#matchstick challenge

[silverd4wn]

Matchstick Challenge #8: Is it really healthy?

Okay so I'm glad I can post this today and I really have been thinking about this one for a while.

So. Is it really healthy?

Special K Cereal Bars Special K Cereal Bars and Special K Cereal are constantly marketed as foods essential for weightloss and specifically marketed at women who want to 'fit in their jeans by the weekend' or whatever. The Special K website says (and I quote) "we’re here to inspire you to live a healthy lifestyle with foods that you can feel really good about". Yeah... Really...

So the calories look great at first glance... 88 calories, that's great! But wait. 9g sugar. Nine grams of sugar. That is 10% of your GDA. For a tiny little bar that weighs like less than a paperclip, that's an awful lot of sugar. I wonder where this sugar comes from? Lets look at the ingredients and find out. Kellogg's Special K Cereal (45%) (Rice, Wheat {Wholewheat, Wheat Flour}, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Skimmed Milk Powder,Defatted Wheatgerm, Salt, Barley Malt Flavouring, Vitamin C, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid ,Vitamin B12) So hang on, you call your cereal bar a 'Special K' bar and the bar is less than half 'Special K'!? Oh and the third ingredient is sugar... That must make it sweet. Hang on, nope, more sugar coming up. We also have: Glucose Syrup ,Cranberry Fruit Pieces (12%)(Cranberries, Pineapple Syrup, Pineapple Juice Concentrate) ,Fructose ,Dextrose ,Oh look, more Sugar,Vegetable Oil ,Humectant (Sorbitol, Glycerol) ,Skimmed Milk Powder, Milk Whey Powder ,Flavourings ,Citric Acid ,Calcium Carbonate Isn't that added to oil drilling liquids!? ,Lactose (from Milk) ,Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin) ,Antioxidant (E320)

Long story short: There's a lot of stuff in there that you wouldn't find in your kitchen cupboard.

So what about the alternative?

Keeping on the berry theme we have this amazing 'cereal' bar that I found in the 'healthy' section at Tesco. I say 'cereal' because they don't really contain cereal unless you count oats in that.

Nakd Berry Cheeky Bars Oh these are beautiful! They pride themselves on being real food with 'no curious additives' and they certainly deliver on that one.

Ingredients are: Raw Dates 37%,Oats 26% ,Raw Raisins 12% ,Raw Peanuts 9% ,Apple Juice 8% ,Raw Raspberries 2% ,Raw Almonds 2% ,Raw Walnuts 2% ,Raw Strawberries 2%

That looks pretty damn good to me and all for 100 calories. Only ten more than the Special K bar and WAY more nutritious! Oh and way more satisfying and delicious, I had one today and they are goooood :D

And the moral of this story is:

(we've heard it a billion times) ALWAYS READ THE LABEL

do not trust the packaging

always make sure that the ingredients are recognisable and not something you need to ask a chemist about

[fitterfran-blog]

Matchstick Challenge #8: Is it actually healthy?

So this weeks challenge (and my first, i'll play catch up eventually) was to find something that is marketed as healthy and then talk about whether or not it is in fact healthy.

  Good Grain Puffed Wheat

100% WHEAT AND NOTHING ELSE. Wholesomely light. LOW IN FAT. HIGH IN FIBRE. NO ADDED SALT OR SUGAR

At least that is what the packet says. I grabbed a box of these in ASDA thinking it's a healthier alternative to sugar puffs and a much healthier cereal choice when i don't have time to make porridge, and the nutritional info looks promising.

The fact that it's only 55 kcal for 15g - which doesn't sound like a lot, but they are super light so you get a decent bowl full - is really great! It's filling and tastes good, especially topped with some banana, so i think this will definately become my go to cereal.

As for it's healthiness, can you really go wrong with something that is 100% wheat? I don't think so.

[kat-the-vampirebat-blog]

Spinach Wraps, aka DELICIOUS LIES

Okay, okay, I'll do this correctly.   "If you joined late, I’d rather have you participate in the current week’s challenge instead of going back to the beginning and starting there."  

So says Molly, and so that's what I'll do.

Challenge #8: Find a food marketed as "healthy" and then investigate whether it really is.

Okay, easy enough. I immediately thought about my go-to "healthy" lunch alternative, a veggie wrap from the sub station at the dining hall. Spinach wrap, lettuce, tomato, hummus, black olives, banana peppers, and olive oil. Mmm, healthy.

No. Wrong. Spinach wraps are a lie, it turns out. They seem healthy because they're green and have the word spinach in them.

"Spinach wraps and pastas definitely add a decorative flair to your meal, but that's about it. The actual amount of spinach in these green tortillas and noodles is trivial compared with what you would get if you added your own spinach leaves to your wrap or pasta dish. This super green is added more for color than for nutrition, and most often, the flour used to make the pasta or wrap isn't whole grain, either."

So instead of spinach wraps or pasta, it's smarter to choose whole-grain options and add REAL spinach leaves to benefit from the iron, B vitamins, fiber, and calcium.

 So yeah. I am easily fooled and need to learn to pay attention to things other than color when making food choices. Go team.

[livingasmarisa-blog]

Matchstick Challenge #8

So I'm able to skip forward and go straight to the current challenge! Yay :D

We were supposed to find a food item that is sold as a 'healthy' product, but research it to find out if it actually is! 

