unhealthy foods

[Lycaon]

Saw this and thought I'd share. Feel free to share any you see.

 

WORST ICONIC CEREAL

Kellogg’s Raisin Bran (1 cup)

190 calories

1.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

7 g fiber

19 g sugars

 

It'll be hard to find a more sugar-loaded cereal than Raisin Bran. It’s sweeter than even Lucky Charms, Reese’s Puffs, or Cocoa Krispies. Some of that sugar can be attributed to the raisins’ natural blend of fructose and glucose, but the real culprit is the sticky white armor of sucrose that enrobes each piece of fruit. Both Kellogg’s and Post are guilty of this raisin mistreatment, so what should be a legitimately healthy bowl of fruit and grains pours out closer to a candy-coated dessert.

 

Eat This Instead!

Kellogg’s All-Bran (1 cup) with a tablespoon of raisins

150 calories

0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

7 g fiber

13 g sugars

 

 

 

WORST CHOCOLATE CEREAL

General Mills Chocolate Chex (1 cup)

174 calories

3.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

1 g fiber

11 g sugars

 

First, let’s get this out of the way: Chocolate-flavored cereals should rarely be part of your morning routine. That said, they can make decent desserts. One study published by the American College of Nutrition found that among late-night snackers, those who chose cereal took in fewer calories than those who made other choices, and ultimately they wound up losing nearly half a pound of body fat per week. That doesn’t mean you should switch to an all-cereal diet, just that cereal is a better evening snack than you might think. Of course, not all are created equal, and surprisingly, the worst of them is the one that seems geared toward mature eaters. So the rule is, if you’re going with chocolate cereal, let your inner kid free. Per bowl, Chocolate Chex packs in more calories than Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Krispies, or Cookie Crisp.

 

Eat This Instead!

Cookie Crisp (1 cup)

133 calories

1.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

1.5 g fiber

15 g sugars

 

 

 

WORST HIGH-FIBER CEREAL

General Mills Chex Multi-Bran (1 cup)

210 calories

2 g fat (0 g saturated)

8 g fiber

13 g sugars

 

Chex might seem harmless, but it’s the only brand that holds down two spots on this list. The slip-up with this box is the heavy load of sugar. (Notice that it’s even sweeter than the chocolate-flavored Chex.) General Mills calls it a “hint of sweetness,” but really it’s on par with some of the most indulgent boxes on the shelf. In fact, one bowl of this cereal has more sugar than a scoop of Edy’s Slow Churned Fudge Tracks Ice Cream. We applaud the fiber, but the sugar won’t cut it.

 

Eat This Instead!

Post Shredded Wheat Original Spoon Size (1 cup)

170 calories

1 g fat (0 g saturated)

6 g fiber

0 g sugars

 

 

 

WORST VITAMIN-ENHANCED CEREAL

Kellogg’s Smart Start Original Antioxidants (1 cup)

190 calories

0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

3 g fiber

14 g sugars

 

Of all the cereals on this list, this is the best example of inflated marketing. This box is littered with words that attempt to make you think you’re getting a wholesome breakfast, but in reality you’re getting a run-of-the-mill bowl of highly sweetened cereal with a multivitamin tossed in on top. Don’t let the added vitamins persuade you into thinking that the sugar isn’t a problem. It most certainly is.

 

Eat This Instead!

Kashi Vive (1 cup)

135 calories

2 g fat (1 g saturated)

10 g fiber

8 g sugars

 

 

 

WORST HOT CEREAL

Quaker Oatmeal Express Golden Brown Sugar (1 cup)

200 calories

2.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated)

3 g fiber

18 g sugars

 

Sure it’s convenient to have your oatmeal pre-packaged with a serving bowl, but is it really worth the love handles? Because that’s the likely result of eating this much sugar every morning. Sure, there’s a small shot of fiber, but in terms of the sweet stuff, this bowl is worse than eating a Little Debbie Marshmallow Pie for breakfast. Instead, leave an old coffee cup at work, and every morning load it with a packet of Quaker’s High Fiber Cinnamon Swirl. With that swap you’ll earn more belly-filling fiber and eliminate the blood-sugar surge. You’ll never even miss the plastic serving bowl.

