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9 Surprisingly Unhealthy Foods

Choosing what to eat can be a mine field. You have to weigh what is easy to make vs what is good for you, and half of what they sell in grocery stores probably aren’t the best things to put into your body. As a general rule, the healthiest things to eat are the things you make from scratch, with natural ingredients, which haven’t been preserved or processed. You may be tempted by clever marketing tactics to believe that the “low fat”, “organic” or “fresh” items you are buying are healthy for you, but take these words with a grain of salt (not literally, watch your blood pressure). To give you more help in your quest to make your body the best it can be, here is a list of items you should think carefully about before deeming them ‘good for you’.

Fruit Juice

You are probably aware of how terrible soda is for you, but did you know fruit juice is almost just as bad? This is because fruit juice does not equal fruit. Rather than being filled with fiber and other nutrients like the fruits from which they are derived, fruit juices are mostly just sugar. Much of the time, there is not much fruit to be found in common store bought fruit juice, but rather, chemicals cleverly designed to taste like fruit. While you can find 100% fruit juice which isn’t all corrupted by chemicals and preservatives, these still pale in comparison to actually eating a piece of fruit.

Sliced Processed Turkey

You can continue considering turkey to be one of the healthier meats for you to choose from, but make your decision wisely. Not all turkey is created equal. Some turkey, like those which are bought pre-packaged, contain more than their fair share of sodium. Be sure to pay attention to the sodium content when you are buying your next bunch of sliced turkey. Alternatively, you could also roast your own turkey. As usual, putting in the work yourself is often the surest way to ensure a healthy meal.

Veggie Patties

So you thought you’d be a little bit healthier by forgoing ground beef in favor of a veggie patty on your burger. Not so fast. A processed store-bought veggie patty contains all kinds of additives to simulate that nice beefy texture. So don’t think you are cheating the system by having a veggie patty. If you really want to make the healthy choice, make your own veggie patty with real ingredients you can actually pronounce.

Muffins

You may feel great about opting for a muffin instead of a doughnut or a cinnamon bun during your occasional coffee shop indulgences, but I have some bad news for you. Muffins are often just as bad, or worse. When you think about it, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, muffins are basically just cupcakes without the icing. In fact, you may be taken aback by the fact that even bran muffins aren’t doing you any good. Yes, despite the inclusion of bran in their recipe, bran muffins are far too compromised with sugar and fat to be considered healthy.

Gluten Free Anything

Going gluten free might be trendy at the moment but take a minute to think about whether or not it is necessary and ask yourself, what impacts it really has on your health. The truth is, gluten free processed foods aren’t that much better for you than their glutenous counterparts. If you have coeliac disease or some other form of gluten sensitivity, then by all means, take advantage of this unprecedented availability of gluten free products. But if you are simply looking to make the healthy choice, basing that decision on a food’s gluten content probably isn’t the wisest course of action. Buying gluten free versions of otherwise glutenous junk foods will yield goods which tend to have a whole lot of processing and refined starches in them. This isn’t good for your body’s blood sugar levels nor does it yield a whole lot of quality nutrition. If you are set on avoiding gluten, just eat natural foods which do not contain gluten to begin with. This will keep you in tip top shape.

Margarine

Are you getting angry at this point? We don’t blame you. For decades, margarine was marketed as the healthy alternative to butter, which conventional wisdom regarded as being a terribly fattening substance. Now we know better (we hope). It turns out, the chemicals used to make margarine are far worse for you than butter ever was. It is a source of trans fats and refined vegetable oils your body can do without. Now, we generally regard real butter (and other natural foods) to be the better choice.

Sushi

It isn’t red meat and it isn’t covered in cheese and butter, but sushi is still questionable when it comes to eating healthy. Why? All that rice isn’t exactly putting you on the path to being lean and the healthiness largely depends on what is rolled up inside of it. Dunking those delicious rolls into soy sauce isn’t doing you much good either, given that it is basically composed of sodium. The Japanese may have terrifically long lifespans, but consider that there may be other factors at play, outside of one of their most famous culinary contributions.

Granola/Energy Bars

There is a whole industry of energy bars and snacks which market themselves to athletes as a healthy way to stay energized during strenuous physical activity. Unfortunately, we can all do a lot better than what these energy bars are offering. Too often, they are filled with sugar and chemicals, which may taste great going down, but don’t do much for us health-wise.

Salads

By now, you probably just think we're messing with you, but hang on. We aren’t talking about all salads. We are just talking about the salads that involve generous helpings of creamy, sugary or fatty commercial salad dressings. It may be tempting to drench your pile of veggies with a delicious dressing to give your taste buds a treat, but your body will thank you for doing otherwise. Another thing to avoid are salads composed of cucumber and iceberg lettuce. These ingredients won’t be detrimental to your health, but they won’t really help either. This is because they are composed almost entirely of water. Instead, get your water the old fashioned way (in a glass), and opt for a more nutritious dark green leaf salad base, like spinach or kale.

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