10 Foods You Must Avoid if You Want To Be Healthy

There are some foods that you should definitely avoid if you want to be healthy, because they provide absolutely no health benefits while actually increasing your risk of disease, obesity and more. If you care about your health in the future you should stay away from the ten foods listed below at all costs.

White Bread – White bread contains refined flour, which gets bleached with chlorine and treated with bromide. These processes strip almost all the nutrients and fiber from the flour, causing your body to not know how to digest it. This is the main reason that white bread is often called an “empty food” because it contains only starch, which your body turns into sugar and fat.

Frozen Dinners – Many makers of frozen dinners tout them as good for you because they limit portion size and often have lower fat content than normal meals. The problem is that most of the time the tasty fats are replaced with other things that are just as bad or worse for you, such as sugar and especially salt. Plus, advertising a meal as low-fat is deceiving. If a meal only has 250 calories and five grams of saturated fat, then the ratio of fat to food is still very high.

Sausage and Other Cured Meats - Sausage, cured meats and even hot dogs have been linked to cancer, disease, migraines, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure because of the harmful nitrates they contain. They are also incredibly high in saturated fats that can lead to heart attacks. Shockingly, government regulations state that fresh pork sausage can be made up of 50 percent fat by weight. One ounce of the average fresh pork sausage contains 3 grams of saturated fat, which is 13 percent of your daily allowance.

Smoothies - The idea behind the smoothie is good, because in theory it only contains fruit and low-fat milk. The problem is that most places that serve these drinks offer very large sizes and they combine the healthy ingredients with ice cream, sugar, and other high-calorie items. This often means that even a small smoothie can be over 500 calories which is way more than any 16-ounce drink should have. If you’re craving a smoothie, then make it at home with some fresh organic fruit and a little non-fat unsweetened yogurt.
Reduced Fat Peanut Butter

Reduced fat peanut butter – While most people think of reduced fat foods as being better for you than their unmodified brothers, the fact is that they are often worse for you. The makers of reduced fat peanut butter need to replace the fat they take out with something, and in this case it’s loads of extra sugar which the body turns into fat anyway. The fat and protein in regular peanut butter are actually incredibly good for you, so stick with the real thing.

Energy Drinks – Energy drinks are marketed as healthy drinks that are fortified with vitamins and minerals. It is true that many of them contain added vitamins such as B6 and B12, but the body does not process fortified vitamins the same way it does natural ones. The other problem with these drinks is that they have incredibly high sugar content, often as much as a soda or a slice of pie. A can of Red Bull contains 26 grams of sugar, which is more by volume than a Coke or Pepsi.

Margarine - Butter is not as bad for you as the media would have you believe. Saturated fats are actually necessary for healthy bodily function, especially in moderation. Margarine is hydrogenated trans-fat oil that’s used as an ingredient in thousands of different products, but it is something that’s incredibly bad for you and should be avoided if at all possible. If you want to avoid animal fats completely, cook with olive oil.

Microwave Popcorn – while popcorn alone is one of the healthiest snacks in the world because it is low in calories and incredibly high in fiber, the same cannot be said of microwave popcorn. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this snack food. From the genetically modified kernels to the preservatives and chemicals used to flavor it, everything about this food screams unhealthy. It also doesn’t help that it often contains diacetyl, which when heated in the microwave is released in the air and can destroy your lungs, causing a deadly condition called bronchiolitis obliterans, or “”popcorn lung” as those in the health industry now refer to it.

Fat-Free Yogurt and Other Products – Don’t be fooled into thinking that fat-free foods are better for you. The fat is almost always replaced by loads of refined sugar, which is really bad for you. One small yogurt has around 15 grams of sugar in it on top of the 16 grams that are in it naturally, which is more than most desserts that you think of as really bad for you, such as ice cream or apple pie. Opt for fat-free Greek yogurt and add your own fruit or honey so you know what you’re getting.

The list above is just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons of other seemingly healthy foods that are not healthy and can even lead to chronic illnesses. The best thing you can do is stay educated, check labels, and go organic when possible. There are few things in life more important than our health, and eating right can help keep you that way for years to come.