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But it Sounds So Healthy!
Breakfast on the Run! |
Okay! You're going through the line at the
local cafeteria or coffee shop looking for a quick nutritional
breakfast.
You pick a pre-packaged blueberry muffin, a small bottle of orange
juice and a cup of hot black coffee.
You think you’re making some very healthy choices . . . right? After
all, you’ve just selected a (pre-packaged) muffin filled with
blueberries and 10 ounces of orange juice, each made by a well known
food company!
Now it’s true,
blueberries are an amazing fruit! Probably one of the best you
can eat, and oranges are certainly are among the best of fruits for
vitamin C. Your choices however, are not as healthy as you
think they are . . . did you read the label?
Let’s look at a 4.75 oz ‘pre-packaged’ Blueberry Muffin from a
nationally know food manufacturer. Now the label is (intentionally)
hard to read, tiny black text on a dark purple background.
gee, I wonder why they would do that?
For an interesting contrast let's just compare the pre-packaged blueberry muffin
and a coffee house blueberry muffin
with a nice juicy beef hamburger.
Blueberry Muffin: |
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Blueberry Muffin
Pre-Packaged |
Blueberry Muffin
Starbucks Coffee |
Regular Hamburger
w/condiments, lettuce, tomato |
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Calories: |
450
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380 |
279 to 300 |
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Total Fat: |
16 grams |
19 grams |
13.5 grams |
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Total Carbs: |
65 grams |
49 grams |
27.3 grams |
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Cholesterol: |
45 mg |
70 mg |
26 mg |
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Sodium: |
460 mg |
380 mg |
504 mg |
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Sugars: |
35 grams |
28 grams |
0 grams |
Hmm ...
seems there should be a better choice!
For energy and protein the hamburger is
the better choice here. It's even lower in
cholesterol then that seemingly healthy blueberry
muffin. (Which has very few blueberries in it.)
(Raw
Blueberries would be an awesome choice however!)
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Now let's look at the little 10 oz.
bottle of orange juice!
To start with, the first red flag you'll see is that the label reads
“100% Juice from Concentrate with Added Ingredients.”
What the heck does that mean? How can anything be 100% if it has
added ingredients? All they are really saying is . . . it's some
kind of juice!
Orange Juice:
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10 oz serving |
Orange Juice
Pre-Packaged |
Orange Soda
(orange pop to some) |
Orange Juice
Fresh Squeezed |
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Calories: |
150
|
150 |
140 |
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Total Fat: |
0 grams |
0 grams |
o grams |
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Total Carbs: |
35 grams |
38 grams |
32 grams |
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Sugars: |
34 grams |
28 grams |
26 grams |
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Protein: |
0.5 g |
0 g |
2 g |
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Vitamin C: |
100% |
0% |
100% |
So. just a quick glance at the label tells you that you
may as well be drinking a soft drink as you pre-bottled
juice. Actually, the soft drink would have less
sugar. The only redeeming value of the 'packaged'
orange juice product is the vitamin C and the little bit
of calcium. We're not sure what those 'added
ingredients are.
Fresh squeezed orange juice is the only orange juice you
should ever drink. More expensive? A little, but
as the old saying goes . . . you get what you pay for!
And in this case, it's well worth a few extra pennies.
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And now the coffee . . . but it goes without saying that drinking it
black is your healthiest option!
Coffee:
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16 oz serving |
Black Coffee
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Caffe Latte
Non-fat Milk
Starbucks |
Coffee
w/cream and sugar |
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Calories: |
4
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168 |
150 |
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Total Fat: |
0 grams |
19 grams |
9 grams |
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Total Carbs: |
0 grams |
49 grams |
25 grams |
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Cholesterol: |
0 mg |
8 mg |
30 mg |
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Sodium: |
10 mg |
232 mg |
95 mg |
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Sugars: |
0 grams |
21 grams |
18 grams |
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Articles by: Von Zuko 2009©
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