So called "healthy"

Got this from a friend of mine, we'd been discussing so-called healthy/low-fat snacks sold. We're both doing the 12wbt together, our daily allowance is 1,200 calories (for females, 1,800 for males).

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saw on a pamphlet for Muffin Break's new soy and linseed muffin "wholesome, nutritious, source of fibre ... less kilojoules and fat than old soy and linseed muffins". Now I dunno much about muffins, but I would have thought that 448 cals for a fruit and nut soy and linseed muffin was a tad on the high side.

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I've just gone and checked out Muffin Break's website for their "nutritional" info for their muffins, I had a look at the blueberry & apple low fat muffin and it is 319 Cal. Say you stick to 1,200 or even 1,500 cals a day, you're basically kissing off most of one of your major meals for one muffin. If you have their new low fat fruit & nut soy & linseed muffin, you can say goodbye to either breakfast or lunch (those are actually the higher calorie meals we have, dinner is low cal - one muffin all-but equals 2 normal dinners).

Scary huh .......

Yeah, it's scary how much crappy food is sold as being a healthy option.
The heart tick is great case in point. It costs heaps to get the tick and they protect the trademark really aggressively but they are happy to slather it all over boxes of high sugar cereal.
The guy who wrote Sweet Poison had a great blog entry about it
Raisin Hell: Heart Foundation says sugar isn't relevant.

The cereal aisle is one of my pet rants. It's full of products labeled as healthy but most of them would feel more at home in the confectionary aisle. If you took out all the high sugar cereals you would pretty much be left with weet-bix, all-bran and rolled oats lol.

Yep. I remember when i finally realised most of the 'low-fat' stuff is rubbish as they're often high in sugar and it's sugars that cause most of the problems. In fact, some whole, non trans fats are very good for you. Nutrition can seem really hard to understand, especially with all the marketing there to confuse us.

Yeh i know! When she posted this info i went to go look at the mb website just to see if they had this info on there, which they did but damn it was scary reading it. I have no junk food in the house, don't go for the low fat options when i buy things like yogurt but i factor those cals into my daily allowance.

I know people who will have a muffin as a snack and they used to look at me strangely when I'd have something like a meat and salad wrap (usually only half one coz it would fill me up) which was basically the same amount of calories and way more filling!

It's sickening how much junk we are encouraged to eat from these marketing ploys. It's hard enough trying to find stuff that isn't loaded with artificial (and "natural") flavours and other chemical crap.

Good to point out these types of foods. There is so much focus on the obvious (ie Maccas), but very little on the other food items that are available. My local shopping centre really has no "healthy" options available and the main food provider there is Muffin Break.

funny thing is you could eat 2 cheeseburgers from maccas and not consume as many calories as a low fat muffin from mb

Does the mb info list saturated fat?
I do take your point on the calories and I agree, but satiated or trans fat in the cheeseburgers would come into the equation would it not? You can lose weight and have an unhealthy heart - look at the Atkins diet.

they do on their site from memory, but you'd be stuffed if you had to view their site to get the info on a smartphone as all the nutritional info is in pdfs.

Since starting the 12wbt I'm more conscious of what I put into my mouth, I have no unhealthy food at home, I'm careful when I go out to eat too.

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Does the mb info list saturated fat?
I do take your point on the calories and I agree, but satiated or trans fat in the cheeseburgers would come into the equation would it not? You can lose weight and have an unhealthy heart - look at the Atkins diet.

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Please don't start on Atkins, there is massive misinformation out there on it and a lot of people that barely read what it was about before embarking on it and basically thinking they could eat bacon 24/7 (completely untrue).

I think in general we still know how little food affects the body, it appears to be such a complicated process. Also these days many studies seemed be funded by companies with an agenda. One will point out the bad about sugar, another about fat, another about heart disease, another about cancer. At the end of the day if you put all the studies together we are basically damned no matter what we eat.

From MB site: just to compare "weight watchers" to "low fat", size is smaller for a ww one but still very similar if you look at the per 100g info (which I didn't include).

Raspberry Apple Weight Watchers Muffin
NUTRITION INFORMATION
Serving size: 109g
Average Quantity per Serving
Energy 932kJ (223Cal)
Protein 2.8g
Fat, Total 1.5g
- Saturated 1.4g
- Polyunsaturated 0.5g
- Monounsaturated 0.5g
Carbohydrate 40.5g
- Sugars 20.1g
Dietary Fibre 1.9g
Sodium 328mg
Ingredients: Low Fat Muffin Mix (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Sweetener Sorbitol (420), Dextrose, Thickeners [1422 (From Maize), 1412 (From Tapioca), 415, 466], Egg Powder, Raising Agents (541,500), Milk Solids, Emulsifiers [477,435,471,340,472(E)], Salt, Vegetable Oil, Oat Fibre, Flavour), Water, Raspberries (8%), Apple (8%)
Contains Wheat, Oats, Egg, Milk.

Raspberry Apple Muffin
NUTRITION INFORMATION
Serving size: 137g
Average Quantity per Serving
Energy 1250kJ (298Cal)
Protein 4.1g
Fat, Total 2.3g
- Saturated 0.7g
Carbohydrate 53.1g
- Sugars 26.7g
Dietary Fibre 3.1g
Sodium 424mg
Ingredients: Low Fat Muffin Mix (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Sweetener Sorbitol (420), Dextrose, Thickeners [1422 (From Maize), 1412 (From Tapioca), 415, 466], Egg Powder, Raising Agents (541,500), Milk Solids, Emulsifiers [477,435,471,340,472(E)], Salt, Vegetable Oil, Oat Fibre, Flavour), Raspberries (18%), Water, Apple (7%)
Contains Wheat, Oats, Egg, Milk.

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Please don't start on Atkins, there is massive misinformation out there on it and a lot of people that barely read what it was about before embarking on it and basically thinking they could eat bacon 24/7 (completely untrue)..

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that's what I meant.

Aktins in theory works, it is how people choose to follow it is the problem.

I have had people question me as to why they aren't loosing weight when "I only eat Weight Watchers products". I then have to explain to them that although Weight Watcher have a lot of products on the market, they are simply 'alternatives' and are still only intended asa 'sometimes' foods. They are not 'healthy', merely 'healthier' then many other (but definitely not all) products on the market. The healthiest foods are always going to be unprocessed fresh foods (ie, meat, vegie, fruit and grains).