Did you know that you could be eating something that you thought was good for you, but in reality, this food could make you fat? SHOCKING! YES!!!
Who wouldn’t be in shock? We all know about eating healthy, and perhaps we try to eat as much as we can… or perhaps we are not yet at the point where we eat healthily. Nevertheless, we probably know that vegetables are good for us. Are all “presentations” of vegetables good for us? NO! THAT IS NOT THE CASE!! This is where there is a shift in thinking as we realize that all “veggies” are not created equal.
Yes, some veggies may be making you fat! On the contrary, some veggies may be “not-so-healthy.” At a very basic level, we can AGREE that we should consume vegetables. Research studies reveal that many countries do not eat enough vegetables, and in some places, only 45% of the youth eat at least one veggie portion daily [1]. So, we do need to eat more veggies. But, some veggies make people FAT. Here are the vegetables that are making you fat.
“How?” you may wonder. Well … in most cases, it’s not that the veggie itself is bad. Unfortunately, VEGGIES can undergo a lot of processing and preparation before eating these foods. This is the MAIN CULPRIT regarding vegetables making you fat, especially regarding how we present these vegetables before we eat these foods. We are packing on the pounds when we consume these foods.
The International Journal of Food Science and Technology describes the high demand for minimally processed vegetables. And as such, there is an increase in the availability of such foods [2].
THIS IS GREAT TO KNOW!
However, there are still ways that we can consume vegetables that make us fat. Thus, KNOWING the FACTS and understanding the various scenarios is an IDEAL way to proceed.
So, LET’S DIG deeper into 5 of the vegetables that can make a person fat. These are foods that DO NOT help you remain. Or get slim or, in other words – lose weight, heal your body in terms of many types of pain, including joint pain, gut damage, or deal with muscle pain. NO… these vegetables can make you fat. Taking advantage of the fact that the vegetable classification may make people eat more of these foods. At the same time, the foods DO NOT contribute to low-calorie intake or weight loss.
Beware of these five vegetables that can make you fat!
1. Vegetable Chips
What do quite a several people like? Chips! Due to the tendency for people to shy away from veggies, people get creative and determine alternate ways to try to push the idea of “eating veggies” on other people.
Yes, the unhealthy, salty type of chips that are not good for us – especially in the long term. So, WHAT HAPPENS? Veggies are made into chips, and this product is marketed as an alternative to the natural form of the vegetable. SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH THIS?
Well… the concern is that the additives used to create these veggie chips are, in the long run, not very good for you. SHOCKER, right!!! OH NO… these veggie chips can be just as bad or even worse than the more commonly known salty potato chips.
Would you believe that consuming veggie chips may make you FAT?! WORSE to consider as well is the mindset a person may find themselves operating in when eating anything with the word “vegetable” in it.
For some reason, and often rightly so, we expect all veggie concoctions or preparations to be HEALTHY! NOT SO!!! Depending on the way it’s prepared, veggie chips can help you pack on those pounds, and simply because we think that the veggie chips we are consuming are healthy, we may tend to EAT MORE VEGGIE CHIPS, making the situation so much worse.
2. Vegetable Dips
Oooh… these can look so appealing. Of course, another way we get caught in the trap set by veggie dips is the logical conclusion that we’ll not eat too much of this, and we have this idea before we even start eating the dip.
“It’s just a dip, and I’ll just put a little on this carrot, broccoli, celery stick, or another vegetable,” you may say. However, what typically happens… we dip and dip and dip… until we have dipped so much into the so-called vegetable dip that we have packed on extra pounds without realizing it and may continue to do so unknowingly.
Many researchers and health-oriented organizations know that VEGGIE DIPS can be a problem. A HUGE PROBLEM. This is one area where nutritionists are battling hard to maintain the fight between effective weight loss and sabotages that seem to sneak in cleverly.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has provided tips on healthy dips, including seeking the healthiest store-bought option where at least the first ingredient of the dip is a healthy option or making your dip [3].
It can seem like a no-win situation… I KNOW… the dip can make it easier to eat veggies! But beware of the DIP! Having a dip available could encourage kids to eat veggies that would typically be bypassed or ignored, and this is backed up by a study where kids were asked to eat veggies with and without the presence of a vegetable dip [4].
3. Vegetable Smoothies
Yes, it’s a smoothie craze out there! All kinds of smoothies and in all sorts of colors too! And it’s backed up by research that green smoothies can help prevent chronic medical conditions [5].
With veggies, you usually get a lovely green smoothie that can seem just delightful to consume, and of course, you also think these veggies are good for you. WELL… YES… and NO. To make vegetable smoothies these days, we add some other things to the mix. His objective often is to add other healthy foods like avocados that can help make these types of smoothies creamy and easier to consume.t and sugar! While these veggie smoothies can still provide the nutrition your body needs, there is the issue of calorie count and sugar!
Be careful when you consume vegetable smoothies. Simply because these smoothies are made WITH VEGETABLES… and other seemingly healthy components… this DOES NOT MEAN that you should throw caution to the wind and drink all the vegetable smoothies you can get your hands on. No… rather, remember the calorie and sugar issues that can be associated with these VEGGIE SMOOTHIES.
4. Vegetable Juice
Again, the belief that vegetables are healthy is not entirely wrong. However, it’s important to remember that over-consuming some veggies could be bad for you. Over time you may find yourself gaining weight and wonder what you are doing wrong.
Vegetable juice contains lots of nutrients from the veggies that ARE good for you. YES, no problem in this regard. However, the downside of veggie juice is the AMOUNT of SUGAR contained in veggie juice. YES, there can be a significant amount of sugar and a high-calorie count when consuming vegetable juice. You’ll note that sugar and fat reduction are major in weight loss programs [6].
Again, we are likely to think: “Oh, it’s just vegetable juice – what could be so wrong with that? It must be good for me. Hence, I should drink more of this stuff”. With this type of thinking, we consume more vegetable juice, sugar content, and calories in a day!
5. Coated Vegetables
Don’t you like the creative presentations of veggies you’ll find at fancy parties, casual gatherings, picnics, or even with your homemade creations? Sometimes people find the natural veggie presentation so bland and so… blah!… not something that will entice the kids (and some adults too). So, WHY NOT DRESS THE VEGGIES UP A BIT?
Well, indeed… why not? Perhaps this “dressing up” is not the best idea out there. The “dressing up” of the veggies adds on extra “stuff,” including more calories, extra processing that could destroy nutrients, and potentially an INCREASED tendency to want to OVER-EAT these processed vegetables.
Examples of these coated, and usually delicious, vegetables include veggies drenched in flour and other coatings and then fried for that crunchy appeal. Technically you are still eating a vegetable, but it has changed from its natural form in some way or has been processed in a way that makes it easier to consume. Hence, this introduces the opportunity to consume more of these veggies; in turn, such veggies can make you fat!
Conclusion
SO, IF YOU THINK YOU ARE EATING VEGETABLES… and as a result, you are “EATING HEALTHY”… oh dear… it may be time to RE-THINK this conclusion. How healthy is that portion of vegetables you are about to consume? Yes, this makes you want to stop and think about the different ways you have consumed vegetables recently. Beware of veggies that are making you fat!
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Rick Kaselj, MS