5 unhealthy foods you want to avoid

Beware the health halo that surrounds many of your favorite so-called "healthy" foods. When you dig deeper on nutrition and ingredient labels, you can see many foods you swear as good for you may actually be loaded with more sugar, sodium, calories, or fat than you realize. I'm not saying you should never grab an energy bar or nuke a packet of oatmeal, but this advice may help you consider more nutritious swaps. 1. Veggie patties A diet staple for those trying to cut back on meat, veggie patties can be healthy. But many of the processed, frozen versions have more fillers—used to create that burger-like texture—than actual vegetables, dietitian Lona Sandon told WomansDay.com To ensure your burger is packed with real good-for-you greens, Sandon suggests checking to make sure vegetables are listed at the beginning of the ingredient list. 2. Packaged deli turkey Yes, turkey is good lean protein, and on a sandwich with whole-grain bread and lettuce, tomato, and other veggies isn’t a bad lunch choice. The culprit here is sodium; a two-ounce serving of some brands has as much as nearly one-third of your recommended limit, according to CookingLight.com. The healthier move: Buy low-sodium slices (look for less than 350 mg sodium per two-ounce serving) or roast and slice your own meat. 3. Multigrain bread Words like “multigrain” “wheat” and “7 grain” don’t mean all that much. Many breads labeled this way actually contain refined grains, which lack the fiber of whole grains and can make your blood sugar spike faster after eating, leading to cravings. If the first flour listed on the label is refined (look for "bleached" or "unbleached enriched wheat flour"), it’s not really a whole grain product. 4. Energy bars Praise the marketing geniuses who figured out a way to sell foods that contain more sugar and calories than certain candy bars as healthy. “Protein bars are all just processed chemicals,” Garth Davis, MD, a bariatric surgeon at The Davis Clinic in Houston, Texas and author of The Expert’s Guide to Weight Loss Surgery, told iVillage.com. If you’re going to eat them, pick ones with fewer than 200 calories and 20 grams of sugar per serving, recommends WomansDay.com. Also key: Read labels to choose bars with as few ingredients as possible. Some bars from brands like KIND and Larabar contain just nuts, dried fruit, and seeds. 5. Flavored instant oatmeal It’s a whole grain, a healthy grab-and-go breakfast choice, and easily topped with other healthful sides like berries, flax, and nuts. So what could possibly be bad about oatmeal? Well, flavored packets have more sugar and sodium than regular rolled or steel cut oats, notes Prevention.com. A better option: Dress up regular oatmeal with fresh fruit or a small amount of maple syrup, which has the least fructose compared with other sweeteners (and it may be easier for some people to tolerate maple syrup better than honey or agave nectar).