What You Need to Know About Energy Bars and Exercise Machines

Q: Hydrogenated oils seem to be in every type of energy bar and granola bar. How far down the list of ingredients does it have to be for the bar to be okay to eat?
-- Sammy, via email

A: If the dreaded "h" word appears among the first five ingredients on a label, think of that food as a poison and put it back on the shelf immediately. Hydrogenation creates trans fatty acids, which create clog city for your arteries. Trans fats decrease good cholesterol and increase bad, and they also boost inflammation, damage the cells in your arteries, and make your blood more prone to clotting. Even if hydrogenated oils are low on the list, you should still stay away; anything you eat should have no more than 4 grams of saturated and trans fats combined (and by the way, 0 grams is even better).

Did it pass that test? Don't scarf it yet. Make sure you know what else is in there. Most seemingly healthful (lower-calorie, high-fiber) granola bars flooding grocers' shelves these days contain an alternative fat -- and often, it's artery-wrecking saturated fat by another name, like fractionated palm kernel oil.

If you're a fan of granola bars, the best way to get a bar that is free of saturated fat and that isn't loaded with other unhealthy stuff is to make one yourself using canola oil. And cut back on the sweetener -- be it honey, jam, or brown sugar -- to suit your taste.

Q: What can you tell me about vibration exercise machines? Are they safe? Do they have any benefits?
-- RoseAnne, Lebanon, IN

A: Doing resistance training on a platform that vibrates at a superfast rate is probably safe for most people, but it won't have you leaping tall buildings in a single bound immediately. The theory is that the vibrations cause muscles to contract and relax as many as 50 times per second, and that the involuntary effort burns fat, tones muscle, builds new bone, and increases flexibility.

Look at the research, however, and the results are less exuberant. True, people who haven't been doing resistance training can gain strength on a whole body vibration (WBV) machine, but whether that beats religiously doing a routine on a mat in front of your TV has yet to be proved (in fact, one study found that muscle-building results are similar with and without vibrations).

The vibrations don't appear to be dangerous, though there was one report of someone with bleeding in the eye after working out on one of these machines for 2 weeks. But we think if you groove on that machine, and it makes you work out, then keep using it.

Q: When you say avoid all white foods, are you including baked potatoes?
-- Lynn, New York City

A: In general, we think there's no excuse for white bread, pasta, or rice when you could have vitamin-and-mineral-packed whole grains. But white potatoes aren't the nutritional nightmares that white refined grains are.

In fact, we recommend potatoes here and there in our healthy eating programs, including the YOU: On a Diet plan. A baked potato delivers nearly a third of the potassium you need in a day, a hefty helping of iron, B vitamins, vitamin C, and filling fiber -- all in about 160 calories. Even better than white potatoes are sweet potatoes. They don't contain quite as much potassium or as many B vitamins, but eating one with the skin will give you even more vitamin C, calcium, and fiber than you get with white potatoes, plus a mother lode of vitamin A! A white potato, nutritious as it is, can't touch that.

And when it comes to white foods, we can't fault other white vegetables, like cauliflower, onions, or turnips, either, as long as you mix them in with several colorful veggies the same day -- it's really the foods that don't start out white (like grains) that give you trouble.