10 Worst Junk Foods
Can you name the top 10 worst junk foods?
Do you think you know what the top 10 worst junk foods? and if you do how many of them do you eat on a regular basis.
Here’s a quick test to determine your “chances of slimming down” over the next 12 months. If you can say hand on heart that you haven’t eaten at least 6 out of 10 of the foods listed below in the last month then you are either already eating healthily or you are deluding yourself. If it is the first then you are doing better than 95 percent of the people around you would are probably in the second category.
The list below came from a great little book by Carolyn Hansen who has very kindly allowed me to include it here.
But don’t worry, she is happy for me to try and get her message out there about the dangers to health of too much sugary products, so here it is, her list from page 35 of “21 Days To Healthy Eating”
THE TOP 10 WORST JUNK FOODS
1. Ice cream and frozen ‘treats’
2. ‘Fizzy’ drinks, energy drinks and soda
3. Candy and sweets
4. Hot dogs, fast food burgers
5. Cookies, biscuits, cakes
6. Potato ‘chips’ and other man made snacks
7. Fruit drinks and packet fruit drink mixes
8. Doughnuts and pastries
9. White bread and buns
10. Sausage and luncheon ‘meats’
11. Processed meats such as chicken ‘nuggets’
12. Sugar laden breakfast cereals that pretend to be healthy
Try and check off all the ones you haven’t eaten in the last 30 days and if there are 6 or more ticks then you are already doing fantastic. If there are less than 6 then perhaps you should keep reading because your chances of losing weight over the next few months are not good.
The problem with most of the foods on the list is that they are high in simple carbohydrates which the body quickly breaks down and convert to blood sugar. This excess of blood sugar is rapidly converted into fat, leading to the inevitable expansion of your waistline.
Some of the other junk foods on the list are high in hydrogenated fats, like trans fats, which are there to make your food tasty but if continued to be eaten will eventually do real damage to your arteries resulting in a risk of heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. Research shows that trans fats are responsible for perhaps 30,000 early deaths a year in the United States alone.
If your ultimate aim is to live longer than the average lifespan and you are currently past the halfway mark (which would make you around 40 years of age, or higher) NOW is the time to educate yourself about the quality and quantity of all the foods you are eating. If you continue to eat many of the foods that fall into the category of junk foods as well as many of the other common processed foods that line your supermarket shelves you are storing up problems for yourself in later life. Many of the common processed foods probably do as much damage, if not more, than the 10 listed junk foods do.
If a food is not recognizable as something that has been plucked off a plant, dug out of the ground, or taken as unprocessed meat from a farm animal, then it is highly likely that it will not be doing your body any good if you eat it.
So how did I fare on the little test I gave you above? I failed.
Having since read Carolyn’s book, I have a better understanding of what healthy eating can do for me. I fully expect that after I have tried to eliminate most of the foods on that list I will feel healthier.
Try it yourself by checking out Carolyn’s book here: 21 Days to Healthy Eating
You don’t have to eliminate ALL the junk food from your life. You just need to learn how to remove MOST of it, and that’s a manageable goal that everyone can achieve.
