Foods to avoid if you want to be healthy

Hey guys!

So in the last post, I talked about what you should eat for the ultimate healthy diet. But this time around, I want to discuss about the opposite side of the story: the foods you should avoid. In this post, I'm going to cover some commonly eaten 'unhealthy' foods as well as some foods that you may not necessarily think is unhealthy, but is proven to be.

1. Processed meat

Processed meat such as bacon, ham, sausages and corned beef usually contain nitroso-compounds which have been linked to cancer. Furthermore, many studies have shown correlation between processed meat and heart diseases. However, the degree of unhealthiness varies with how heavily processed it is. If you are going to eat some sort of processed meat, try to choose the least processed ones.

2. No-sugar foods or 'Diet' foods with Artificial Sweeteners

Don't be tricked by labels. If you see that the food contains artificial sweeteners: Stay. Away. From. It. They can trick your gut due to having no calories despite being so much more sweeter than normal sugar. In addition, they mess with your insulin hormones and promote overeating. This therefore makes artificial sweeteners a diabetes promoter. Also, many artificial sweeteners are made from genetically modified crops so watch out for that.

3. Butter and Margarine

This whole 'butter vs margarine' issue can be quite confusing. Margarine was criticized for having highly packed trans fat, but recent researches have shown that butter is also very unhealthy with its high level of saturated fats. Both trans fat and saturated fats raise levels of 'bad cholesterol' LD, but really many people (myself included) will recommend you to AVOID TRANS FATS. The best way to go about this issue is to avoid both as much as possible. But at the very least, try to find ones that don't have trans fat and lower level of saturated fats. Try to find alternatives using mostly unsaturated fats.

4. Diet soda

Just because it says 'diet' it does not make it any healthier. Diet sodas are packed with artificial sweeteners, making it a diabetes promoter. But diet sodas are also linked with other diseases such as stroke and dementia. Researches also have shown that diet sodas can lead to headaches and depression. The bottom line is stay away from any type of sodas.

5. Fruit Juices

Fruit juices are often considered as 'healthy' drinks - and rightfully so, I mean fruits are healthy right? But while juices may contain lots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants the truth is they aren't nearly as healthy fruits themselves. You miss out on essential fibres that makes fruits 'healthy', plus juices are loaded with sugar. In fact, juices contain equal or even more sugar than many other sugary beverages. But to make matters worse, many juices have added sugars.

So there it is guys. Just note that many foods can be classified 'unhealthy', from the bacon you eat in the morning to the ice cream tubs you keep in your fridge. Although none of these are ideal for your health, I don't expect you to read this post and never touch any of them ever again. However, I do want you to know that there is no use in eating lots of healthy foods if you are going to keep putting junks and unhealthy things into your body. Honestly, my single biggest tip would be to to cut out any processed or manufactured foods, and stick to whole ingredients.

#Nutrition