There are so many things that claim to be healthy! Every recipe you find online claims to be healthy in some way and every product on the shelf claims some title to make it seem healthier (like Oreo's advertising "Always made with real cocoa" as though that makes them healthy).
As an example- I've seen a number of recipes similar to this one pop us as a "Healthy Snickers Bar." You take dates, fill them with peanut butter and cover them with dark chocolate and peanut pieces. Dates, peanut butter, peanuts and dark chocolate- that must be healthy!
Today I'll clarify what healthy means to help you make a more informed decision rather than falling prey to marketing or supposedly healthy viral recipes.
To classify a food or recipe as healthy, it needs to contribute to at least 1 of the 3 main principles of nutrition. Those are:
1. Calories
2. Fruits and Veggies
3. Protein
Using those as the test, for a food/recipe to be healthy, it should be one of the following:
-A lower calorie version of the real food.
-Made primarily of fruits/veggies.
-High Protein. This means that it has a minimum of 1 gram of protein per 10 calories (Example: a food with 200 calories should have at least 20 grams of protein).
Looking back at that "Healthy Snickers" recipe, it's a recipe that at first glance sounds like it would be healthy, right? Except they are 173 calories per serving whereas a similarly sized Snickers is only 80 calories. So it's a miss on Principle 1. Sure, it's made with dates, but that's only one of its 4 ingredients, so it's a miss on Principle 2. Lastly, it has only 3 grams of protein, so a miss on Principle 3 as well.
Next time you find a recipe, put it through the test of those 3 criteria. If it's not meeting any of them, chances are that it's something trying to advertise as healthy when it's really not.
To be clear, even if a food isn't healthy, that doesn't mean it's bad! Unhealthy food can (and should!) be enjoyed in moderation. The problem comes when we think we are eating them in moderation, but a lot of our "healthy" foods are actually unhealthy stuff masquerading as a health food. Suddenly our moderation isn't as moderate as we thought.
Hope this helps!
-Sean