 

Eat This Instead!

Quaker High Fiber Cinnamon Swirl (1 packet)

160 calories

2 g fat (0.5 g saturated)

10 g fiber

7 g sugars

 

 

 

WORST GRANOLA

Quaker Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisin (1 cup)

420 calories

12 g fat (7 g saturated)

6 g fiber

30 g sugars

 

You’re in big trouble if your mornings include a bowl of this stuff. One cup eats up 20 percent of your day’s energy needs and saddles you with as much sugar as a Snicker’s bar. That’s indulgent even by dessert standards. The culprit in this box is the combined impact of brown sugar and coconut oil, which together add loads of calories with scarcely any nutrients. What you want to do is switch to a lighter granola like Kashi’s GoLean Crunch!, and then instead of eating it by the bowl, use just a handful as a topping for unsweetened whole grain cereal or oatmeal. Now that’s a recipe for a good breakfast.

 

Eat This Instead!

Kashi GoLean Crunch! (1 cup)

200 calories

4.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

8 g fiber

12 g sugars

[MetalHeart]

Hot damn, thanks for the info, man. Craziness.

[amynicole]

We love eat this, not that. I read the articles all the time.

[Aartemys]

I realized about the Raisin Bran because I was pointing my breakfast (Weight Watchers) and I was curious to see how many points Ben cereal was compared to mine...I flipped when his Cookie Crisp Cereal was an entire point less than my so-called healthy selection...

 

Thanks for the heads up on these breakfast foods...

[Lycaon]

The truth is that it can be nearly impossible to distinguish between a healthy menu choice, and a menu choice that sounds healthy but will actually add hundreds of extra and unnecessary calories to your diet—and potentially saddle you with an extra pound or two every month. You may care about your health and try your hardest to eat conscientiously, but when restaurants offer salads that exceed 1,500 calories and seemingly harmless seafood dishes flirt with 2,000 calories, all that hard work goes to waste—and to your waistline. In researching our newest book, Drink This, Not That!, we discovered the 6 worst “healthy” food offenders. Make the smart swaps listed below, though, and you can lose a few pounds every week—effortlessly—and without ever dieting again.

 

#6: Worst “Healthy” Smoothie

Smoothie King Skinny Cranberry Supreme (40 oz)

908 calories

2 g fat (0 g saturated)

146 g sugars

 

It’s hard to pick a “worst” thing when it comes to this drinkable disaster. First, Smoothie King boasts that this drink’s function is to help you “Stay Healthy”—but with as much sugar as in 14 glazed doughnuts and nearly half your day’s worth of calories, it’s clear that this beverage is little more than liquefied sweetener. Second, Smoothie King allows patrons to opt to make their beverages “Skinny,” meaning they’ll leave out the turbinado sweetener. But don’t be fooled by the false advertising: Downing this drink is likely to do anything BUT make you skinny.

 

Drink This Instead!

Skinny Pineapple Pleasure (20 oz)

180 calories

0 g fat

39 g sugars

 

#5: Worst “Healthy” Burger

Ruby Tuesday Avocado Turkey Burger

1,234 calories

81 g fat

2,961 mg sodium

 

Turkey often has an undeserved health food reputation. Take turkey bacon, for instance: Most people believe a strip of turkey bacon is better for you than the pork equivalent. But most people are wrong; both strips are roughly 35 calories, and turkey bacon usually comes with more sodium than the oinking variety. (That's why you MUST check labels and use any other tools and guides at your disposal.) Remember this the next time you’re aching for a juicy burger, but want to keep it healthy: Turkey burgers are often just as bad, if not worse, than regular burgers. When at Ruby Tuesday, skip the burgers altogether and order the Cowboy Sirloin for your protein fix instead.

 

Eat This Instead!

