Audrey Bruno, Self Magazine Contributor

Eating healthy should be as easy as strolling through a park on a sunny afternoon, but it’s actually more like maneuvering through a minefield. You may think you’re eating good-for-you-foods, but you could be wrong. There are a lot of things out there that sneakily pack in unnecessary sugars and extra calories, all the while parading around like they’re part of a well-rounded diet. The worst part? Even the most diligent clean-eaters get tripped up by these so-called healthy foods from time to time. Seriously, no one is safe.
If you aren’t sure about the nutritional value of something, check out that ingredients list. If sugar, or some mysterious, unpronounceable ingredient is towards the top of list, you may want to opt for something else instead. According to nutritionists, these six foods are the ones that are most likely to fall into that healthy-seeming trap.

 Smoothies
“I love smoothies, but they can be deceptively high in calories and not necessarily filling, which could cause you to end up eating more in the long run. Smoothies made fresh with fruit, vegetables, and nuts can be a good way to add more vitamins and minerals to your diet. However, if you aren’t making it at home, watch out for the ingredients. Some smoothies can end up having over 400 calories while sneaking in a lot of added sugar—even if that sugar is in the form of honey, agave, or maple syrup, it still counts as added sugar!”
—Jen Flachbart, M.S., R.D.N.

Multigrain bread
“This is a tricky term. Multigrain may mean the bread was made with a variety of grains, but it doesn’t mean it was made with whole grains. The various grains may still be refined. The only way to know you’re getting whole grains is to check the ingredient list, and the first words listed should be ‘whole grain.’ Instead of multigrain, choose a whole grain bread.” —Abbey Sharp, R.D., Abbey’s Kitchen

Flavored instant oatmeal
“Flavored instant oatmeals are loaded with added sugars—if you check the ingredients list, sugar is usually the second ingredient listed after oats. One packet of instant oatmeal usually adds about 3 teaspoons of sugar to your day. Ditch the instant oatmeal and make your own overnight oats for a quick, healthy breakfast. For ultimate control over your added sugar intake, sweeten it with real fruit or a teaspoon of maple syrup.”
—Kara Lydon, R.D., L.D.N., R.Y.T., author of Nourish Your Namaste and The Foodie Dietitian Blog

Bottled salad dressing
“Bottled salad dressings can carry stabilizers, sweeteners, and much more salt then you would add to your own dressing. Instead, just whisk together some dijon mustard, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar for a simple and clean dressing. Add some fresh or dried herbs to elevate it even more”
—Miranda Hammer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N.

Sushi
“I often find that people think all sushi is healthy because it’s made with fish and they think of rice as low-fat. However, there are dramatic differences in calories among the variety of menu items. A shrimp tempura roll can pack over 500 calories, nearly as many calories as a Big Mac. Additionally, each roll can include up to one cup of white rice. That’s a lot of refined carbohydrates. To keep your sushi meal healthier, ask for brown rice—which will fill you up faster—and choose rolls with more fish and veggies and fewer crunchies and sauces. Also, fill up on miso soup, or salad with dressing on the side which are both low-calorie choices.”
—Lauren Harris-Pincus, M.S., R.D.N., owner of Nutrition Starring You

“Light” frozen dinners
“Many of these are lower in calories, but are also lower in whole grains, vegetables, and food overall. Whole grains and vegetables are two foods that will keep you fuller for longer. You’re better off cooking up a lean protein source and pairing it with a serving of grains and vegetables.”
—Sharon Palmer, R.D.N., The Plant-Powered Dietitian, author of Plant-Powered for Life

• by Nate Kornell 
  Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Williams College.

Read more –  http://fortune.com/2016/10/12/to-learn-more-get-uncomfortable/

Gloria Mark, Ph.D., from the University of California, Irvine, is an expert in the study of social computing, multitasking, attention, and interruption.  The information is shocking.  The average amount of time people spent on any single event before being interrupted or before switching (to another task) was about three minutes.  Actually, three minutes and five seconds, on average.

Read more:
http://www.morningstar.com/advisor/t/116978194/4-ways-to-deal-with-interruptions.htm?&single=true

Nutritional labels will reveal sugar added to products beginning in 2018. 

Read on:  http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-read-new-nutrition-label-six-things-you-need-know

 

Monotasking – I forced myself to do one thing at a time for a week. It was … hard … By L.V. Anderson, Slate (June 15, 2016)

“I am a champion multitasker at the office. I attach my laptop to a second monitor, which allows me to have at least two applications open and visible at all times. I toggle between Word and Slack or Outlook so I can stay on top of new messages while I’m writing or editing. My Chrome window contains at least half a dozen tabs containing Gmail, Twitter, Slate traffic reports, and a handful of partially read articles that I will, eventually, return to. In meetings, I skim Slack and Twitter while half-listening to things that don’t concern me directly. In short, you will never find me doing just one thing at a time. (That’s not even to mention the epic multitasking I do outside of the office: filling in crosswords while listening to podcasts on the subway, listening to music while riding my bike, playing Words With Friends while watching soccer …)

According to experts, all this multitasking is rotting my brain and diminishing my productivity. A series of experiments at Stanford showed that people who regularly multitask are a lot worse at basic tests of spatial perception, memory, and selective attention than people who don’t. Students who try to multitask while doing homework “understand and remember less, and they have greater difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts,” reported Annie Murphy Paul in Slate in 2013. People who multitask even have lower levels of gray matter than people who stay focused (although the relationship isn’t necessarily causal)…”