Three "Healthy" Foods That Aren’t That Healthy
Many people want to add more nutritious foods to their diet. It’s tough staying away from those tempting treats and delicious cheeseburgers, and, in an attempt to get our waste lines under control, we often switch up to some of the healthier options. It’s almost a gut reaction to choose a salad for lunch, but it may not be as healthy as you think. Though some veggies and health food options are better for you than a cinnamon roll, not all healthy choices have as many nutrients as you might think.

Celery
For starters, celery is one food that people switch to when they go on a diet. It may be that you can cut your weight down quickly by turning to a few sticks of celery for lunch, but there’s a reason why you loose weight so quickly – there’s little nutritional value. Celery only has about 1.6 percent of our daily requirements for calcium and just a little more than that for our vitamin C needs. It’s an empty food that lacks the kinds of vitamins and minerals that the body needs. If you’re looking for a healthy snack to switch to, eat some carrots.

Iceberg Lettuce
This is probably the most infamous of the empty veggies. In the U.S., it’s one of the most commonly consumed vegetables, right along side potatoes and tomatoes. People often pick this as a substitute for lunch over other fatty options. Though it’s lower in calories, there’s not much to it other than water. It has some vitamin A and C, but if you’re going the leafy green route, options like Romaine lettuce and spinach are far better choices.

Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a low calorie snack, but that’s because they are mostly water. The water content in the average cucumber is about 95 percent. It’s important to eat foods with high water content, such as similar fruits and vegetables, because the body needs them to improve its fluid supply. This, in turn, improves a person’s blood pressure and gets rid of metabolic wastes. In this respect, yes, cucumbers are good for you, but they don’t have much nutritional value. One cup of sliced cucumbers contains only five percent of our daily requirement for potassium, vitamin C, and other nutrients. A better alternative would be purslane, which is a peppery herb that’s very heart healthy and goes great on a salad. It has the same benefits as cucumbers, but has higher beta-carotene content.

Sometimes the answer to "is it good for you?" isn’t as simple as a yes or no. These options, though better than a red meat or a sugary doughnut, are more or less neutral. They don’t possess an abundance of vitamins or minerals. A better choice would be to stick with alternatives to these choices that have more nutritional value. Consult a food chart to get the best results with a diverse food intake that will meet all of the daily requirements for your body.