By Laura Finaldi, News Staff

There’s danger lurking in the health food aisle. Even oat-filled granola and salad greens with just a little too much dressing may be what’s keeping on those extra five pounds.

According to an article posted on Cosmopolitan.com, several foods that are commonly seen as basically healthy are just good at pretending to be. The article called out added sugars in granola, as well as dried fruits, bran muffins, veggie burgers, salads with too many toppings and sandwich wraps, all of which are packed with calories and are enough to keep the jeans of anyone who eats them just a little too tight.

The article also pointed a finger at fruit juice, which may sound healthy, but Middleboro-based registered dietician Nicole Cormier said even a glass of orange juice is packed with 26 grams of carbohydrates and five to 12 grams of sugar.

Some students said they were not surprised to hear juice is not as healthy as they may have thought. Lindsay Williamson, a fourth-year pharmacy student, said she notices a difference in the way she feels after a night of drinking when she puts juice in her drink versus when she mixes with something without lots of sugar in it.

“The only time I really drink juice is mixed drinks with alcohol in them, and I think the sugar makes my hangovers much worse,” she said.

The morning coffee isn’t safe, either. Cormier said one tablespoon of half-and-half can add up to 20 calories to one’s day, and just five ounces of the mixture can have about 200 calories.

Emily Grimsley, a freshman physical therapy student, said she also avoids putting half-and-half in her coffee, but not because she wants to.

“Everything that tastes good is bad for you,” she said. “[Half-and-half] is both milk and cream, so of course it’s fattening. I stick to skim milk and Splenda, which causes cancer but that’s besides the point.”

After a long day of classes or at co-op, going to a sushi restaurant may seem like a healthy way to let loose, but when tempura-fried vegetables and heaping cream cheese in a Philadelphia roll or mayonnaise in a Boston roll are part of an order, they can interfere with those good intentions. Scott Miller, a middler communications studies major, said it makes sense to him that tempura-battered vegetables and the like would make sushi unhealthy.

“Sushi is not something I would think about as a food that would be super unhealthy. It’s surprising in a way but it makes sense if you think about all the frying they do,” he said. “If they’re frying it in tempura and other stuff like that then it can’t be good for you.”

There are options for sushi-lovers who want to avoid the extra calories. Zack Birttingham, a freshman behavioral neuroscience major, has found a way to enjoy sushi in its purest form.

“I’m a vegetarian, so I would just have vegetables put in it,” he said. “I’ve tried [tempura] before and I just don’t like having a lot of it.”