When people think of healthy foods, they often think of such words and expressions as organic, without added sugar, without cholesterol, all-natural, trans fats, and multigrain. This is what people look for when buying “healthy” food. However, research has shown that many of these so-called healthy food choices are not healthy after all. Although there is a wide range of such foods, listed below are the top five.

Multigrain food

Multigrain cereals, bread, and biscuits cause great confusion for people who want to eat healthily. Too often, when people see multigrain on the food label, they think it’s synonymous with whole grains. Unfortunately, this is not true. While whole grains can help reduce people’s risk for heart disease and diabetes, multigrain can’t.

When buying healthy foods, look for those that list only one whole grain on the label. This may include whole wheat, whole oats, whole rye, or brown rice. Bread, cereals, and biscuits that are multi-cereal can do more harm to your body than good.

Vitamin Water and sports drinks

Although many people believe that vitamins with water and sports drinks are much better for you than soft drinks, they are of no benefit unless you are dehydrated. Sports drinks are soft drinks diluted with mixed salt, and the vitamin with water is just a sugary drink combined with a pill or a vitamin powder.

These drinks can even be harmful to you if you do not need extra vitamins. Energy drinks are the worst in this category because they are incredibly high in sugar and contain stimulants that could cause high blood pressure. Moreover, such drinks are full of calories.

Granola and energy bars

People have classified granola bars as healthy foods since the early 1960s. Although these bars may contain a small number of vitamins and minerals, they are also loaded with fat, sugar, and calories. The same can be said about other cereal bars, health, and energy.

Moreover, some nutritionists say that candy has as much nutrition as any of these so-called health bars. The energy that people seem to get after eating a health bar comes from the fact that they contain many calories and sugar.

Chips and Crackers in the oven

Many people believe that because baked chips and biscuits are not fried, they must be healthy. While these products boast low-fat, gluten-free items, most are made from refined starches or grains, which provide few nutrients and tons of calories. Also, too much refined grains and starch can increase your risk for health problems such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Finding healthy food for you is not as easy as it sounds. Just because some foods boast low-fat or gluten-free foods doesn’t necessarily mean they’re healthy. As such, when shopping for healthy foods, always make sure you read the labels carefully.