When a country with over trillion dollar health and wellness industry, spends over US$3.2 trillion over foods and foods services and yet 2-3rd of its population is overweight, it surely indicates that something is wrong ….way wrong.
And to be precise it is our whole food culture and food choices, and it has been observed that we are collectively consuming food which has:
- High total calories
- High calorie density per unit of volume
- High total fat
- High in unhealthy saturated and trans-fats
- High in refined sugar.
- Low in nutritional value (low nutrient density)
- Flavor enhancers, fillers and other chemicals
- Artificial colors and flavors
- High sodium
And that’s not it.
Most of these beloved fatty foods have negative nutritional value. Which in simple words means that these foods are absorbing the nutrient out from our body instead of releasing more of them?
Which definitely makes me wonder what an actual definition of food is and why we even tag them as foods? Just because we swallow them and they taste good?
However, through some effort, we have come up with the list of devilish twelve, which has turned this obesity problem into an epidemic.
For any person with any sort of health and fitness objectives. The best way to achieve those objectives is to learn what to eat. And the best way to learn what to eat is to learn what you should not eat.
Like it is said success is a matter of choice. And you can only choose to eat healthy if you choose not to eat junk.
12 Worst Foods to Consume.
Every article, research paper or blog we came across of related topic, it concluded that if you want to;
- Cut fat.
- Lose weight,
- Tone your body,
- Enhance your performance (in every walk of life, except eating and drinking competitions).
- Or just want to live a happy and better quality life.
These are the foods that you must avoid.
Ice Cream.
Please don’t kill me.
I’m sure a lot of people will be mad at me when they see their beloved ice cream as number one on the hit list of the foods that turn to fat, but here goes: Ice cream is Bad news with a capital B! Icecream is loaded with fat, sugar and way more calories than you need. Not to mention, the artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, emusifiers, and stabilizers.
Now let’s talk about the fat. One cup (that’s a pretty small serving you know), contains approximately 350 calories and 20 grams of fat – mostly saturated. And that’s just regular premium vanilla ice cream.
A cup of Haagen Dasz Belgian Chocolate has 660 calories and 36 grams of fat.
But that’s nuthin! Ben & Jerrys has them all beat! A cup of wavy gravy ice cream has 660 calories 48 grams of fat – 20 of them saturated!
Fried Foods.
All fried foods are really BAD NEWS! (With all capitals!) Fried foods are harmful in more ways than one.
First of all, they are high in calories and mostly fat.
And that’s not it. frying destroys essential fatty acids (EFA’s) by twisting their molecules from the cis-configuration in which they’re normally found to the unnatural trans shape.
According to Udo Erasmus, the world’s foremost expert on fats, there is no such thing as safe frying. “Safe frying is a contradiction in terms,” says Erasmus. “When foods turn brown, they have been burned. The nutrients in burned. Material have been destroyed. Proteins turn into carcinogenic acrolein. Starches and sugars are browned through molecular destruction. Fats and oils are turned to smoke by the destruction of fatty acids and glycerol.”
Folks, stay the heck away from anything fried! (By the way, did you know that “sauté” is the French word for “fry?”)
Donuts and Pastries.
Like ice cream, doughnuts are one of the all time no-no’s when body fat reduction and good health are your goals. Doughnuts contain that king of fat storing combinations: refined sugar and saturated fats.
A small plain or powdered donut contains about 170 calories and 10 grams of fat (by the way, that’s over 50% fat by calories).
Your larger donuts contain anywhere from 200 to 420 calories and up to 22 grams of fat – much of it saturated.
Donuts also contain chemical agents designed to keep them soft, mono and diglycerides, propylene and glycol mono and diesters, coloring agents including FD & C yellow, number 5 and preservatives such as BHT and BHA.
4. White sugar, Candy, Chocolate and Sweets.
One of the biggest misconceptions in weight loss is that carbohydrates make you fat.
This is an incorrect statement.
A correct statement would be; refined carbohydrates make you fat… and that means white sugar, candy, and sweets.
Even if you could “get away with” eating sugar because your calories were below maintenance, you wouldn’t want to. You see, sugar is “empty calories.” No vitamins, no minerals, no fiber, no nothing… just calories.
It only gets worse. Nancy Appleton, the author of “Lick the sugar habit,” has compiled a list of over 100 reasons that sugar is disastrous to your health and fitness endeavors(A must…must read). Here’s a shortened version:
- Refined sugar can be a contributing factor to gaining body fat
- Refined sugar can increase the bad LDL cholesterol
- Refined sugar can decrease the good LDL cholesterol
- Refined sugar can increase triglycerides
- Refined sugar can suppress your immune system
- Refined sugar can deplete your body of important minerals
- Refined sugar can contribute to the development of numerous types of cancer
- Refined sugar can cause hypoglycemia
- Refined sugar can decrease growth hormone
- Refined sugar can contribute to diabetes
- Refined sugar can cause food allergies
If you made only one change to your nutritional habits today… that is, to reduce your sugar intake… the difference in your health, energy levels, and body composition would absolutely blow your mind. Get the sugar out!
