Fake Health Effect

Healthy food. Bad food. Processed food. Clean food. Whole food. Man we come up with a lot of ways to describe food! And for just as many terms we have for different categories of food, we have just as many ideas of what really falls into this or that category of food!

Fake Health Effect of Foods

Now I can’t take credit for this idea but man did it hit home. Just last week, Lance Lyell posted a video in a challenge group of a trainer, Mike Vacanti,  comparing granola to mini Snickers. I will save embedded the video for the end, and keep reading until then LOL.

In the video (and his other videos), Mike has a series where he compares one seemingly healthy food to another no so healthy food to show the importance of tracking. They are close in calories and often macros. He then breaks down how they really compare (The S*** That Matters – sorry for the little language). I must say, Mike does a really good job. He isn’t all IIFYM,eat pop-tarts day and night guy, he’s balanced. And takes the time to really point out what you are eating. He really wants you to track, track, track – sound familiar :-)

The BIG take away from this video is what he labeled the fake health effect of a food. He gave a great example of a person eating granola for breakfast and then going to a holiday party, or that same person sitting down and eating 24 mini Snickers before the same party. Most people have the perceived notion that granola is healthy. So if you ate a cup of granola for breakfast you would not be inclined to change the rest of your day of eating. When actually that cup of granola is equivalent to the 24 mini Snickers! This is the fake health effect when you don’t track. We think granola is healthy but pay no attention to its actual impact on our daily intake. Where the person who ate Snickers for breakfast would most likely realize that wasn’t healthy and change the rest of their day.

This made me instantly think of yogurt and granola parfaits. Pushed on people is healthy but really you are eating tons of sugar and calories! Don’t let the perceived healthy-ness of a food trick you into thinking you can eat as much as you want. This is the downfall of not counting your macros and having goals!

Now I’m not saying go eat 24 Snicker bites LOL but this video really reinforced to me is that we need to be tracking our calories. You can over eat “healthy” food. You can over eat “clean” food. You could make a horribly calorie dense Shakeology with nut butters, whole milk, lots of fruit, and more. You’d be just a little better off drinking that if it doesn’t fit in your day been a big milkshake (Shakeology is packed with micronutrients and that would always give it a huge edge over milkshake, but on a pure calorie level you are see my point.)

Mike ends these videos with maybe the weighty phrase of all, “Even when you are not counting macros, your body still is.“ WOAH! Exactly. Whether we log into MFP or not, the food we eat is always made up of calories from protein, carbs, and fats. The sum of what we eat is what will determine our progress. Keep tracking and don’t be tricked by “healthy” foods and not tracking.

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