The health effects of processed junk food, which is widely available and contains high levels of sugar, salt, and fat, can be disastrous. However, what are the actual worst foods to eat?
This is not to say that you should never eat any of the foods on this list again, but if you want to eat a healthy diet, try limiting your consumption of these foods.
Cheesy Chips
It’s no secret that fries are heavy in calories, fat, and salt. Making this already unhealthy dish even worse for your health is adding a lot of cheese. About 420 calories are found in a typical serving of fries. If you add 100g of cheddar cheese on top of this, the fries will have an additional 400 calories and 35g of fat.
Deep-fried Sweets
Anything that is deep-fried is unhealthy, and you should steer clear of coating a dessert that is already heavily sweetened with sugar and fat from the batter. Fried foods have the potential to clog your arteries, which over time can result in diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. Don’t think that this doesn’t also apply to fritters made with pineapple and banana. Despite being fruit, they have been fried in batter and will be covered in a sweet syrup.
Cereals
A bowl of cereal is often the first meal of the day for many of us, but occasionally this healthy option may be loaded with unhealthy ingredients.
Certain breakfast cereals—especially those marketed towards children—have artificial colouring, flavourings, and preservatives to extend their shelf life. They also contain a lot of sugar. Children’s cereals had higher grammes of sodium, sugar, carbs, and calories per gramme than non-kids’ cereals, according to a Journal of American Dietetic Association article. Try to limit your intake of cereal to those that are low in sugar and high in fibre.
Pork Rind Or Crackle Scratchings
It should come as no surprise that deep-fried, salted pig skin ranks among the top 10 worst foods to eat. If you’ve ever purchased pork scratchings, you may have enjoyed discovering a portion with a few hairs remaining on it. Usually, pig hair is removed by quickly burning the skin before it is chopped up and cooked in the hot fat, but on rare occasions, a small amount of hair might still be visible.
Carbonated Drinks
Fizzy drinks are technically not food, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t belong on the list of unhealthy foods. Frequent use of carbonated beverages has been linked to heart disease, tooth decay, and osteoporosis. Large amounts of hidden sugar are also present in fizzy drinks; a typical Coke can has 10 teaspoons of sugar. Even diet beverages that appear healthier should generally be avoided because, despite having fewer calories than full-fat counterparts, they still contain artificial sweeteners, which over time can erode tooth enamel.
Also read: 5 Potential Health Benefits of Eating Cabbage
Processed Meats
Meats that have been processed: Some processed meats, like sausages, are made up of leftover, unwanted animal parts mixed with a lot of salt and fat. Eating processed meat can also put you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer. Processed meats have been modified to contain nitrates and other chemical additives to help preserve the meat for longer and enhance the colour.
