Food Label Lies

I'll let this video speak for itself!  Definitely food for thought!

A HEALTHIER MUFFIN FOR YOUR MUFFIN TOP?

Oh hey there.  After a long break from my blog, I'M BACKKKK!!  The past year I became buried in my studies for my masters degree in nutritional and metabolic biology, but I'm just finishing up my research project and finally have more time for the things I love, like this! My roommates will be relieved to find that I have a new outlet for my health and nutrition rants.

So anyway, back to the good stuff.

A HEALTHIER MUFFIN FOR YOUR MUFFIN TOP??

Last night I decided to make a muffin without sugar or butter (NO SUGAR OR BUTTER??? ARE YOU MAD? Yes, perhaps....but hey, whats life without a little crazy?). Also, I've been seeing recipes all over Pinterest about such muffins and I was confident that I could create one of my own.

I ended up making these: Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Carrot Muffins, full of spices and deliciousness.  Or so I thought.  I used applesauce and bananas to substitute for sugar and butter.  I was stoked.

They smelled AMAZING in the oven, but tasted like cold, rubbery, oatmeal.  AWFUL.  I would share the recipe, but honestly, I'm ashamed.

After I got past the disappointment and drank my lonely cup of coffee sans muffin, I began thinking two things:

1)   How can I change this? What do I need to do next time when I’m making a healthy muffin?

2)  But then I thought, WHY DO WE FEEL THE NEED TO MAKE UNHEALTHY FOODS HEALTHY?

When I think of biting into a muffin I want it to be warm and soft.  A small moment of heaven on my tongue.  When I think of something healthy, I think crisp veggies.  They are refreshing and yes, delicious, but not indulgent in the way a muffin should be.  So then why do I need to make a “healthy muffin”?  Why are we always trying to make unhealthy foods healthy?  Maybe that is the crux of our problem.

Think of it like this: You’re at a party and there are muffins on the table.  You take one and it is delicious.  If I told you the muffin was healthy would you go back for another?  How much “healthier” would it need to be?  How much healthier can a muffin really be?

Take these two labels for Jif Peanut Butter:

                         

Which one is the reduced fat peanut butter?  Which one is healthier? Which one should you choose if you’re trying to loose weight?  

The label on the left has less calories from fat, BUT it has more sugars.  In fact, it has TWICE the amount of sugar.  It also has THREE TIMES the amount of sodium and more calories overall.  If you guessed that the label on the left is the reduced fat peanut butter, that is correct.  The label on the RIGHT is REGULAR.  The label on the LEFT is REDUCED FAT.

Looking at it more closely now, which peanut butter would you buy?  Just because a item is reduced fat (or sugar, sodium, for that matter), does not necessarily mean its healthier. 

The risk when buying products that are advertised as being "reduced fat" or "healthy" is that psychologically we think we can eat more of it for an equivalent amount of calories.  Looking at the labels above, we can see that that is not always the case.  A recent study in the International Journal of Obesity, found that people estimated larger portions of healthier versions of food compared to the regular version, despite the two versions being equivalent in calorie content.  Just because an item is marketed as being healthier does not mean that it will have less calories.  

There is no magic healthy muffin to wipe away a muffin top, but it is ok to eat a muffin once in a while.  Just don't lie to yourself about what is actually going into your body and be informed about the nutritional content.  Be smart when making healthy choices and always read your nutrition labels!

Happy Thursday!