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The popularity of nutrient-spiked foods and drinks has soared recently, according to a new report, but nutritionists worry that certain health claims may often lead to the overconsumption of disguised junk foods.

I’m usually wary of additives of any kind, even if we’re talking about vitamins in my cereal, and prefer to eat a diversity of whole foods to cover my nutritional needs.

Many of these products,which include sugary juices with added calcium or candy bars made to look like granola bars, are heavily marketed as “healthy alternatives,” when they may in fact be supplying an unhealthy amount of certain nutrients or enticing people to eat too much of them thinking they function as medicine.  Marion Nestle, one of our favorite nutritionist’s, agrees that people are often eating too much of these “calorie distractors”:

Functional foods are about marketing, not health.  They delude people into thinking that these things are healthy.

The sales of these products, also referred to as “nutraceuticals”, is expected to continue growing, but people need to realize there are no short cuts when it comes to making healthy eating choices.  The vitamins and nutrients in whole foods, including fruits, vegetables and grains work in concert with each other helping your body to make the most of them.  Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and many of these boosted and processed foods deliver an overabundance of calories, which we certainly don’t need more of.  Besides even if I could get all my nutrtional needs from a Jetson-style pill, I’d much prefer to feast on the delicious and colorful cornucopia of a balanced diet.