5 Foods That Aren't As Healthy As You Probably Think

During the summer we are always looking for healthy snacks and ways to beat the heat and quench summers thirst. Fresh fruit and vegetables are always a good go to, but the sugary frozen treats and sugar-flavored waters are not as healthy as you may first think. For example, a popular Vitamin Water brand is loaded with over 30 grams of sugar and 125 calories per bottle. Basically, these are "sugar and food colored drinks with a vitamin pill." Instead of these sugar-waters it is suggested to drink regular water.

Drinking bottled water is also more expensive than drinking the tap water. But, drinking bottled vitamin water is even more expensive then both! You would have spent over $1440 if you drank a bottle of vitamin water a day for 365 days (one year). This is fairly expensive compared to the price for a daily multivitamin. This website The Kitchn brings up a topic regarding Vitamin waters not being as healthy as we first think and when I looked into the ingredients I saw erythritol, which is basically a type of carbohydrate called a "sugar alcohol". "Sugar alcohols" only contain approx 2 calories per gram of carbohydrate. Erythritol is a special type in that it contains only 0.24 calories per gram. Therefore labeling regulations say that this counts as "zero calories. Doing the correct math it leads to about 2.4 calories for the whole bottle, versus 140 calories in a 12 oz can of Coke.

All this talk about sugar water and I haven`t even begun on how soft-drinks are filled with sugar and can be harmful in large doses causing obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The calorie and sugar intake in some of the "super sizes" available from a drive through are atrocious. There are over 477 calories and 123 grams of sugar - approx 30 teaspoons of sugar.

Please visit The Kitchn website link below has some other not-so-healthy snacks lurking in your kitchen so make sure you check it out!