Foods that should not be a part of your regular diet  

Dec 25, 2016 News

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By Dr. Zulfikar Bux

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

 Are there foods you never should eat? Not really. If you crave an ice cream sundae occasionally, have

a small one. But don’t make it a daily event. Healthy eating is not like many of the popular weight-loss plans that require you to eliminate certain foods entirely. But there are some foods you should eat only rarely.

Today we will discuss common foods which you should avoid.  These foods can promote life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and even cancer if used routinely.

ADDED SUGAR

Whether it’s white granulated sugar, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, or honey, sugar contains almost no nutrients other than the sugar itself, pure carbohydrate.

Sugar isn’t dangerous per se, but a heavy sugar intake increases your diet’s glycemic load, fills you up with empty calories, and keeps you from eating healthy foods that contain vitamins, minerals, fibre, and other nutrients.

Cutting back on candy, soda, and other sweets is just half the battle, however. There’s lots of hidden sugar in prepared foods, including fat-free snacks and cereal bars. Look for sugar in surprising places such as peanut butter, ketchup, and spaghetti sauce. Even prepared frozen entrées have added sugars. What’s more, snacks that contain good ingredients such as whole wheat, canola oil, and olive oil are no longer as healthy once they’re loaded with sugar.

DAIRY FAT

Ice cream, whole milk, and cheese contain a lot of saturated fat and some naturally occurring trans fat, and therefore can increase the risk of the health problems traced to bad fats, notably heart disease. The healthiest milk and milk products are low-fat versions, such as skim milk, milk with 1% fat, and reduced-fat cheeses.

BAKED SWEETS

Cookies, snack cakes, doughnuts, pastries, and many other treats are hard to pass up, but they are the very definition of the modern food crisis because the commercially prepared versions are packed with processed carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy fats, and often salt.

To give commercial baked goods their “buttery, flaky” texture, most are prepared with margarine or processed vegetable oils, which translate into trans fats, those fats we now understand lead to heart disease and compromised cholesterol levels. The sweets in them are from added sugar and we have already discussed the bad effects of these.

WHITE CARBOHYDRATES

Whether it’s bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, roti, cookies, cake, or pancakes, it’s best to look for the whole-grain version. Whole-wheat pastas and breads are luckily easy to find and you can make your roti with whole-wheat flour. Homemade cookies or bars can be made using grains such as oatmeal, and less sugar and unhealthy fats.

Other foods that come in whole-grain versions are muffins, croissants, crackers, bagels, and other baked goods made with white flour. Unless you choose the whole-grain versions, count these among the bad carbohydrates because of their fairly high glycemic load and very little fiber.

PROCESSED AND HIGH-FAT MEATS

Despite some conflicting reports, the balance of the evidence confirms that processed meats like bacon, ham, pepperoni, hot dogs, and many lunch meats are less healthy than protein from fish, skinless chicken, nuts, beans, soy, and whole grains. Fresh red meat should be eaten sparingly and the leanest cuts selected. Also, meat is healthier when cooked in ways that don’t char the meat, such as baking or stewing. As noted earlier, browning meat by searing it on the grill or stovetop or under the broiler creates substances that can lead to cancer.  Smoked and salted meat also have cancer-promoting substances in them.

SUGARY BEVERAGES

Research in the U.S has tied sugary drinks to the obesity epidemic that is hitting that country. Currently, about two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Obesity raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and certain cancers.

Research cites soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages as the primary source of added sugar in the American diet and a major contributor to weight gain. In fact, downing just one extra 12-ounce can of a typical sweetened beverage daily can add on 15 pounds in a year. That’s not only because the drinks themselves add calories, but also because those liquid calories aren’t as satiating as solid food.

According to the American Heart Association, drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage makes you consume more calories in general. And the more you drink, the more you eat. In one study, when the size of a regular soda increased from 12 to 18 ounces, men and women ate 26% and 10% more calories from food, respectively.

A study also linked sugary drinks to an increased risk of heart disease in adults. In addition to raising blood glucose, insulin, and triglycerides, sugar reduces the “good” cholesterol in the blood. Consistent with this effect, the study showed that it wasn’t just weight gain but sugar itself that raised heart disease risk.

All of these foods that I have described today are tempting options. Be careful to not make them a part of your regular diet. Of course there will be times when you do consume them. Once it’s occasionally, then it shouldn’t hurt your body that much.

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