Top 10 Unhealthy Foods You Probably Eat Every Day

How balanced is your diet? Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Most Unhealthy Foods You Probably Eat Every Day.

For this list, we’re taking a look at food products consumers regularly eat, blissfully unaware of just how unhealthy they truly are.

Sneaky marketing might lead some people to believe that anything with “diet” in the title is good for you. While diet products may be better than the alternative, they can’t take the place of fruits and vegetables. You know, real diet food! Various diet snacks and drinks contain artificial sweeteners, which can be packed with harmful chemicals. Aspartame in particular is one of the most controversial sugar substitutes with some studies showing a correlation to headaches, heart disease, and weight gain. Red 3, another chemical, has additionally shown a link between food coloring and cancer. Although “lower calorie” is plastered on the front, you should really read the ingredients on the back.

Anybody who thinks doomsday may be on the horizon probably has a bunker stocked with canned goods just in case. While they have a long shelf-life, canned foods can arguably do more harm to your body than a zombie apocalypse. According to a 2018 study, about 10% of canned products still contain the chemical BPA, which potentially leads to diabetes and cancer. Canned products are also often loaded with salt, causing high blood pressure. Canned food can even amount to a life-threatening illness called botulism. In 2015, a botulism outbreak left a woman dead and 28 others sick. Canned veggies might seem like a healthy option, but you’re better off with frozen greens.

If you’re trying to eat healthier but have a craving for ice cream, yogurt may seem like an ideal option. Greek Yogurt with fruit toppings in particular can indeed be a nutritional eating choice, especially when stacked up against other snacks. Flavored yogurts, however, sometimes do more damage than you assume. In addition to artificial sweeteners, a six-ounce serving of flavored yogurt can contain anywhere between 15 and 30 grams of sugar. With unnecessary additives, you’re likely to intake more sugar than calcium or protein. You want to be especially wary of which type of drinkable yogurt you buy, as while some might help with weight loss, others will have the opposite effect.

Hey, they can’t be that bad for you when potatoes are an essential ingredient, right? Guess again! Given their delicious, crispy taste, we’d like to tell you that potato chips have real nutritional value, but that unfortunately isn’t the case. This snack food is not only high in sodium levels, but calories and fat as well. On top of that, the process of frying photo chips develops a chemical compound called acrylamide, which is also found in cigarettes. It doesn’t help that few people have the restraint to eat just one potato chip without finishing the whole bag, putting consumers on the fast-track to high blood pressure and weight gain.

Much like some diet products, processed fruit drinks can be misleading when it comes to advertising. Fresh, colorful fruit is always displayed on the label, but what they don’t show you is all of the sugar and artificial sweeteners that are added. While some juices can certainly be good sources for vitamin C and potassium, others have more sugar than soft drinks. Although it’s often marketed as a healthy choice for kids, the American Academy of Pediatrics actually announced in 2017 that children under one shouldn’t drink fruit juice given the lack of nutritional value. Drinking too much sugary bottle juice can even lead to dental decay and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

There’s no denying that French fries can make for a scrumptious snack or side dish. Before adding them to your order, though, take a minute to consider the carbohydrates, high salt content, and other health risks involved. These salty treats are gateways to high blood pressure and obesity. Just like potato chips, French fries also contain the cancerous chemical known as acrylamide, which is fitting considering that they kind of look like yellow, deep-fried cigarettes. To add insult to injury, people frequently dip their French fries in condiments like mayo and ketchup. Plus, if you give someone a basket of fries, chances are they’ll want a fat, juicy burger to go with them.

Since grain consumed such a significant portion of the food pyramid, many were led to believe that white bread and pasta were not only good for you, but apparently took precedence over veggies. With the evolution of MyPlate, however, people are starting to become more aware of which grain foods they should be eating and which ones to avoid. In the case of both white bread and pasta, they’re basically refined grains without bran and germ. This removes roughly 25% of a grain’s protein, as well as several nutrients. The good news is that you don’t have to cut bread or pasta out of your diet entirely. Just try to get the whole grain kind.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If your cupboard is stocked with nothing but Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, though, you might be better off skipping breakfast altogether. Although their names may suggest otherwise, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks have little to no nutritional value. Heck, some cereals don’t even try to hide how sugary they are, such as Count Chocula, Lucky Charms, and Cocoa Puffs. Honey Smacks in particular are almost 60% sugar. At that point, why not just have breakfast at a candy shop? What’s more, many of these cereals are full of refined sugars, which feed cancer cells. For a healthier option, poor yourself a bowl of General Mills Cheerios.

There’s nothing like waking up to the smell of bacon sizzling on the stove, and no barbeque would be complete without a plate of hotdogs. Alas, it saddens us to say that processed meats have been linked to colorectal cancer, not to mention heart disease. According to a 2013 report from BMC Medicine, those who eat over 160g of processed meat per day are 44% more likely to die within 12 years. That being said, studies have also shown that eating a little bit of processed meat, as well as red meats, can actually be beneficial to one’s health. Given all the premature deaths, however, not everybody has the willpower to eat 20g or less.

Whether you’re out to dinner, at the movie theatre, or strolling through a grocery store, soft drinks are a favorite beverage for many consumers. As refreshing as these sugary sodas might taste, people are gulping down numerous chemicals, artificial coloring, and empty calories. Drinking too much soda has contributed to everything from weight gain, to kidney stones, to dental decay – and that’s not even scratching the surface. It’s no wonder why soda has sparked so much controversy in recent years with many arguing that they should be banned from schools to help prevent childhood obesity. Oh, and for anyone who thinks diet soda is perfectly alright, we refer you the first entry on this list.