20 Things People Always Describe As “Healthy” But They’re Actually “Unhealthy”

Many of us want to eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle, but it can be difficult to know what’s actually good for us. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and even some of the foods and drinks we think are healthy may actually be doing us more harm than good.

A user asked, What is something people describe as healthy, but it’s actually unhealthy? Here are top 20 picks

1. Juices

2. Just Being Yourself

‘I connect with it a lot. “Just be yourself” has given me so much-needed confidence, but it doesn’t always result in me always saying the “right” thing every single time. Regardless of the individual, though. that’s hard to do. The best we can do is live and learn. Regret is OK’

3. Only Man-Made Chemicals Are Dangerous

‘The belief that if a product contains no man-made chemicals, it must be healthy. Arsenic, cyanide, and many other substances are natural and can kill you.’

4. Detox Regiments

5. White Teeth

‘Having perfectly white teeth. It’s not a sign of healthy, but scrubbed, chemically treated, or outright sanded teeth.’

‘Agreed. Just make sure your teeth aren’t rotting, and you’re fine. Teeth aren’t meant to be pure white.’

6. Anything Fat-Free

8. Working Too Much

‘Working outside of work hours.’

‘I was fired from my previous job because I “didn’t care enough”. At every job I worked, I would get in trouble if I didn’t clock in and out on the dot, but apparently, I was a bad employee at this place because I didn’t work til 11 or come in on weekends without being asked. I wasn’t aware this was expected of me until they fired me.’

9. Extreme Positivity

‘Staying positive to the point where it becomes toxic. Toxic positivity is real, especially among senior management in the public and private sectors. It can completely tank staff morale.’

10. Wine and Beer Culture

‘Wine culture for moms

Edit: yes, beer culture for Dad, too. I’m not picking on women. I’m talking about how we, as a culture, push wine culture versus addressing the root problem of how overwhelmed and alone moms are.’

‘Alcoholic liver disease is actually on the rise for young, otherwise healthy women in their 40s; they just don’t realize that a few glasses to a bottle almost every night is quite damaging. The pandemic made this surge. The rosé all day and wine Wednesday trends are popular, and that makes the culture shift to chill out on the wine obviously much harder’

11. Vaping

‘A lot of people, especially younger start vaping even though they never smoke cigarettes because it’s “comparatively healthy”, except that there’s plenty of evidence vaping still messes up your lungs and even though it’s scientifically definitive that it will damage your body it’s just that the long term effects are still not fully measurable.

Also, vaping addiction tends to become way worse than cigarette addiction because it’s far easier to intake high doses of nicotine, and you’re less restricted on where and when you can intake, not to mention being considerably cheaper.’

12. Chick-Fil-A

‘The amount of people who genuinely believe that chick-fil-a is somehow “healthier” than other fast food restaurants is actually insane.’

‘I tried to apply for a meal plan waiver at my college, because most of the foods are very unhealthy fast foods. My cholesterol was slightly high at the time (likely from being forced to eat campus food the year before). I got a note from my doctor requesting an exemption from the meal plan requirement, so I could have that money to make my own food

The university’s response? “We have plenty of healthy options, such as Chick-fil-A and subway”’

13. Pregnancy

‘A “healthy pregnancy” simply means the fetus will gestate to term and likely not suffer any medical issues during gestation.

It is NOT referring to a pregnancy’s impact on the body, as that is not healthy at all.’

‘Most people dont think about how growing a child inside of you rearranges your organs and ligaments. And adjust your bone structure. Constant back problems and hip pain. And I’m sure we will discover more issues as time goes on’

‘I worked for a company that treated maternity leave as short term disability. Take that for what you will.’

14. Sports Drinks If You Aren’t Into It

‘Most sports drinks like Gatorade’

‘They are healthy enough when used only for their intended purpose. If you’re not dehydrated, it’s excess salt and sugar that you don’t need.’

15. Unconditional Forgiveness

‘Unconditional forgiveness.

The older you get, the more you realize that letting people off the hook for doing bad things isn’t actually doing them, as people, a favor.

A large amount, if not most people will only change their bad behavior if they face consequences for it. While many people will take a free second chance to better themselves, a lot of other people don’t have that sense of self-awareness or responsibility and instead will take it as a “get out of jail free” card and won’t change anything.

Also, narcissists and people without this sense of responsibility tend to take the idea of forgiveness to mean “you can never bring it up or hold it against me again even if I do this thing to you again”.

With these types of people, forcing them to feel the shame of their actions, or at the very least consequences (if they’re sociopathic or narcissistic) is often the only way to get them to change.’

16. Tanning

‘I’m pretty sure tanning isn’t really healthy’

‘You’ll inevitably get a natural tan if you spend a lot of time in the sun, yeah, but if you’re spending hours in a tanning bed or laying in the sun for hours with no sunscreen I agree that can’t be good for you.’

17. Influencing

‘Influencing/social media/obsession with social media. Putting every moment of your “happy life” on social media.’

18. Extreme Gym Culture

‘Extreme gym culture, or gaining high muscle and getting super ripped. It looks lean and fit and gives off the impression the ripped and lean guy/gal is healthy, but the truth of the matter that look puts on extreme stress on the body and mind, and a very dehydrating and sometimes unhealthy diet.

Disclaimer is not ALL are like that, but I’ve had way too many gym rat friends have heart attacks at 30yo, a couple with liver failures, and plenty of body dysmorphia and suicidal tendencies. Not to mention it also introduces ped use.

There’s always the comparison that it’s healthier than being obese, but of course there’s a limitation.

I’m not saying gym culture is bad, I’m still a gym rat, and a good majority get healthy through gym culture, but there is definitely a side to it that dips heavily into the unhealthy.’

19. Subway

‘Subway. I hear a lot of people saying that it is healthy fast food, but even if you make an all veggies sub, their bread still has a ton of sugar in it.’

20. Cereals

‘Cereals first thing in the morning. Omg the glycemic index of Cheerios is ridiculous, let alone ones coated in sugar. It’s no wonder the US has a type II diabetes problem.’

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The article was originally published on Mrs Daaku Studio.