When Healthy Foods Backfire

By Rachel Grumman Bender for YouBeauty.com

Are you a former ice cream addict? Have you learned to drive right by a fast food drive-through?

It’s not exactly shocking that these eating habits put your health in harm’s way -- not to mention, cause you to pack on the pounds. So dropping those bad habits like a hot potato (with full-fat sour cream, naturally) and swapping them out for more virtuous foods like fruits and whole grains must guarantee good health, right? Well, it depends.

Turns out, when eaten in excess, healthy foods can turn against you.

“In our Lifestyle 180 Program [the wellness program at the Cleveland Clinic], when people come back for a six-month follow up and are struggling with maintaining the weight they’ve lost, 90 percent of time they were eating horrible foods and now they’re eating healthy foods but are having too much of it,” says Kristin Kirkpatrick, R.D., YouBeauty Nutrition Expert and wellness manager at the Cleveland Clinic. “You can have the best intentions, but unless it’s a non-starchy vegetable, you can have too much of a good thing.”

In other words, even good-for-you eats can’t protect you if you triple the portion sizes or douse them in sugar. Here’s how you can still get the beauty-boosting benefits of six popular healthy foods without wrecking your diet or harming your health.

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Comments

[tec4 cleveland]

12:30 PM on 09/26/2011

Well, duh. Eating too much of anything isn't good for you. You guys really need to choose quality over quantity when it comes to filling up this site. (rolls eyes).

[veganannie]

01:05 PM on 09/19/2011

This article was idiotic. Did you have a bored chimpanzee and a page you needed fill? If someone eats a diet this healthy, excluding the fish, they must be forcing food down, as all of these foods are quite filling. The only option for oatmeal is spice to improve the flavor? How about stevia? This is the kind of fabrication that subtly discourages people from adopting a healthy diet. "Why should I eat healthier? It isn't any better for me and I really like Cheetos."

[adgdsg]

11:15 PM on 09/21/2011

I would argue back, but looking at your username, and your overly-passionate comment....
I'd say you're just some nutty vegetable-obsessed hippie.

[ChefLito]

02:13 PM on 09/18/2011

"Turns out, when eaten in excess, healthy foods can turn against you"
well, duh! hahahaha who wrote this article, a 10-year old who just discovered the wonderful world of healthy eating?
People, everything in moderation!!

[mychris52]

03:53 PM on 09/16/2011

Why hasn't the mainstream media picked up the dangers ogf Gardasil?
(NaturalNews) In seeking answers to why adolescent girls are suffering devastating health damage after being injected with HPV vaccines, SANE Vax, Inc decided to have vials of Gardasil tested in a laboratory. There, they found over a dozen Gardasil vaccine vials to be contaminated with rDNA of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The vials were purchased in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Poland and France, indicating Gardasil contamination is a global phenomenon.

This means that adolescents who are injected with these vials are being contaminated with a biohazard -- the rDNA of HPV. In conducting the tests, Dr. Sin Hang Lee found rDNA from both HPV-11 and HPV-18, which were described as "firmly attached to the aluminum adjuvant."

That aluminum is also found in vaccines should be frightening all by itself, given that aluminum should never be injected into the human body (it's toxic when ingested, and it specifically damages the nervous system). With the added discovery that the aluminum adjuvant also carries rDNA fragments of two different strains of Human Papillomavirus, this now reaches the level of a dangerous biohazard -- something more like a biological weapon rather than anything resembling medicine.

As SANE Vax explains in its announcement, these tests were conducted after an adolescent girl experienced "acute onset Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis within 24 hours" of being injected with an HPV vaccine. (http://sanevax.org/sane-vax-inc-dis...)

[MeiMei Fox]

05:27 PM on 09/15/2011

In short, as with everything in life, don't overdo it! All these foods ARE healthy - just not when over eaten. Moderation in all things. It's so simple, yet so challenging!

