Friday, June 4, 2010

Obsession Phase: Healthy Food - Thoughts

I want to eat healthier. It sounds so simple. But something that should be simple is actually a confusing minefield, with conflicting information pulling you in every direction. Not only do you have all the diet trends like low carb-high protein, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is evil, vegetarian/vegan, low-fat, organic, "natural", etc but you also have calories, chemicals, price, and most importantly, taste to consider. And that's not even to mention the "good" & "bad" foods that studies are talking about on any particular week.
And overall, it's pretty much acknowledged by every group that you should keep track of how many calories you consume. But at what point do you trade calories for more natural ingredients?
For example, since its summer, I like to eat frozen treats. My original choices for popsicles were Dreyers Fruit Bars (multipack Strawberry, Raspberry & Tangerine - No Sugar Added). BUT I know that artifical sugar isn't good for you. The regular ones with sugar have 60 calories each, the ones with Splenda have 30 calories each. I originally chose the kind that I did because those were the flavors I liked better. But now I'm thinking that maybe I should get the bigger fruit bars (only 1 flavor per box) because I can get the flavors I want but with real sugar. But bigger also means 80-ish calories each, instead of my original 30.
Another frozen treat dilemma is ice cream. I tried & liked the Skinny Cow products. 100-170 calories each, depending on the product. But the ingredients are far from natural-sounding & go on for a full paragraph. Whereas the Haagen Dazs 5 ice cream has only 5 very common ingredients, but the calorie count is 220(-ish) for a 1/2 cup serving.
So what are you suppose to do?

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