a balance of fat and sugar and fewer chemicals.
In conclusion, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. It's difficult for many Americans to understand that a natural, well rounded
