I'm starting to get better at paying attention to nutritional information in places that I go to eat and in the foods I eat... Is anyone else noticing or has noticed that sometimes the things that seem like they'd be the best choice are far from it?

There was a rice bowl at one restaurant I go to sometimes and I thought ok Rice and Veggies seems healthier than pizza I'll go with that.... 1400 calories on the nutritional information! I could have had veggie pizza for less calories.

Or sometimes I pick up breakfast in the morning as a treat and had in my head whole grain = best choice... I like whole grain so that wasn't a hard choice, looked it up on the nutritional information and of all the bagels at that shop including blueberry bagels, white bagels, cinnamon raisin bagels... of all of them, the whole grain was by far the worst one for you calorie wise as well as fat and sodium. At that place the cinnamon raisin bagel is the best nutritionally.

Its so frustrating!

Well it depends and healthy may not necessarily mean low calorie.

For bagels, I'd stay away from bagels myself except very rarely. They may also add extra sugar to the whole grain ones.

For rice and veggies, was it white rice? Was there sauce on the veggies? etc. Those are things you need to ask. If you had brown rice and veggies with no sauce, it'd certainly be healthier than a pizza.

The two foods that people think of as healthy but blow my mind with calories are granola and trail mix.

There's a "healthy" place in town here that serves smoothies and lunch foods (sandwiches, salads, etc.). And all they do is brag about how healthy they are. I understand that lunch meats are naturally high in sodium, but, I was shocked that their veggie sandwich (obviously no meat) had over 1400mg of sodium!

I avoid that place like the plague now.

redsox - what is in the veggie sandwich? is it grilled veggies? cheese? olives? pickles? some type of sauce? There could be a way to lower the amount of sodium but it just may contain a lot of high sodium foods such as feta, olives, pickles or what not.

Perfect reason why I stay away from any prepared meals/items outside of the home! If I do go to a restaurant I try to be good by avoiding the obvious... leave the salad dressing on the side, skip the rice/mashed potatoes and opt for the steamed veggies.

I said goodbye to bagels a long time ago. If you can only have a quarter of it then what's the point. Although I always found the raisin cinnamon type to by yummy.

I think, if I recall correctly that the majority of the sodium came from the bread. But that's a great point about the individual components of the sandwich. The place is out of my budget zone anyway, so I don't plan on returning. Thank you for responding! I'll keep that idea in mind at other establishments!

Ahh yes bread can have lots of sodium, especially speciality breads. I tailor a lot of my meals that I eat out. I also think it is a small part of the entire picture. If you eat out, you will tend to have more sodium which means you could cut back on high sodium foods the rest of the day.

If you want bagels, Thomas's has a wonderful "Bagel Thin" - 110 calories, the whole wheat version has a pretty good ingredient list aside from a few preservatives, and satisfies that "I want a bagel" craving. I have one with RF whipped cream cheese and turkey for breakfast most mornings lately.

Add to the "people think it's good for you and it is loaded with calories" list: hummus. While it's probably better than french onion dip, the chickpeas are high in carbs and if you make it at home, you'll probably be using a TON of olive oil. Unless you check for sure, it's also probably loaded with sodium if it's pre-made. :-( I LOVE the stuff but havent' eaten it in forever. RATS!

Barb

Sorry to keep popping in here with OT cooking suggestions, but Barb, if you make Hummus at home, you can sub out nearly all of the olive oil with low sodium chicken or vegetable broth. All the smoothness, none of the calories, a little olive oil for flavor and you're golden!

Healthy means almost nothing, when you're trying to use it in a generic, universally applicable sense.

Healthy really only has meaning in the context of individuals. If you're obese, anemic, diabetic, hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, underweight, have any food or vitamin deficiencies (or excesses, for example you can overdose on fat soluble vitamins - though not usually from food).... your "healthy" may be very different from soneone else's healthy.

That is just odd. Recently I've baked a lot of breads from recipe books and they never have more than a tiny amount of salt in them.

I love hummus, I eat it all the time. I often make my own or I buy the ones without a lot of oil. If you buy hummus from a restaurant, it tends to have a lot of oil.

I usually make it from scratch with dried chickpeas. Well, they aren't dried when they're done., That's what I start out with. Manda, thanks for the suggestion. I might have a go at it with the cx broth and see how it is. I've always used a lot of olive oil, so it will prolly taste different, but different isn't necessarily bad. I sub broth for oil or cut out most of the oil in most recipes already and it doesn't usually make them any less palatable. Every time someone posts about eating hummus, I salivate. I used to eat it with pita, but I am thinking that cucumber slices would be YUM! I wonder if I have any dried chickpeas. I know I have canned.

Barb