Use to be that junk food meant a double bacon cheeseburger, not today! Today’s new wave of junk food is dressed in shiny” health-food “labels and lurks on every shelf in stores across the country.

Modern packaged foods can contain any number of 2000 preservatives, emulsifiers, conditioner, thickeners, synthetic dyes and other chemicals that I can’t even pronounce and don’t belong in the human body. Need an example?! Let’s take any of our current breads available at our current supermarkets. A whole loaf of  ”wheat” bread I picked up contained some 53 ingredients. Yes 53! Now the last time I check it took 5 ingredients to make bread and that includes the water. Think I’m over stating the truth? Pick up a book with information on how to cook bread.

Need another example? Let’s take the good ole “healthy” Slim fast meal in a can. The first 5 ingredients are all from sugar! Yes sugar and the worst kind.  If that isn't enough let's add some trans fats that are conveniently disguised as "partially hydrogenated".  These so called “healthy” products contain just as much if not more sugar then a Snicker bar or a bag of M&M’s.  You think I’m over stating the truth? Take a drive to your local market and compare the labels for yourself. 

So you don’t think I’m picking on these so called healthy diet products lets grab a nice “healthy” Balance bar.
Pul-e-e-e-e-ze! There is nothing healthy about this stuff unless you leave it on the shelf. Here take a look! I have put it side by side with a popular candy.

In this day and age you have to become a skilled label reader if you are truly going to live a healthy lifestyle. Don’t fall for fancy dressed labels. Turn to the “Ingredient List” ,which by law cannot lie! It may be hidden by the tiniest permissible print but legally it cannot lie about the contents.  The first ingredient is the largest and don’t be fooled by words like “enriched flour” or "partially hydrogenated". That just means flour with all the nutrients removed and Trans fats in disguise. Any time you see lots of chemicals or even a lot of ingredients in a simple food like bread or baked goods, leave it for people who have no care for a healthy body.

Its terrible that a fitness minded individual has to become this in order to truly live a healthy lifestyle. More and more, greed has taken the place of telling people the truth about health and fitness. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. We might not like to hear the truth but it is what it is. We have to learn how to protect ourselves. 

Until next time. 

People first everything else second!