According to Eat This Not That, some popular foods like toast, coffee creamer, and potato chips are loaded with added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat.
Even many foods that claim to be healthy still contain potentially harmful ingredients.
Coffee ice cream
The problem with some unhealthy coffee creamers is that they have too much cream. Coffee creamers can also have synthetic additives like mono and diglycerides.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says monoglycerides are safe in small amounts, but many monoglycerides contain unhealthy trans fats.
According to the National Library of Medicine, trans fats have the potential to increase cholesterol levels, as well as the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
White flour bread
If the ingredients label on your loaf of bread mentions bleaching powder, you're likely chewing on some unwanted chemicals.
Some manufacturers use the ingredient azodicarbonamide, a plastic dough conditioner used to make bread dough fluffier. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says you should avoid it. Evidence suggests that azodicarbonamide breaks down into a chemical called urethane during baking, and this chemical is considered a carcinogen.
Sweetened fruit juice
Not all fruit juices are created equal. While something like 100% pomegranate juice provides antioxidants and vitamins, as well as natural sugars, some juice brands simply sell products that have more sugar than the actual fruit.
Most of the sweetness in fruit juice comes from fructose, a sugar linked to the development of visceral fat tissue in overweight people, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Diet soda
All popular diet sodas contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener that was originally developed to aid weight loss. However, it has recently been found to have the opposite effect, increasing glucose levels, overloading the liver, and causing excess to be converted to fat, according to a study in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.
Not only that, research from PLOS Medicine shows that aspartame is linked to an increased risk of cancer.
Popular diet sodas contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener linked to an increased risk of cancer. Photo: Shutterstock.
Fried food
Besides being very high in fat and calories, the main problem with these fried foods is that they contain high levels of inflammatory, persistent glycation end products.
These compounds form when animal products are cooked at high temperatures for long periods of time. According to a 2015 review published in the journal Advances in Nutrition, experts concluded that when we are exposed to persistent glycation end products over time, it can lead to inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, which then contributes to increased disease risk.
Bacon and sausage
Both of these foods are often made from red meat, which is high in saturated fat. Processed red meat is often high in sodium, as well as additives like nitrates and nitrites.
Research has shown that nitrites can lead to certain cancers, and these additives turn into carcinogenic nitrosamines when exposed to high temperatures, according to Meat Science.
Too much white sugar
According to the American Heart Association, adults in the United States consume about 77 grams of sugar per day — 20 grams more than the FDA's recommended amount of 50 grams per day.
The American Heart Association recommends that Americans eat less than that. Americans' high intake of refined white sugar has been linked to everything from increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Burnt meat
When grilling meat, heterocyclic aromatic amines, or HCAs, are formed when creatine, sugars, and amino acids in the meat react with the high heat of the grill. Several published studies have linked heterocyclic aromatic amines to an increased risk of certain cancers, including pancreatic cancer.
Burnt foods have many negative health effects. Photo: Shutterstock.
Fast food
Fast food is convenient and delicious, but it is high in sodium, saturated fat and synthetic fat. This is why fast food is considered the unhealthiest food to eat because it is linked to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
Energy drink
Energy drinks are expensive chemical cocktails with strong caffeine content and lots of sugar.
A study from the University of Maryland found that energy drinks are 11% more corrosive to your teeth than regular soda.
Another worrying finding from a case study of a 50-year-old construction worker was that drinking too many energy drinks can damage the liver.
A report published in BMJ Case Reports in 2016 found that the man developed acute hepatitis after consuming four to five energy drinks a day for three weeks.
Source Zing
Source link
Comment (0)