ten "healthy" foods

This isn't a list of things to never eat. Just a list of foods that are less healthy than you think:

1. Granola: Often 400 calories a cup. It's oats held together by oil and sugar, which is also the recipe for a cookie. Fine as a topping. Not a cereal you fill a bowl with.

2. Flavored Greek yogurt: You do get the protein. You also get 15 grams of added sugar, which is most of a candy bar. Buy plain and put something on it.

3. Bottled green juice: The color is doing all the work. Most of these are apple or pear juice with a little spinach for the photo, no fiber, and 25 plus grams of sugar. Eating a vegetable would take less time.

4. Fat free salad dressing: Skipping the fat means absorbing less from the salad, since the nutrients in vegetables need fat to get into you. Studies have found exactly that. The fat gets replaced with sugar and gums anyway. Use oil and vinegar.

5. Trail mix: Look at the chocolate to almond ratio. Then look at the serving size, which is a quarter cup and not a handful.

6. Wraps: A tortilla big enough to wrap things in usually beats two slices of bread on calories. If you switched to wraps to be healthier, you went the wrong direction.

7. Dried fruit: Same sugar as fresh with the water removed, so it stops filling you up. Often sweetened on top of that. Easy to eat six servings without noticing.

8. Protein bars: Some are worth eating. Plenty are a candy bar with 10 extra grams of protein and a cleaner font. Read the sugar line.

9. Sushi rolls: Nigiri and a spicy crunchy tempura roll with eel sauce are not the same meal. One is fish and rice. The other is fried and dressed in mayo.

10. Turkey deli meat: Still processed meat. And the real issue is usually sodium, where a few slices can run 500 milligrams before you've added anything.

The Pattern: Most of these aren't bad food. They're normal food with a health story attached, and the story is what makes people eat more of them than they meant to. Nobody eats four servings of chips by accident thinking they're being good. Granola is a different situation.

If there's one habit worth taking from this list, it's checking the serving size before the calories. Half of these look reasonable on the label and unreasonable in the bowl.