Cowboy Sirloin

658 calories

31 g fat

1,395 mg sodium

 

#4: Worst “Healthy” Chicken Entrée

Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken

1,303 calories

94 g fat

2,146 mg sodium

 

If you read our list of 30 Worst Chicken Dishes in America, you’d know by now that just because a plate has chicken on it doesn’t mean the meal is good for you. This dish is a classic example of a reasonable, lean protein dish gone afowl. It has well over half your day’s caloric allotment, plus nearly a full day’s worth of sodium. Stick with the Grilled Chicken with seasonal veggies, instead.

 

Eat This Instead!

Grilled Chicken on the Barbie & Fresh Seasonal Veggies

587 calories

26 g fat

1,356 mg sodium

 

#3: Worst Salad in America

California Pizza Kitchen Waldorf Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing (full)

1,570 calories

30 g saturated fat

2,082 mg sodium

 

Remember when salads were a diet food? Forget that mindset, at least when you’re eating out. CPK used to be home to the worst salad in America, the Thai Crunch Salad, which originally rang in at over 2,000 calories. The good news is that as a result of all the attention they downgraded that leafy monstrosity (to a “mere” 1,300-something calories, but still). The bad news, of course, is that there’s still a number of hulking salads on the menu. Like the Waldorf Chicken with Blue Cheese Dressing, for instance. Three-quarters of your day’s calories—in a dish that’s supposed to be good for you. Blame the dressing, obviously, and the piled on extras that are drowning in it.

 

Eat This Instead!

Moroccan Chicken Salad, Half

412 calories

4 g saturated fat

309 mg sodium

 

#2: Worst “Healthy” Seafood Entrée

Culver’s North Atlantic Cod Filet Dinner (3 pieces)

2,121 calories

134 g fat (20 g saturated, 2 g trans)

2,568 mg sodium

 

Fish is healthy, right? Not if Culver’s has anything to do with it. For starters, nearly every single item on the menu is fried, which automatically adds extra caloric heft. But seriously—how is such a disastrous plate concocted? First, take three breaded, fried cod filets—870 calories. Add cole slaw (350 calories) and Tartar sauce (376), a dinner roll with butter (140 calories) and Crinkle Cut fries (385 calories). Bingo.

 

Eat This Instead!

Walleye Filet Sandwich

653 calories

38 g fat (7 g saturated, 1 g trans)

1,169 mg sodium

 

#1: The Worst “Healthy” Food in America

Cheesecake Factory Bistro Shrimp Pasta

2,819 calories

77 g saturated fat (Yes, four days' worth!)

1,008 mg sodium

 

It’s hard to say what’s the most shocking part of this dish—the fact that it has nearly one and a half times your daily caloric allotment, or the fact that it somehow manages to keep the sodium count at a reasonable level, in spite of its monstrous proportions. This is the absolute worst dish on the worst menu in America, no small feat considering that it’s surrounded by other plates that surge past the 2,000-calorie limit. Forget the fact that it has shrimp in it. There is nothing nutritionally redeeming about this platter.

 

Eat This Instead!

Grilled Mahi Mahi

358 calories

4 g saturated fat

441 mg sodium

 

 

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/52...ods-in-america/

[Lycaon]

#6: WORST CRANBERRY COCKTAIL

Ocean Spray Cran-Apple (8 fl oz)

130 calories

0 g fat

32 g sugars

 

Ocean Spray makes a whole line of cranberry juice blends, but there’s only one thing you need to know: They’re all polluted with unruly loads of added sugar. The first two ingredients here are water and sugar, the hallmark of an inferior bottle. In fact, the best juices in this line have only 27 percent juice. This one? A paltry 15 percent. Go with Ocean Spray’s Cranenergy line instead. Compared to Cran-Apple it delivers slightly more real juice, a far weightier package of vitamins, and just over a fourth as many calories. (You're far better off eating your vitamins than drinking them. Here are 40 foods with scientifically proven superpowers.)

Drink This, Instead!

