Foods Not to Eat on a Healthy Diet

There are certain foods that, no matter how much we love them, we should avoid eating. At least for the most part!

Foods that cause inflammation:

    cheddar cheeses
    fast food
    fat free salad dressings (most contain sugar)
    french fries
    fruit juice cocktails (high in sugar)
    ice cream

    oils - vegetable, corn and canola
    pasta
    processed foods
    snack foods
    soft drinks, caffeinated and alcoholic beverages
    sugar, in any form
    white bread

Foods that contain trans-fatty acids:

    anything with partially hydrogenated oil
    artificial cheese
    chips - potato, corn/tortilla
    cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, pie crust, pastries
    commercial baked goods
    crackers
    deep fat fried foods
    margarine and shortening
    prepared mixes - cake, muffins etc.

Foods that are genetically modified such as:

    Canola Oil
    Corn
    Cottonseed Oil
    Soy

Also watch out for common "diet" foods that may actually sabotage your weight loss efforts:

Cereal. Check your labels to be sure your cereal contains whole grains and avoid cereals that are high in sugar.

Diet frozen dinners. Sure they're convenient but unfortunately most of these are very high in sodium.

Ground turkey. I have to admit that I've always believed that ground turkey is better as far as a healthy diet goes than ground beef. But it turns out when you compare 90% lean beef to 90% ground turkey the ground turkey actually has more calories and total fat than the ground beef. Although you can find ground turkey that is 97% lean and most ground beef sold in stores is 80% rather than 90% lean. But if you personally prefer beef it's good to know!

No-fat/Low fat ice cream and frozen yogurt. Sadly these types of frozen treats can contain up to twice the amount of sugar as regular varieties.

Prepared tomato sauce. While tomato sauce (which is high in lycopene) is good for you, most store bought brands are also high in sugar.

Sugar free, artificially sweetened drinks and snacks. These have actually been shown to cause weight gain.

Veggie chips. They are delicious but they are still fried and can contain as much fat as regular potato chips.

Yogurt. Presweetened yogurt is loaded with sugar and the sugar free varieties contain artificial sweeteners, which we know are also bad. I choose Greek yogurt and add fresh berries and nuts to it. I also use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream. They're similar in calories but Greek yogurt is much higher in protein.