Spooky Foods
With Halloween right around the corner, I thought I would write about “spooky” foods. Spooky because they make you think you are eating healthy. Spooky because they pretend to be something they are not and hope to pass themselves off as the real thing.
The first is pretzels. I love them. They are crunchy and salty, two favorites. The package shouts “fat free,” always a warning flag. What is in them to make them “spooky?”
They’re made from refined white flour which has been stripped of any nutritional benefits, such as vitamins and antioxidants.
They are packed with carbs and calories.
Have you eaten 24 slices of white bread in a sitting? Well a 15-oz. bag of pretzels is like eating all that bread at one time. Spooky!
Another “spooky” food disguised as healthy are spinach wraps. They look good, taste good and you would think they are healthy. Isn’t spinach healthy?
Spinach wraps contain only a scant amount of spinach powder, hardly enough to mention. They get their green color from food colorings and are made from refined white flour.
Not too many good vitamins in this “spooky” food. The A and C found in fresh spinach are gone from spinach wraps. A typical wrap contains 170 calories. One cup of cooked fresh spinach contains about 65 calories. Spooky!
How about those blueberry scones you love so much? Blueberries, how healthy could that be? Sounds healthy to me. How spooky could they be?
They are packed with over 400 calories and artery-clogging saturated fat, over half the maximum amount needed in an entire day. They don’t even count as a serving of fruit and just try to find the fiber. “Spooky.”
How spooky could water be? Some water I’ve tasted is pretty bad. This “spooky” water cost some bucks. It is vitamin water. Sure it’s loaded with some inexpensive vitamins, but it is also loaded with up to 200 calories per bottle. It’s a great way to pack on the pounds if they are not burned off.
Purified water would be a better choice.
Have a safe Halloween and watch out for the spooks and goblins roaming around and especially watch out for the “spooky” foods masquerading as healthy.