My first one is something I discovered during my senior year in high school. I'm a tea fanatic, so when I found Lipton Green Tea (with citrus) being sold at the cafeteria, I immediately got it. After reading the bottle so many times out of boredom, I realized that not only is the serving size smaller than what the bottle held, but also that it had way more sugar than any drink should have. So, when thinking back on this now with my Fooducate App, I checked it up today. Oooooooh boy. 

It has artificial colorings (which have a risk of causing cancer), something that becomes a carcinogen when it interacts with Vitamin C (uh, which is in the tea), and some other stuff you're just going to have to find out. (Info curtesy from Fooducate)

A second (and less serious) one are Crasins. I just had some to replace raisins in the classic "Ants on a Log'. I glanced at the ingredients, happy to see it was only cranberries and sugar. Wait.

I was curious, so I took a look at the Nutritional Value and what do you know, there's 26g of sugar for each 1/3 cup of Crasins. That's a lot. I'm going to stick to regular, no-sugar-added raisins and cranberries from now on.

Also, out of curiosity, I've been browsing over articles about the dangers of sugar substitutes and diet sodas. Check it out!

Lesson is: Check the package, or risk the consequences!

[fitterfran-blog]

Matchstick Challenge

I decided for a change that i would join up to the Matchstick Challenge by Matchstick Molly. Since the challenges come out on a Monday i'll start next week. (Unless i have time to catch up with this weeks before then)

I'm excited to try something new to hopefully bring some different things into my lifestly changes!

[kat-the-vampirebat-blog]

Healthy healthy healthy

I really need to get back into the shape I was before winter break. Not that I was in perfect shape, but I was going to the gym on schedule, doing yoga in my dorm, not eating pizza for every meal, etc.

That being said, the internet gods have led me to Matchstick Molly. So here goes my attempts to be candid about my workout plan in the hopes that internet people will hold me accountable and yell at me in ALL CAPS if I seem to be regressing.

I'm starting at the top because I'm not too far behind.

Challenge Numero Uno: try a fruit or vegetable you've never tried before

This shouldn't be so difficult because I have terrible eating habits when it comes to veggies. I prefer mine raw and smothered in ranch dressing, so that's really limited the vegetable I eat on a regular basis.

carrots (I like the baby ones, but not when they're cooked. I hate sweet vegetables. I just read that sentence and realized that I really need to fix myself.)

celery (Again, raw. With peanut butter. I might be in trouble.)

lettuce (Does lettuce even count as a vegetable? Does it really have any nutritional value? Other than....high water content?)

raw spinach (There was an episode of Arthur where DW won't eat spinach but then she figures out she likes shepherds pie and asks for the recipe and GASP it has spinach in it so the moral of this story was that spinach isn't that bad. How did I get off on this tangent?)

tomatoes and onion and peppers, in the form of Pico de Gallo.

So....I have some work to do.I'll eat any fruit and I'm addicted to those tiny oranges that are made especially for children. But there's a lot out there I haven't ever tried. I checked the dining hall meal calender (by some miracle I live next to the "healthy choices" dining hall so I have pretty easy access to better foods/vegan/vegitarian choices if I 'd like them.) and I have some ideas. I'll let you know what I try out :]

[livingasmarisa-blog]

Matchstick Challenge #2

So to add more walking/running to my day, I've been taking my dog on some adventurous walks! I keep trying to find different ways to navigate my neighborhood, it's really fun!

Even though it's cold out, I'm still glad that I'm getting some exercise and my puppy is getting out of the house and burning some energy! He gets restless sometimes, so it's good for him to get out and see some new things.

I'm going to go actually take him around the block in about 5 minutes and walk my little sister home from the bus stop. 

I'll keep you guys updated! :)

[foreveronthehips]

My "bad" foods

Okay, so I, on a whim, decided to join the Matchstick Challenge which is this like group where they do a different thing each week to be healthy and love their bodies and I thought it was a really good idea. In fact, I loved it and I figured that it was more for me than any other thing I've found so far. Since I've been struggling with body dysmorphic disorder (what I see in the mirror is not what is really there), I knew I needed to find a way to see past that and love myself no matter what I looked like and strive to be healthy at the same time.

All of that being said, this week's challenge is make a list of foods that I just don't or won't let myself eat and why. So here goes:

Salty chips, especially non-baked chips because they're full of salt and empty calories.

Soda, it's bad for my teeth and has way too much sugar in it to be healthy for anyone and police use coca cola to clean blood off of crime scenes, it cleans pennies, and corrodes battery acid. I don't want that in my body.

Non wheat/non-whole grain breads, tortillas, rices, pastas, etc. White grains are just an easy way to pack on pounds. Why do that when the wheat stuff tastes just as good, if not better, than the white breads and white rices, etc?

Butter. I was never a big fan of butter. Even as a kid, I never put it on rolls or bread or anything like that. But even cooking with it or adding it to pasta and stuff is something I don't even do anymore. It's so fattening and gross. It'll go straight to my butt. I use 100% virgin olive oil now.

Gravy. I always have hated it and never once allowed my parents to put it on my food and probably for good reason. Like butter, gravy is just added fat. Use seasonings instead if you want to add some flavor.

Red meats. God, don't even get me started. I'm disgusted by beef and pork to the highest degree, but for more than just my ex-vegetarian conscience. It raises blood pressure, increases risk for certain cancers, has higher fat content than white meats. And yes that includes all red meat from the perfect cut of prime rib to bacon. I won't eat any of it.