Soda.
The average person consumes 55.7 gallons of the fizzy stuff every year.
But what’s good for the cola companies definitely isn’t good for what ails you.
Soft drinks are mostly water, but the amount of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup used to sweeten regular soda is more than enough to do its share of damage.
We’ve already talked about the ills of sugar, but liquid sugar is even more insidious when it comes to throwing a wrench in your fat burning machinery.
Several studies have shown that when you consume liquid calories, you tend not to compensate by cutting back on the food you eat. The result is that you drink excess calories in addition to all the food you normally eat.
Liquid calories of all types are best avoided on fat burning diets.
Fruit “Drinks” and Other Sugar Sweetened Beverages.
Ditto (same as for soda)… don’t drink your calories, especially if they’re full of sugar! And don’t be
fooled by the labels that say, “Contains real fruit juice.” Do your homework and read the ingredients list. If you see sugar, sucrose, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup on the label, STAY AWAY!
Bacon, Sausage.
Bacon has almost become a standard feature in the typical American breakfast. Too bad! The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that Bacon and Sausage are one of the worst foods you could possibly eat. One strip of regular pork bacon has 130 calories and 13 grams of fat,
five of them saturated. By the way, that’s 93% fat by calories – Yikes!
Even if you choose turkey bacon, or a reduced fat bacon, you’d better check the label carefully. “Reduced fat” doesn’t mean much. If the fat is reduced from 90% fat to 70% fat or even 50% fat, that’s not much improvement.
8. White Bread.
The average American eats 54 pounds of bread each year. Most people think bread is fattening. This is largely due to the popularity of low carb diets. The problem is they’re eating the wrong kind of bread. White bread is treated in the body the same way as white sugar. White bread is a refined carbohydrate with no nutritional value.
These breads have been stripped of most of their nutrients. The milling and grinding of the whole grain reduce the particle size while increasing the calorie density and turns the whole grain (a complex carb) into a simple carb that’s no better than pure sugar.
If you want to burn fat, give up the white flour completely and go with the grain – whole grain that is.
Potato Chips, Nachos, Corn Chips.
All of these are highly concentrated of salt and sodium which surely is number 1 cause of high blood pressure. And that’s not it, they have a huge count of calories, tons of fat, flavor additives and the refined oils.
The potato chip is not even close to the nutritional value of the raw potato. The nutritional value that was in the raw potato has literally been “fried right out.” What’s left is mostly calories from fat from the refined oil used in the cooking process.
Oh, by the way, Nachos and Dorito-type chips are on the out list too (sorry).
Hot-dogs, Fast-food Burgers.
Hamburgers and hot dogs are as American as Chevrolet, baseball, and apple pie. Unfortunately, America’s love for fast food has turned it into one of the most obese and unhealthy countries in the world.
Hot dogs are not pure meat – they are a “meat product” consisting of some meat, mashed up with fillers, stabilizers, sodium, preservatives, artificial colors and artificial flavors. They’re a veritable mishmash of chemicals and additives… a “fake food” so to speak. A three-ounce regular hot dog has 16 grams of fat – seven of them saturated.
Hamburgers, while they may be made from real meat, are made from some of the fattiest meat available. There’s no such thing as “lean ground beef.” Even the leanest beef is still relatively high in fat. Read the labels and do the math for yourself.
Oh, one last thing…The nitrites used to cure the hot dogs have been linked to cancer.
Cookies, Cakes, Pies.
Cookies, cakes, and pies fall into the same categories as donuts – fat and sugar joined at the hip (and they’ll end up on your hips too if you’re not careful!) Just because they’re baked and not fried don’t mean they’re any better.
Fat and sugar are the worst of all food combinations and they’re both found in abundance in cookies, cakes, and pies. They also harbor untold amounts of dangerous trans fatty acids.
Save the cake for once a year on your birthday (okay, maybe a slice of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving). The rest of the year, avoid these like the plague.
12. Sugary Breakfast Cereals.
Most of the boxed cereals found in supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50% sugar (sugar smacks have 53% sugar). Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many kinds of cereals appear much more healthy than they appear by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, lovely – you now have vitamin-fortified sugar!
Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredients list and see how high sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition Facts” panel.
thanks for staying till here,
by the way, do you know about 12 super foods that burn your fat for you.
take good care of yourself and
c.ya
Very informative and detailed article. My one take was on the baked food, never thought of them in the way that you’ve explained there. Now I know, thanks