Here on Blue Heron Health News, we preach about healthy living. Eating healthy to lower blood pressure, improve heart health, reverse type 2 diabetes and arthritis, lose weight and what not.

But a new study sheds a dark shadow on healthy eating. In some cases it may not do anything to improve your health. In fact, it may backfire in form of worse health and increased body weight.

In this study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, a group of people who were concerned about their fitness and health were recruited.

They were all given packs of “trail mix” (mix of nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chips). They could eat as much as they wanted.

There was a difference in the trail mix, though- specifically in the packaging. Half the group got normal trail mix packaging, whereas the other half got the same mix labeled “Fitness” with a picture of training shoes on it. Afterwards, everyone hit the gym.

Now, those who got the “fitness trail mix,” ate significantly more of it than the other group with “normal trail mix.” The fitness group also worked out significantly less than the ‘non-fitness’ group.

So why is this?

The only conclusion is that our mind plays a trick on us. When we think we’re eating healthy, we also think that we can eat more of semi-unhealthy foods and we don’t have to pay for it in increased weight or health issues. We also tend to think that eating healthy is enough and we don’t have to take other actions like working out.

Marketing firms have known this for years. The energy drinks, fitness bars, protein mixes and other packaged stuff sold with fitness imagery labels are most often loaded with sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. And the consumer thinks, by eating or drinking these “health foods” they’re improving their health: Why not eat an energy bar instead of going for a walk?

Previous studies have shown similar effects from vitamins. Those who take vitamins daily, tend to eat less healthy and workout less. The thinking is that we get enough vitamins from the pills and can therefore skip on our fruits and vegetables. This is especially dangerous when using cheap store brand supplements that have been proven to not include most of the ingredient list or are not absorbed by your body.

The bottom line is that for optimal health, we need to eat healthy, fresh, unprocessed foods. Fancy labels on the packages don’t do anything for our health.

And we also have to exercise and make other lifestyle changes.

The best exercises to lower blood pressure are three specific blood pressure exercises. These blood pressure exercises have been proven to drop blood pressure below 120/80 in a week – sometimes even the very first day. Learn more about these easy blood pressure exercises and try them out for yourself here…

For other health issues, here are the step by step strategies to cure:

Type 2 Diabetes
Arthritis
Lower cholesterol
Overcome menopause
Cure erectile dysfunction
Quick weight loss