Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of saying you should completely avoid a food or listing foods in a good or bad list. I think it’s more important to practice moderation, with an understanding that sometimes moderation means once a week, but with other foods it should mean once a month. However, there are a few foods that I personally tend to avoid 100% of the time because they provide little-to-no nutritional value, or the fat/calorie component exceeds any potential positives of the food.
My list of foods to avoid include:
Chicken Pot Pies. The flaky pastry and meat-filled center sounds good and comforting, but you are doing more harm then good when eating these. Most of the time you will see that these pot pies have around 500 calories and 10 grams of fat, but after looking closer you will see that is for only half of the pie. So for those of you who would normally eat the whole thing, you’re consuming ~1000 calories and 20g of fat!
Wings. Well for me I’m not a fan of meat on the bone, but these little guys are packed with fat and calories, still have the skin on them, and are normally heavily doused in a sauce meaning even more unnecessary calories. These things will not do much for you nutritionally besides help you add extra calories to your meal.
Fried Cheesecake. Cheesecake is fattening enough, but then someone goes and deep fries it?! A slice of cheesecake by itself can have around 600 calories and 25 grams of fat, but then you fry it… avoid this dessert by any means necessary.
Doughnuts. Once again you are eating a dough that is fried and glazed in sugar, or even worse when it’s filled with sugary fruit jams, topped with sprinkles, and have a chocolate layer added to it. Doughnuts can range anywhere from 200 calories and 6 grams of fat (for one basic glazed doughnut) to 300 calories and 8 grams of fat. Once again, all those calories and fat for one non-filling doughnut!
Bucket of Movie Theater Popcorn with Butter. First off, the portion size is ridiculous and way out of whack and you tend to over eat because you are eating while watching a movie and not paying attention to how much you are shoveling into your mouth. A large bucket of AMC Movie Theater popcorn topped with butter, popped in coconut oil will put you back an outstanding 1640 calories and 73 grams of saturated fat.
Chipotle Chicken Burrito. This huge burrito (made of a giant tortilla, white rice, pinto beans, cheese, chicken, sour cream, and salsa) will give you 1,040 calories and 16.5 grams of saturated fat plus, 2,500 mg of sodium! Unless you only want to eat this for the day, I suggest choosing a healthier alternative. Ditch the tortilla and rice for a bowl with chicken, black beans, fajita veggies, lettuce, green chili salsa and no cheese or sour cream. Split the bowl with a friend. This alternative has 225 calories, 1.5g saturated fat and 807mg sodium.
Lunchables. Filled with plain butter crackers, processed, preservative-filled meat, and processed cheese… not so appetizing. It’s healthier, more economical, and filling to buy better quality meats (Boars Head brand lunch meats), whole wheat crackers or bread, and unprocessed cheeses, then top it off with a few favorite veggies to complete your meal. A ham and cheese Lunchable will give you 340 calories, 9 grams saturated fat, and 1080mg sodium, and you’ll be hungry an hour or so later.
Hardee’s Thick Burger. Or any double or triple stack hamburger for that matter. The 2/3 pound monster thick burger will give you 1420 calories, 2770mg sodium, and 43 grams of saturated fat! WOW! Please don’t do this to your body, heart, or stomach, the damage is no where near the price of getting a big cheap meal.
Processed Cheese. First off the quality just isn’t there in processed cheese, as seen in a small 1 oz. slice of Land O’Lakes White American cheese, which gives you 390mg sodium, 110 calories, and 6 grams of saturated fat. I recommend getting natural cheese and skipping any processed cheeses.
Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Creations. A chocolate-dipped waffle bowl of Cold Stone Creamery’s Gotta Have It Founder’s Favorite (eating a softball-sized mound of ice cream filled with pecans, brownie pieces, fudge, and caramel) will add a startling 1,600 calories and 43 grams of saturated fat to your waist line! Enough said right?!
Check out our healthy recipes channel for delicious alternatives to these and many other food choices.
Holy crap! I can’t believe someone would deep fry cheesecake–I’d never heard of that.
I would like to recommend adding to that list one of my favorite foods: General Tso’s Chicken. It contains 15 ww points for 1 cup! However, when you order a dinner, the portion is closer to 2 cups with an equal serving of pork fried rice. Add on a fried egg roll and you’re probably hitting about 40 points for one meal! Once I realized how much worse General Tso’s is than the broccoli beef I used to always order, my weight gain over the past year made a lot more sense!
thank you I need help in this area.
Thanks for the insite, b/c i sure eat most of what i’m not suppose to eat. thanks.
Another food that blows my mind: chicken Kiev. It’s basically a fried lump of chicken stuffed with a big wedge of butter!
If we only stop producing processed food in this way, we would go along way to reducing obesity in this country. Processed foods are the most unhealthy choices people can make in the name of convenience it doesn’t take that long to make a healthier meal.