Logo

You know that annoying person in your office or neighborhood who knows how to push your buttons? Well, a lot of food marketers are in the button-pushing game, as well: They’re using buzzwords to tempt you to eat what you shouldn’t. If they can make your belly override your brain, their profit margins might double (often along with the chins).

We’re talking about “reduced fat” products that probably do have less fat--but also piles of sugar and salt to compensate for the lack of flavor--and “all-natural” products that really do come from nature, along with scoopfuls of chemical additives like something straight out of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.

And the most deceptive, dangerous word of all? “Healthy.” Because there is really no way to define it, the FDA has no way to regulate it. And just about anything can be “healthy”—or unhealthy—depending on how much you stuff into your mouth. The latest book in our bestselling series—Eat This, Not That! The Best (and Worst!) Foods in America!—rips the confusing labels off the foods you eat, and exposes the ugly truth behind some of the food industry’s most dangerous health claims. This exclusive excerpt will give you a taste of five of the most dangerous “healthy” restaurant foods, plus better ways to make your meal.

WORST 'HEALTHY' SOUP
P.F. Chang’s Chicken Noodle Soup
759 calories
24 g fat (4 g saturated)
4,135 mg sodium
92 g carbs

It’s the best part about getting sick: The promise of chicken noodle soup to come. Studies have shown it works, too, but no study could have planned on the torrent of sodium that swirls around among Chang’s noodles. Experts recommend capping your daily sodium intake at 1400 milligrams, ideally, and no more than 2,400 mg. Any more than that can put you at an increased risk for heart disease, not to mention swell you up via water retention. Unfortunately all Chang’s soups suffer a similar fate. Your only choice is to swap out your bowl for a smaller cup.

Eat This Instead!
P.F. Chang's Egg Drop Soup (cup)
61 calories
2 g fat (0 g fat)
1,122 mg sodium

WORST VEGGIE SANDWICH
Blimpie Special Vegetarian 12”
1,186 calories
60 g fat (19 g saturated, 0 g trans)
3,532 mg sodium
131 g carbs

Just because a meal is vegetarian doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Blimpie's off-menu sandwich (you have to “special” request it) proves the point. It contains diced vegetables resting on a bed of crumbled cornchips and held together with a wad of melted American cheese. Then the whole mess is covered in a sugar-loaded chutney. Hey, a hippo is a “special vegetarian,” too. But you wouldn’t want to see one in a bikini. (Want more? Check out this list of the worst vegetarian meals in America.)

Eat This Instead!
Mediterranean Ciabatta
447 calories
8 g fat (2 g saturated)
1,635 mg sodium

WORST CHICKEN SALAD
T.G.I. Friday's Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad
1360 calories
Fat: Unknown (The company refuses to disclose the nutritional content of the food they’re serving you.)
Sodium: Unknown (but likely through the roof)

Friday’s monster salads are just as massive—and wreak just as much waistline havoc—as their burgers. Six out of the seven salads we analyzed topped out with more than 900 calories, which means that lunchtime can be the start of something big: your belly. Thanks in large part to the crusted chicken and the heavy-duty dressing, this one salad packs more calories than a half-dozen Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts. Aren’t salads supposed to be “diet” foods? Click here to see more examples of belt-busting leafy greens.

Eat This, Instead!
House Salad with Bacon
280 calories

WORST WRAP
Applebee’s Chicken Fajita Rollup
1,450 calories

For some curious reason, wraps have come to be viewed as a healthy upgrade from sandwiches, as if those massive tortillas can be filled with nothing but anti-calories. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The problem with wraps is that they function as holding tanks for fluids, so hurried fry-cooks can squirt in as much sauce as they want without making it look messy. With Applebee’s rollup, the offending sauce is a “Mexi-ranch” sauce, which looks suspiciously more like ranch than anything eaten in Mexico. But here’s the final insult: This “healthy” meal is served with fries. Eat them and you tack on an 400 extra calories.

Eat This Instead!
Garlic Herb Chicken
370 calories

WORST “HEALTHY” FOOD IN AMERICA
Romano's Macaroni Grill’s Parmesan-Crusted Sole
2,190 calories
141 g fat (58 g saturated)
2,980 mg sodium
145 g carbs

“Parmesan crusting” is a process quite similar to the one used to create mozzarella sticks and chicken strips: They’re covered with a sponge-like blanket of breadcrumbs that soaks up oil. But with Macaroni’s parmesan crust, cheese is mixed in with the breadcrumbs. So it’s essentially just another way to ruin a perfectly lean piece of fish. In fact, no parmesan-crusted item on Romano’s menu has fewer than 1,000 calories. Run away, while you still can.

Eat This Instead!
Simple Salmon
590 calories
32 g fat (6 g saturated)
1,800 mg sodium

For more food warnings like these, along with thousands of nutrition facts and tips, check out the new Eat This, Not That! The Best (and Worst!) Foods in America! Also, be sure to sign up for your FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter for "no-diet weight-loss" advice delivered straight to your inbox!

Have your own examples of ‘healthy’ foods that aren’t? Please share them with the rest of us here.

source


for more click here