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Healthy foods that turn out not to be
PETE GLADDEN
Published: September 21, 2026
How many times have you gotten hoodwinked into eating a so-called “healthy” food, which after further inspection its healthful claims looked dubious at best?
Yup, we’ve all experienced this dietary heartbreak.
So after years of being hoodwinked my girlfriend came to the rescue and taught me how to be a rabid ingredients label reader.
Thus, a product’s purported “healthiness” has to be backed up with some solid ingredients data rather than its blizzard of advertising hype.
So let’s take a look at some of the posers out there which, when you dig a little, really turn out to be not so very healthy according to their ingredient labels.
1) My first health food imposter, flavored yogurts, is an item that had me fooled for years - until my significant other sternly told me to read the ingredient labels just as slowly as I read an eye test chart.
First, let me say from the onset that I just love several of the name brand premium yogurts, but when I saw how much sugar they contained, sometimes more sugar than those sugary treats found in the candy isle, I had to end our relationship!
Today I use an organic greek yogurt and mix in fresh or frozen blueberries/strawberries/raspberries with just a dash of honey or maple syrup.
Nope, it’s not nearly as silky and heavenly as the brand name yogurts, but it’s a lot more healthy!
2) The next healthy imposter is the sports bar, which entails a host of products that I had used religiously during my years as a competitive endurance athlete and during my backpacking and bikepacking trips.
And with these I’m actually ashamed of myself for being so lazy in believing they were actually healthy, because in many cases they turned out to be nothing more that fancily packaged and slickly marketed candy bars.
Some of these products contain the so-called bad fats - palm, soybean and canola oils - along with a host processed ingredients, artificial sweeteners and a ton of simple sugars.
Today I go straight to the ingredient lists and look for products that contain egg-white proteins, dates, raisons, oats, cranberries and nuts.
What’s more, we’ve begun to make our own protein/sports bars at home now that we know what kinds of ingredients are in the healthy, but highly priced commercial varieties.
3) Coming in third are fruit and veggie juices.
So I used to love that highly popular veggie juice (the one with the letter and the number), that along with orange juice, cranberry juice and apple juice.
Their marketing insisted they’re healthy…therefore I believed they were healthy.
Today, the furthest I’ll go here is in saying that they’re more healthy than soda pop.
In reality many of these juices are highly processed, devoid of the dietary fiber found in whole vegetables, and they can contain a super high amount of sodium.
What’s more, many of these juices contain sugar, sugar and more sugar.
Heck an eight-ounce glass of OJ contains roughly 110-130 calories.
My solution has been pretty simple, I eat a lot more fresh veggie salads and I get my vitamin C from real oranges apples and cranberries.
4) Dried fruits
Oh yea, I though I was spot-on by feasting on light weigh and healthy dried fruits during my backpacking trips.
Then significant other forced me to read the ingredient labels.
To my disbelief those wonderful sweet flavors I just loved are from the added sugar, then there’s a host of sulfite preservatives that keep them fresh and chewy.
Now I still buy dried fruit for backpacking, BUT I spend a bit more on brands that have zero added sugars and no preservatives.
5) Plant based meats
Like most people, we jumped on the veggie-based burger train…for a while.
But upon further inspection, significant other discovered that these guys are ultra processed, they contain a ton of sodium and many brands are made with a host of unhealthy fats.
Today we use way more legumes, beans, nuts and quinoa than I ever thought possible, and these plant proteins make for some sumptuous dinners without all the sodium, fats and ultra-processing.
They just require a little more prep work to get a healthy plant-based meal on the table.
So my cautionary tale about healthful eating is this: Just when you think you’re eating healthy, go to the ingredient labels…just like my significant other taught me to do!