3 foods you thought were healthy, but could be detrimental to your health

Don't let the health market fool you

Don't let the health market fool you

Be careful when consuming products you have known most of your whole life to be "healthy", just because of the way they are marketed. Yogurt, wheat bread, and cereal bars, are just a few of the foods that are marketed in America as "health" foods. However, there are some ingredients used in these foods, of which it is banned in China Australia, European Union, Canada due to health concerns. A few examples are potassium bromate (breads), bromated vegetable oil (some sodas), dairy with rGBH (milk/dairy product), and artificial dyes (Kraft,Mars brands) just to name a few. And finally our FDA is considering banning some of these foods here in the U.S. Here are 3 foods that we should take into consideration of our intake.

Yogurt:

The quick yogurt snack, Go Gurt, is marketed towards kids as a healthy snack, however it contains twice as much sugar than a bowl of lucky charms. Yogurts should not have added sugars, for 6 oz. it should have about 13 g of naturally occurring sugar from milk. On the safe side, try to stay under 20 g. for 6 oz. and be sure to stay away of yogurt containing high fructose corn syrup. Also there are yogurts that claim to have probiotic benefits, however when yogurt is pasteurized, most of the "good bacteria" are killed off. Wheat Bread:

The stereotype that wheat bread is healthier than white bread is being closely looked at. Most wheat breads contain high fructose corn syrup. Doctors have said high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been linked to the leading cause of obesity in U.S. HFCS is 20x sweeter than regular sugar. It is a chemical that our brain does not recognize. HFCS disrupts the leptin production, which is the "I'm full hormone". Essentially HFCS leaves your brain thinking you need to eat more than you should be. Doctors have said it can be about 8x times more addictive than heroin or cocaine. HFCS is considered a foreign substance to our bodies, and when there is a foreign substance, our bodies store it, and therefore adds it to the waistline. Similar to the way our ancestors hunted and gathered their food. Their bodies would store food, since there was such a long period of time between meals and they wouldn't know when it was going to be either.

Cereal bars:

Cereal bars are marketed similarly to yogurt. Mostly marketed to kids and even to health nuts, such as Kellogg's and Fiber One. In most cereal bars the number 1 ingredient is sugar, as well as corn syrup. Kellogg's special K marketed as premiere healthy bars, with some being under 100 calories, yet contain tons of sugar. Fiber One contains corn syrup and sugars. Similar to cereal bars, regular cereal contains a number of dyes. Dyes may look pretty, but they are made from chemicals derived from petroleum. Petroleum is also used to make diesel, tar, and gasoline and is banned in most other countries.

When considering banning some of these foods out of your diet, be sure to take a good look at "Olean". Olean, which was previously called Olestra, which is a man made carbohydrate and is banned in Canada, China and European Union. Olean is one of the worst carbs you can eat, worse than gluten. You will often see it appear in fat free foods in potato chips, cookies, etc. Chips Ahoy, Pringles, Ruffles, Doritos, just to name a few brands within their "fat free" or "light" versions of the chips and cookies. It is an addictive carb and blocks the body from absorbing essential vitamins. Unless you go on an all organic diet and eat super clean, it is hard to live in America in 2019 with out running into some of these banned ingredients. In America sugar and sweeteners have increased 20 times in the last 50 years. Sugar is always added to foods you would never expect. There are also plenty of preservatives and chemicals that clog your digestive system and get turned into fat. It's time the FDA needs to crack down on more of these ingredients, in which these multi billion dollar companies are feeding us, just to cut cost. By skipping out on some of these ingredients you can clear up your skin, gain great amounts of energy, and make your bathroom habits regular.

You don't need diet tips, you just need a lifestyle change.

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The Astros have their work cut out for them. Composite Getty Image.

Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.

Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.

Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.

“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.

First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.

“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”

Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.

Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.

However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.

“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”

The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.

“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”

Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.

He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.

He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.

Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.

While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.

To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.

Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.

“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”

Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.

Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.

“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.

The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.

“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”

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