Ten foods you think are healthy, but are not!

Brown bread: If you’re trying to cut down on the refined carbs, brown bread surely isn’t the way to go. It is better than white bread, admittedly, but about 50% of the bread contains white refined flour, the main ingredient used to prepare white bread, as opposed to mostly whole grain flour. While your daily diet needs carbohydrates and you just can’t avoid them if you want to feel strong and energetic the entire day, white refined flour has no nutritional value and just adds to your calorie intake without making your body more nourished and healthy. An alternative would be making your own bread (which is a tedious, but fruitful process) or rotis. Believe it or not, rotis go with everything! From peanut butter to “gudd” (jaggery), this soft and fluffy source of starch will lift your diet by a mile!

Margarine: Now that most coffee table talks tread on the slightly worn-down path of health and food, many people seem to have “converted”. And by that, we mean converted to margarine from butter. To them I say, “Why?!”. Animal fats are a complete no-no, even if you don’t find yourself wanting to lose weight. Margarine is completely processed and contains emulsifiers, vegetable oil, and artificial ingredients that everybody should avoid.  Allegedly margarine is “low on fat”, which isn’t only a exaggeration and misleading, but also demeans the importance of fat in a diet. You need fat in your daily food time-table. So, drop the chemicals and run to the market for some good “makhan” or even better, “ghee”. They’re natural, healthy, and delicious!

Honey: While honey is, indeed, better than sugar, store bought honey often contains refined carbohydrates, which, again have no nutritional value. At that point, you might as well have white sugar and go the extra mile. One of the best substitutes is “jaggery”. Not only is it completely natural and unrefined; it actually is good carbohydrate and provides nutrition, but it also has a distinct and quite yummy, slightly smokes flavour that sugar doesn’t contain. So, go ahead and change the recipes of your favourite confectionaries: it’s time to get healthy!

Digestive biscuits: These are definitely better than your cream filled, chocolate flavoured beauties that scream of nostalgia, but they’ve super delicious and crumbly too! And it’s the refined flour that  does this job for them. So, if you’re making a cheesecake base, go ahead with the digestive crumbs because they will definitely lower the calorie content, but if you’re looking for a staple with your morning ‘chai’, go for walnuts and raisins that are packed up good fats and vitamins, and provide the same amount of creamy and sweet-ness that those crumbly cookies do.