When it comes to shopping for food or ordering off of a menu, it seems like we must always do our best to side-step the landmines. Unhealthy foods or “junk food” permeate into every aspect of our society from fast food serve restaurants to the supermarket’s frozen food aisles and even to fine dining establishments. Not too long ago, we stuck to fresh produce. It was the norm in our culture to buy a bag of apples and oranges. Today, shopping carts are filled with as much frozen food as our freezer will hold and an easy meal often means going to a drive through even though we know that the food is unhealthy and often times our orders get mixed up (fast food complaint).
List of Unhealthy Foods You Should Stay Away
The list of what we should stay away from if we want to keep healthy is long. If you are serious about your health, making a few changes promotes wisdom and perpetuates making healthy decisions. Here, Rory Brown, Food Writer, shares a condensed list of the top five items people should avoid.
- Doughnuts
It’s hard to imagine a worse way to start a day than to eat a doughy, oily, sugary, cholesterol-filled pastry backed with a cup of coffee. These popular breakfast treats package about 300 to 500 calories inside (mostly from sugar) with a heavy dose of cancer-causing trans-fat along with it. They tip the scale on blood sugar levels, causing your energy to peak and crash. And once you crash, you’re hungry again. They also distort your good sense of removing unhealthy foods from your diet. So the next time you get hungry, you’re apt to continue the cycle and get another doughnut. - Soda
Cola soda pop is filled with sugar and other complex carbohydrates, giving it a calorie count of about 140 on average, and it also has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. There are artificial additives like indigestible food coloring and other additives that trigger and contribute to allergic reactions. Diet sodas have even more harmful artificial substances in them, which replace the already harmful levels of sugar. Soda is consumed in massive quantities. According to industry reports, the average person consumes over 50 gallons of soda each year. If you want to make a significant impact on your health, start by eliminating carbonated beverages. - French Fries & Chips
Though the main ingredient is a popular vegetable root, the consumption of potatoes, even raw or baked, raises insulin to dangerous levels when its natural sugars convert to glucose. Also, baked potatoes are typically slathered with butter or margarine and topped with sour cream, cheese, bacon bits, and more. This raises the fat and calorie count. Moreover, when this versatile root plant is fried in hot oil, it undergoes a frightening metamorphosis. Potatoes are not being singled out. The same thing goes for any fried vegetable from carrots to corn tortillas. Anything fried takes on trans-fat characteristics. Once these polyunsaturated fats are exposed to oxygen, they begin to go rancid, which opens up the breeding grounds for cancerous development. - Bacon
Cheeseburgers are unhealthy enough by themselves. Are a few slabs of bacon really necessary? This multipurpose topping and side dish is around 90 to 95 percent animal fat, which means it has barely any lean, healthy protein in it at all. Plus, the amount of salt and nitrates in bacon makes it one of our finalists in this list. - Fried Seafood
Most shellfish feed off of the bottom of the ocean. They are the vultures of the sea, eating carcasses and waste. Many people develop harsh allergic reactions to these risky unhealthy foods items. These creatures have been known to pick up parasites and viruses from the ocean floor, which are fairly heat tolerant and survive the cooking process. And once you fry them, you compound the level of toxins. Some of the more prevalent seafood scavengers that are served fried are shrimp, crabs, lobsters, oysters, clams, and mussels. All of these animals are opportunistic omnivores, and eating one is like playing Russian Roulette.
Author Bio
Rory began living abroad after living in the US for 40 years and realizing he wanted to focus on his quality of life. After adjusting his priorities Rory has lived in Italy, Australia, South Carolina and Hawaii. Rory has earned a name for himself in the farm-to-table community due to his love for healthy food and holds local traditions, trying to stay away from unhealthy foods.
Rory has recently put an emphasis on lifestyle choices that put health first after beginning his career in the tech world. His witty writings documenting his well rounded lifestyle have recently begun to be more focused on getting the most out of life during his time on this earth.
