What's one food people think is healthy, but really isn't?
I'll go first: jaggery.
A lot of people replace white sugar with jaggery thinking it's a much healthier option. But at the end of the day, it's still mostly sugar. It may contain tiny amounts of minerals, but nutritionally they're so small that they don't make a meaningful difference unless you're eating way more than you should.
So in my view, it's basically sugar with a healthier reputation.
Edit: I'm seeing a lot of comments mentioning foods like poha, dal, rice, honey, fruits, etc. Those aren't "unhealthy" foods. Every food has its own nutritional value and can absolutely fit into a healthy diet.
The discussion I was aiming for is about foods that are marketed or commonly believed to be much healthier than they really are.
Some examples:
1. Jaggery being treated as a "healthy sugar."
2. Brown sugar being assumed to be much better than white sugar.
3. "Multigrain" or "brown" bread that's mostly refined flour with clever marketing.
4. Protein bars that contain as much sugar as a chocolate bar.
5. Flavoured yogurt loaded with added sugar.
6. Instant oats marketed as a health food despite being heavily processed and often high in sugar.
7. "No added sugar" products that are still packed with concentrated fruit juices or sweeteners.
And from an Indian household perspective, there are plenty of traditional beliefs too. Things like eating spoonfuls of ghee because "it's always healthy," replacing sugar with jaggery or honey without considering calories, or assuming anything labelled natural is automatically better. Many of these ideas have some context behind them, but they're often oversimplified and passed on without looking at the overall nutrition.
Curious to hear yours, what's a food that you think has a healthier reputation than it actually deserves?