Regretfully, most of the best tasting foods are the worst ones for you. While it is okay to have the occasional cheat meal, it is all about moderation. As such, we are going to cover some of the worst foods to eat and why even when looking to have a cheat meal, they should be consumed in extreme moderation, or preferably, not at all:
1. Yogurt
– This made it to the top of the list because it is one that many people mistakenly think is good for you, but most brands are not. Sure, they have healthy probiotics in them that are good for you, but the amount they actually contain is oftentimes so negligible that it doesn’t counter-balance the concern of yogurt, which is all the added sugars. Even a small container of yogurt contains an average of 28 grams of sugar.
In order to maintain healthy flora in the gut, you should be avoiding sugars, not loading your body up with them. While Greek yogurt tends to be a better option, it is still not something that is an ideal choice due to the sugars.
In addition, as many of our patients have learned, most yogurt is made with cow’s milk. Unfortunately, people who have type O blood or type A blood should stay away from this form of dairy all together, as it will cause a significant increase in lectins in the body. These lectins lead to weight gain and other health issues. In fact, eliminating cow’s milk products will often dramatically aid in weight loss if you are one of these people.
2. Soy
– While many vegetarians and vegans boast of soy as an excellent source of protein, it is not nearly as good as one might think. One of the concerns pertaining to soy is that it contains something called isoflavones, which imitate the effects of estrogen. Throwing this hormone out of balance in the body can have a negative impact on both sexes. In men, if soy is consumed excessively, it even has the ability to cause a condition termed gynecomastia, where excess fat tissue is deposited on the breasts (just like this hormone does in females during puberty).
There have also been various studies showing that excess soy consumption is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The longer soy is consumed, the greater the risk.
Another problem with soy is that the majority of the soy you will find on your local market’s shelves is unfermented. Unfermented soy contains what is termed “anti-nutrients”, in the form of natural toxins in the soy. Some of the harmful components found in unfermented soy even interfere with the body’s digestion of protein, thereby counteracting its common use as a non-meat supplement in a person’s diet.
3. Veggie Chips
– At first glance, these types of chips are typically under the guise of a health-food product. In fact, in many grocery stores, you will find them in a completely different section of the store than traditional chips. However, they are nothing more than potato chips for those who don’t tend to read nutritional labels. Flip those bags over and you will find that they have the same fat content as regular potato chips.
In case that wasn’t bad enough, most of these “veggie” chips don’t even have much of the vegetables in them that are on the front of the package, if any! If you read through the ingredients, you will find that the main ingredient found in these products is either potato or corn flour. Note that ingredients on a label go in order from the largest components of the food to the smallest. Rest assured, if those veggie chips do have any other vegetables in them, they will be in far less quantities than the non-nutritional components. In fact, these chips will oftentimes have no more nutrients in them than the traditional potato chips.
While you may have been tricked into thinking that these foods were “healthy” for you, the truth is the perception does not negate the hard facts found on nutrition labels. Make sure you thoroughly examine the nutrition label before judging whether something is nutritious or not.