[Mike J Maynard]

03:23 PM on 09/15/2011

You should eat far more fruit and vegetables. I've eaten 4 different vegetables today; cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. I've also eaten a few apples from the trees in my garden and a little tomato.I also eat poultry and avoid junk and red meat. I'm not overweight, in fact I could gain some. I will have a few crisps (potato chips) this evening though... :)

[Ohsherri]

09:11 PM on 09/16/2011

I agree.
I actually eat too much fresh fruit. And I'm a little underweight.
Back in the day when I was overweight, I ate a lot of candy, I have a sweet tooth.
When I went on my lifestyle diet change, I replaced my candy with fresh fruit.
Have never looked back.

[jmoser1973]

08:51 AM on 09/19/2011

I wish I could enjoy fresh fruit that much. I really like it but my doctor advised me after my blood test to only eat two portions of fruit a day because of the sugar. Even worse is one banana is two portions :-(

I want more!!

[Goddess Athena]

02:01 PM on 09/15/2011

Interesting. I agree that anything in excess can be bad for you, even so called "good foods." One problem we have is portion control. We have become so used to oversized portions that a "regular" portion looks and seems unsatisfying in comparison. Also, there is a lack of education about nutrition and exercise, and there is also a lot of misinformation out there as well.

[HerrMonk]

12:32 PM on 09/15/2011

The author's understanding of dietary fat is flawed.

[mkthinker]

12:21 PM on 09/15/2011

A long time ago my mother was in weight watchers. They had revamped their points and somehow green beans went from 0 points to 1 point. Apparently some people were complaining back and forth till the head person of the meeting stopped everyone and said 'Hey - none of us got fat because we ate too many green beans.' Some of these remind me of that. Don't eat too much fruit? I would love to meet a person that never has refined sugar but is diabetic because of excess fruit consumption. I do get the avocado one though. I love it and eat it now because really it helps with my dry skin, but when I was losing weight I avoided them, same with nuts (though I never loved nuts so they aren't worth it to me to eat now). We as a country need to stop thinking the opposite of a horrible diet is a perfect one. The whole weight issue needs to dial down the pressure and just take a step at a time. We also need to stop recommending people with one problem (being overweight) need to tailor their diet to 'prevent' a host of diseases they don't have. Oatmeal is good for heart disease. It also tastes bad unless pretty much made fattening with sugar - so people that are not in danger of heart disease are eating more then then need of stuff they don't even like to help a condition they don't even have.

[Kevin Chung Lin]

11:34 AM on 09/15/2011

stupid article...except for the pages about nuts and avocados, cause I can understand those downfalls

[HerrMonk]

12:31 PM on 09/15/2011

I was going to say just to opposite...

It's amazing the dietary fat makes you fat myth is still tolerated in the nutrition community.

But they've got an agenda to stick to here.....

[Fromageball]

03:02 PM on 09/17/2011

Most people would probably look at the amount of fat I eat(saturated and un) and think I must be really overweight. Then they would look at me and tell me how "skinny" I am. As long as you're eating good quality foods, it's easy to eat a reasonable amount of them and be satisfied.

When I eat fats in the form of processed fat or junk, I am not satisfied and will eat more.

[SiobhanLandis]

11:22 AM on 09/15/2011

"when eaten in excess, healthy foods can turn against you"

OK - I think it's safe to say that, when done to excess, anything can be bad for you. That's kind of what 'excess' means.

That said, I found the article pretty interesting - especially the foods mentioned in it. Avocados, for example. I love them (especially with a bunch of fresh cilantro and some lemon juice). Still, I know that they're pretty high-cal, so I don't tend to sit down and eat several at one sitting. As an add-on to a healthy meal, though, they're hard to beat.

One of my favorites (which my kids also enjoy) is Mexican Black Bean casserole, served with sliced avocado and a whole bunch of fresh chopped cilantro. Works well for lunch the next day, too.

Check out the recipe at

http://www.naturallyradiant.info/site/mexican-black-bean-casserole/216

[richieroo]

10:56 AM on 09/15/2011

I totally agree on the fruit front - people think it's healthy and don't realize that being healthy and losing weight are two different things...

Here's an interesting post to go with the article above - The Top 10 Ways To Ruin A Healthy Meal...

http://www.angrytrainerfitness.com/2011/05/top-10-ways-to-ruin-a-healthy-meal/