How healthy are your healthy options?

So you’ve embarked on the road to leanness and health and are gearing up to reach your wellness and weight goals by eating the right foods, exercising and taking time to de-stress. A word of caution from Gert Coetzee, founder of The Diet Everyone Talks About – who says many accepted healthy options have in fact little evils lurking within them!

Avoid these foods if you’re trying to lose weight:Health foods: Such as health rusks for example. While these may contain goodies that are good for the colon, with over 15 grams of carbs and 500 kilojoules per average health rusk, they are definitely not a good choice in crafting a leaner you.  Fruit juice: It’s made of fruit, so must be it must be good for you. Not so. Fruit juice (even 100% real juice) has all the fibre taken out of it so your body is essentially just getting liquid sugar without the benefits of the other nutrients and lower GI the whole fruit offers.

Low fat products: For years people have been brainwashed with the low fat mantra. However many of these products – while lower in fat – are pumped full of sugar to make them taste good – and sugar is arguably worse for you!

Low carb snacks: It’s so easy these days to pop into the store and grab a low carb snack or ready made meal. However many of these are highly processed, offering little to no real nutrients so they aren’t healthy. Rather opt for making your own snacks at home with wholesome foods. Many of these homemade snacks can be made in advance then frozen or refrigerated.

Here’s a great recipe to try:
Peanut Butter Cookies

(This recipe makes 40 portions with only 0.7g of carbs per cookie!)

Ingredients:

  • 125ml Crunchy peanut butter
  • 250ml Cream
  • 125ml Chopped pecan/walnut/macadamia nuts
  • 10ml Vanilla
  • 6 to 8ml Nice-n-Sweet (aspartame free sweetener)\
  • 50ml Soya flour
  • 5ml Baking powder

Optional:
To taste: Coconut/cherries

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease a baking tray.
Mix all ingredients together well.
Drop teaspoonful of mixture on a baking tray and bake for ± 10 minutes until done.

Details: www.the-diet.co.za