I asked my Hermes agent to browse a Reddit thread on foods that feel healthy but aren’t, and turn the replies into a table. It worked great. No scrolling, no copy pasting, just a clean summary in seconds.
Small win, but it got me thinking.
I miss the old open internet. Information was easy to find, easy to link to, easy to share. That’s changing fast. Between AI chatbots (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude) and walled networks like Discord and Reddit, more of the information people write for each other is ending up locked inside private data stores. You usually need to be a member of that network just to see it.
These platforms didn’t start out this way. They began as places to bring people together. Now that same user generated content is the thing being monetized, gated, and repackaged, often with little coming back to the people who actually wrote it.
This is where personal agents can help. Something like Hermes doesn’t just automate one task. It can move across silos on your behalf: checking Reddit, Discord, a chatbot’s closed ecosystem, wherever the information lives, and bringing it back to you in one place, in a format you can use.
It doesn’t fix the siloing. The incentives behind it aren’t going anywhere. But it gives us a way to navigate the fragmentation without joining every network or trusting every walled garden. Personal agents may be the closest thing we get back to the open internet, not because the data opens back up, but because something is finally doing the work of stitching it together for us.
Food that feels healthy but isn’t
| # | Food | Mentions | Why It’s Bad |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yogurt | 29 | Flavored yogurts are loaded with added sugar — some more than a candy bar. “Fruit on the bottom” is jam. Low-fat versions often swap fat for sugar. |
| 2 | Granola | 25 | Marketed as wholesome, but packed with sugar, oil, and calories — a small bowl can hit 400+ calories. |
| 3 | Salad | 20 | The greens are fine, but dressing, croutons, cheese, fried chicken, and bacon bits can push restaurant salads past 1,000 calories. |
| 4 | Smoothie | 14 | Store-bought versions can have 50-80g of sugar — more than a soda. Blending destroys fiber, so sugar hits the bloodstream fast. Homemade is generally fine. |
| 5 | Veggie Chips/Straws | 10 | Made from potato starch and vegetable powder — nutritionally close to potato chips, just dyed and marketed as vegetables. |
| 6 | Fruit Juice | 10 | Stripped of fiber, leaving concentrated sugar. Orange juice has ~22g sugar per cup — even 100% juice. |
| 7 | Sports Drinks (Gatorade) | 8 | Designed for athletes burning 1,000+ calories. For sedentary people, it’s mostly sugar water with food coloring. |
| 8 | Honey / Agave | 7 | “Natural” doesn’t mean healthy — the body processes them almost like table sugar. Agave is especially high in fructose. |
| 9 | Dried Fruit | 7 | Removing water concentrates the sugar. A handful of dried mango can equal the sugar in several whole mangoes. |
| 10 | Cereal | 7 | Even “healthy” cereals (Special K, Raisin Bran, Cheerios) are ultra-processed with added sugar and stripped nutrients. |
| 11 | Trail Mix | 4 | Designed as high-calorie fuel for long hikes, not desk snacking. Candy pieces and sugar-coated nuts make it candy in disguise. |
| 12 | Sushi | 4 | White rice, sugary rice vinegar, high-sodium soy sauce, and spicy mayo add up — a spicy tuna roll can be 500+ calories. |
| 13 | Peanut Butter | 4 | “Natural” labels can be deceptive — some commercial brands replace healthy oils with hydrogenated oils and sugar. |
| 14 | Margarine | 4 | Made from industrially processed vegetable oils, historically high in trans fats. |
| 15 | Diet Soda | 3 | Zero calories, but artificial sweeteners may disrupt gut bacteria and trigger cravings, potentially leading to overeating later. |
| 16 | Coconut Oil | 3 | About 90% saturated fat — higher than butter — despite its “superfood” reputation. |
| 17 | Avocado Toast | 3 | Café versions can hit 800+ calories with thick bread, excess avocado, and added oils/toppings. |
| 18 | Frozen Yogurt | 2 | Marketed as a healthy ice cream swap, but toppings like cookie dough and syrup turn it into a sugar bomb. |
| 19 | Muffins | 2 | Essentially cake without frosting — a Starbucks blueberry muffin can have 350-500 calories and 30g+ sugar. |
| 20 | Protein Bars | 2 | Many are candy bars with protein powder added — check for sugar near the top of the ingredient list. |
