Unhealthy Food Items to Avoid

Living in the first world country gives us a wide variety of food to choose from.  However, with the advance of technology, no one can say that the food that is produced today is healthy or healthier for our body.  

We all have heard that consumption of meat can be unhealthy because farmers are injecting the animals with hormones to make them grow faster and bigger.  As a result, milk from cow is also just as questionable.  The list goes on.. But sometimes it's simply just that the food itself doesn't contain much nutrients except for calories.  While calories are great, but pending on the activity of the individual, it isn't always recommended.

Here, there are a few foods that nutritionists have made a note of and we should also be careful.  Generally, may nutritionists will avoid these foods.   They are avoided because it doesn't give us much benefits, but instead it may actually bring us more harm than good.  There is one thing that does not change from the ancient time to present day: the simpler the food is, the healthier it is.  

Just keep in mind: as few ingredients as possible.  

Veggie Patties that many eat to avoid meat, but what remains unknown is that frozen patties use more fillers to create the burger-like texture.  There aren’t as much vegetables in the patties. 

Packaged Turkey is an item many buy out of convenience.  While turkey is a healthy and good that has lean protein, the big culprit here is the sodium.  For some packaged turkey, a 2 oz serving can contain as high as 1/3 of your daily recommended sodium intake.  Look for low sodium turkey, less than 350 mg sodium per 2 oz serving. 

Energy Bars are another popular items for those who are busy and on the go and extremely crazed today.  Unfortunately, come of these bars contain more sugar and calories than some candy bars.  More importantly, protein bars are just processed chemicals.  If it’s tough to avoid, then choose those that are fewer than 200 calories and 20 g of sugar per serving.

Bran muffins are another item that is tasty, but it’s not as healthy as we thought.  This is not to be confused that bran is healthy, just not when mixed in with sugar, flour, and fat.  Pending on the size of the muffin, it may contain more sugar than a donut.  It would be better to make your own with whole wheat flour and substitute applesauce for butter.

Multigrain bread has such a catchy name.  Simply because it has the word multigrain.  Other catchy words include ‘wheat’ and ‘7 grain.’  The issue is many of these breads are made with refined grains that lacks fiber of whole grains.  Refined grain can make one’s sugar spike faster after consumption.  Then the spike of sugar will lead to cravings. 

Flavored instant oatmeal just sounds like a complicated name.  However, whole grain topped with other healthful sides like granola, flax, berries and nuts is a healthy breakfast. The problem falls in the flavor packets that contains a whole lot of sugar and sodium. 

Reduced fat peanut butter sounds like a healthy choice.  And we live in such a anti-fat world that people try to avoid all fat.  However, fat from peanuts are healthy!  Seems that those who ate an ounce a day had a 20% lower risk of dying than people who didn’t.  Always stick to the regular peanut butter with less sugar and full of health benefits.

Couscous if really just tiny pasta that of a refined grain similar to white pasta.  Therefore, just like other flour items, when buying couscous always look for whole-wheat pasta otherwise opt for quinoa.  

Sushi is not as healthy as we would like.  What is of a concern is that it contains quite a bit of rice in them, on top of this, there is a need to eat quite a few to get full since the amount can be small.  Having one California roll is the same as having two sandwiches filled with imitation crab meat.  Spicy tuna is like adding another 1.5 tuna sandwiches with full-fat mayo.  This info is based on the nutritionist Rachel Beller from The Biggest Loser. 

Rice cracker is another popular diet snack.  Both rice cracker and rice cakes are indeed so airy and light, but they are high in carb and lack fiber, protein and contain high sodium.  They are carb-dense food and can alter the balance of one’s gut flora and trigger potential inflammation.  One rice cake of 9g is 80% carbs.  A fun fact: a small potato weighing 170 g, that people avoid for it’s carbs, contains only 23% carbs! 

Rice milk is really just a fluid from rice that will naturally contain high carbohydrates and low protein and calcium.  If one can take dairy, then it is better to have organic cow’s milk for all it’s nutrients (containing calcium, potassium, vitamin A, D, B12, riboflavin, and magnesium).  For alternatives other than cow’s milk ,choose soy and almond milk. 

 Train mix, a snack that is commonly suggested by nutritionist.  It seems like a perfect snack containing both protein and fiber.  The key isn’t the mix, it’s how it was prepared.  Supermarket versions are often packed with not-so-nutritious add-ons like ‘yogurt’ covered raisins, deep fried fruit chips, sesame sticks or salty nuts.  This snack is a perfect energizing and healthy choice, just make it yourself! 

Pretzels has been a ‘healthy’ snacks for many moons now.  And it does seem like it since it has less calories and fat.  The  ingredients contain white flour, yeast, salt, oil, and corn syrup.  Therefore, it’s healthier to just snack on whole wheat flour, whole grain crackers, soy crips, or popcorn.

Spinach wraps and pasta are really just the name.  It contains so little spinach within.  It’s better off if one just have a whole grain wrap or pasta then add actual spinach to get ample amounts of B vitamins, fiber, iron, and calcium.

Banana chips are actually an unhealthy snack due to their inferiority to their original fruit source.  Plain banana provides fiber, potassium, vitamin and fewer calories and fat.  

Bakes beans is unhealthy due to the ingredients added to make it: sugar, syrup, and molasses all adding up to an unnecessarily high calorie count.  Add regular garbage, kidney, and pinto beans to a salad and it would be fabulous pizzazz.  

Bottled green tea is another healthy drink that has been sabotaged into sugar packed beverage.  Green tea in itself has high antioxidants, but when packaged into a bottle for the sake of increasing sales it has depleted the natural tea of it’s ECGC, the agent responsible for cancer prevention, and weight loss.  








sources:
https://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/unhealthy-foods/