In her article titled “13 Diet Foods Worth Buying” Elaine Magee, MPH, RD offers her top
suggestions for low calorie foods to use for weight loss. As I read the WebMD expert’s list and saw that, as she described, “all [the foods] are lower in calories, and all are pretty tasty,” I was curious about the actual ingredients in some of these foods. I was dismayed at what I saw.
The products that food expert Magee recommended contain hidden MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and aspartame. These ingredients can cause health problems over time and should be avoided.
Here’s what I saw:
Boca Original Meatless Chick’n Patties – contain non-organic (therefore it’s GMO) soy, as well as yeast extract which most likely is hiding MSG.
Coca-Cola Zero (regular or cherry flavor) – which contains phosphoric acid, aspartame, and potassium benzoate. Phosphoric acid is believed by many health experts to leach calcium out of bones.
Low Calorie G2 Electrolyte Beverage (by Gatorade), Fruit Punch flavor – contains high fructose corn syrup
Let’s tackle the aspartame first, shall we? This artificial sweetener floods your nervous system and can cause excessive firing of brain neurons leading to headaches, mental confusion, dizziness and seizures. Aspects of aspartame also break down into formaldehyde, which causes cancer in humans.
Aspartame is found in over 6,000 food, supplement, and beverage products in the United States. You can find it branded as NutraSweet and Equal. I encourage you to remove any products from your house or diet that contain this dangerous ingredient.
Several of the products on the WebMD list also contained non-organic dairy products, which are likely from cows fed antibiotics and growth hormones. The quality of these “diet foods” is very poor. They’re mostly packaged, processed, and refined foods.
A few contain “natural and artificial flavors,” which can contain tar and preservatives that act as neurotoxins. The label “natural and artificial flavors” should bring up a red flag. MSG may be legally labelled “natural flavors” in order to hide it. Healthy natural flavors exist, but some are excitotoxins or neurotoxins. A common ingredient you’ll see in this category is “hydrolyzed soy protein.” This “natural flavor” is just like MSG, or monosodium glutamate. MSG has been proven to break down the blood-brain barrier and over-stimulates, or “excite” the neurons of a brain to a dangerous degree. Frequent consumption in mammals has shown the development of tumors, memory loss, and a whole host of neurodegenerative diseases as the end result of excess excitotoxin intake, including Alzhiemer’s, Parkenson’s, Lou Gerhig’s etc.
For more information on MSG and other excitotoxins that may be lurking in your food (and on Elaine Magee’s recommended food lists), get yourself a copy of Russell Blaylock’s book:
Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
Also, MSG is suspected of causing compulsive eating, leading people to want more and more food. You wonder where that old joke about getting hungry an hour after eating Chinese take-out came from? It’s the MSG, baby.
To wrap this all up, please avoid any foods that contain MSG, high fructose corn syrup, or aspartame. Be good to your body, feed it fresh food that it can understand, and don’t poison it with these “diet foods.”
Be well,
Alexandra
It’s amazing how people can still believe that diet “foods” are good for them. After all of the reading that I’ve done–plus “Supersize Me” and “Food, Inc.”–I’m so careful about what I busy my family. We’ve gone mostly organic and don’t eat fast food anymore. We still eat french fries, but not from fast food places. With all of the good information out there, people are so uninformed about their food. And they really don’t want to know either. Thanks for doing your part to educate people about food!
What a joke- Elaine Magee needs to be schooled in nutrition and suspended for such poor advice. Where’d she get her degree???
What is GMO? I thought Bocca Burgers were good.
You need to create a cookbook of “simple” “uncomplicated” dishes that use just a few simple ingredients you can find almost anywhere. We have health food stores, but they don’t have nearly the stock of the places I saw when I was visiting the east coast. We are finding a larger variety of whole grains these days. I actually found organic quinoa on the shelves the other day. The first time I looked for it 4 years ago, it took 3 weeks to find some.
I work full time and share caring for an elderly mother. I don’t have a lot of time to cook, much less drive around looking for ingredients. I would be able to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon cooking ahead and freezing dishes, but I need things that are simple.
I have started cooking brown rice in bulk and freezing in Ziplock bags. It is easy to steam or stir-fry some veggies and have a quick dinner.
I’m still not 100% vegan. I’m up to about 4 days a week. When I slip it is usually with chicken or high fat pastas, etc in restaurants. A Keeping it Simple Vegan Cookbook, or Vegan Cheat Sheet would be a best seller.
Good question! GMO means genetically modified organisms. 99% of soy in the US is genetically modified to withstand huge amounts of pesticide applications. GMO foods haven’t been tested in long-term studied to identify any possible human health effects, but initial animal studies are showing that GMO foods have dangerous consequences.
I only eat organic soy foods – this is the only way to determine if the soy is safe.
Bocca Burgers aren’t the best choice, in my opinion. I prefer Sunshine Burgers which have only a few ingredients, and are actually soy free. Check them out!
Best, Alex
Thanks for posting this Alex. It’s so important for people to realize that low calorie doesn’t always equal healthy, and weight loss alone is not health.
I agree thanks so much for posting this. I think it’s wacky that people are so used to counting calories and fat grams and never think to take into account what the actual ingredients in the foods are! Thanks for being a well-informed teacher
Alex, I must apologize for how this dietitian has represented our profession! It definitely goes to show that not all dietitians receive education in their responsibility to promote at the very least whole foods, and optimally organic and sustainable foods for our world’s health. I encourage everyone to eat Real Food which usually only contains a few ingredients, even if it does come in a box!
Christine Weiss MS, RD
Thanks for the explanation. I hadn’t realized that about soy, or Bocca burgers. I’d thought I was making a wise choice.
This is great information. So is ‘organic’ soy milk considered safe? The husby loves it and can’t get him to switch to almond milk.
[...] The products that food expert Magee recommended contain hidden MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and aspartame. These ingredients can cause health problems over time and should be avoided. Click here to continue reading! [...]
If you’re going to drink animal milks it must be organic. Toxic residues like dioxins accumulate up the food chain, and are found in higher concentrations in animal fats.
Thanks Christine! I appreciate your work and perspective – keep up the great work!
Everyday I am so disturbed by the ingredients that the food industry allows to be consumed. Just the other day, I was looking at the ingredients for the granola bars that I had received a coupon for. These bars are called “Fiber Plus”. The flavour I looked at had chocolate in them. One of the ingredients was “confectioner’s glaze” with the first ingredient being SHELLAC! Wait a minute….is this a food now??? People really have to learn to read the ingredients before buying anything because these days, you just never know.
Thank you for posting this. I am going to share it. While no one is perfect, this is the 2nd time in a couple of weeks that fellow Registered Dietitians have recommended processed, and less than ideal, foods for people. See this article http://bit.ly/bgO3Pw for the other one.
Like you, I recommend “real” food from the earth that is organic and doesn’t contain potentially harmful, or dubious, substances. The best foods come from Mother Nature.
We need to keep spreading the word. Thanks again.
Just thought I would include this which I got from Wikipedia about Shellac:
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes, which are dissolved in denatured alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze[1] and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough all-natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odor-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. It continues to be a popular candy glaze for pill shaped sweets such as Skittles.
I feel like screaming now. I have just stopped eating meat and really liked the Boca Burgers. I am so mad at the food industry. I know it is possible to run a company, make a profit and NOT KILL PEOPLE!!! Are you interested Alex? Maybe you could start a company that sells and manufactures decent food for people like me.
[...] Now I realize why my Mom was so strict about those foods. Not only is there way too much refined sugar in those boxed cereals, but the food colorings have proven to be neurotoxins as well. [...]