Ocean Spray Cranergy Raspberry Cranberry (8 fl oz)

35 calories

0 g fat

9 g sugars

#5: WORST MIXED-BERRY BLEND

Welch’s Mountain Berry (8 fl oz)

140 calories

0 g fat

33 g sugars

 

The flowering bouquet of fruit on the outside of this carton makes it appear to be just one step down from a smoothie, but in truth, it’s just one step up from Sunny Delight. Regardless of what Welch’s wants you to think, this juice is made with only 25 percent real fruit, and with this many calories in each cup, you should expect nothing less than 100 percent. Go with Bolthouse Farms 50/50 Berry blend and you’ll trade out the sucrose for an antioxidant- and flavor-rich blend of purple carrots, blackberries, pomegranates, and blueberries.

 

Drink This, Instead!

Bolthouse Farms 50/50 Berry (8 fl oz)

120 calories

0 g fat

28 g sugars

 

#4: WORST LEMONADE

Minute Maid Lemonade (20 fl oz bottle)

250 calories

0 g fat

67.5 g sugars

 

In 99 percent cases, lemonade contains between 10 and 15 percent lemon juice, meaning that 85 to 90 percent of the calories are added as table sugar or high fructose corn syrup. The reason we pinned Minute Maid as the worst lemonade is that with this bottle, they’ve dropped the lemon juice concentration down to 3 percent, and at the same time, jacked the sugar level up to soda-like proportions. In fact, this bottle has more sugar than a same-sized bottle of Coca-Cola, not to mention a bevy of preservatives, fillers, and artificial colors. The only lemonade we’ve found that can legitimately call itself “juice” is the one below by R.W. Knudson. It replaces the added sugars with a blend of apple and grape juices. (Of course, if you're looking to lose weight, diet is only half the equation. For the other half, check out our list of the 100 best fitness tips ever written.)

Drink This, Instead!

R.W. Knudsen Lemonade (8 fl oz box)

130 calories

0 g fat

30 g sugars

#3: WORST JUICE IMPOSTER

SoBe Elixir Cranberry Grapefruit (20 fl oz bottle)

250 calories

0 g fat

63 g sugars

 

With a name that references two fruits, you might expect this bottle to provide a respectable dose of real juice. Unfortunately that’s not the case. The only juice this bottle carries is used as a coloring agent, which means every gram of sugar here is added during processing. That puts it right alongside soda as one of the worst beverages at the supermarket. Cut calories by looking for water-based beverages that use juice as a sweetener and flavoring, like the one from Olade below. The few calories it has come from a blend of lemon, pinapple, mango, and passion fruit. (Speaking of overblown packaging claims, check our roundup of “health” foods that aren’t.)

Drink This Instead!

Olade Tropical Juice Beverage (16 fl oz)

20 calories

0 g fat

4 g sugars

#2: WORST GRAPE JUICE

Tropicana Grape Juice Beverage (15.2 fl oz)

290 calories

0 g fat

72 g sugars

 

It’s hard to say which is worse, the fact that this bottle has as much sugar as six scoops of Edy’s Slow Churned Rocky Road Ice Cream, or the fact that it looks legit but contains only 30 percent real juice. The thing is, even if this bottle weren’t teeming with high fructose corn syrup, it would still be loaded with sugar. Grapes produce the most sugar-loaded juice at the supermarket—even a 10-ounce bottle of 100 percent grape juice carries more than 200 calories. If you like rich, dark juices, try the one below from Bossa Nova. The acai fruit from which it’s made is one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits on the planet.

Drink This, Instead!

Bossa Nova Acai (10 fl oz bottle)

114 calories

0 g fat

22.5 g sugars

 

#1: WORST CANNED JUICE

Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can)

360 calories

0 g fat

84 g sugars

 

These hulking calorie cannons—5 percent juice, 95 percent sugar water—have the equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar! (That makes the 1,800-calorie salad look downright nutritious.) They're sold at gas stations and convenience stores across America for the low, low price of 99 cents, making this quite possibly the cheapest source of empty calories in the country. Earn more flavor in fewer calories by switching to V8-Fusion instead. The company makes a reasonable line of regular blends and an even better line of light juices.

 

Drink This, Instead!

V8-Fusion Strawberry Banana (12 fl oz bottle)

170 calories

0 g fat

42 g sugars

 

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/53...ces-in-america/

[Lycaon]

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/tr...about-your-food