40 Unhealthiest Foods on the Planet
Unhealthy foods: In terms of their nutritional content and bothersome ingredients, these foods are among the unhealthiest ones available:
Let’s face it: we all have certain foods that we frequently want. If you have a sweet craving, it’s possible that you often dream of ice cream, icing, sprinkles or cupcakes. Or perhaps you prefer the savoury salt of foods like chips, french fries, or bacon, and you can’t wait to get your hands on them. Our favourite foods come in a variety of healthful and bad varieties. You might not even be aware that some of them are among the unhealthiest foods on the market.
Unfortunately, even while it’s acceptable to indulge in your favourite things, it’s also crucial to be aware of the ingredients in the food you consume. This is particularly true in the United States, where a large portion of the foods we consume are loaded with extra sugar, sodium, saturated and trans fats, and chemicals that we can’t even pronounce.
We compiled this list of the world’s unhealthiest meals to give you a better understanding of what is in the foods you adore and constantly crave, as well as why specific ingredients may be dangerous. Read about these 21 superfoods that are surprisingly high in protein while you’re learning more about the possible risks associated with these goods.
1) Coffee creamer
Ingredients to avoid: mono- and diglycerides
It’s problematic that certain harmful coffee creamers don’t actually contain much cream. For instance, water, sugar, and vegetable oil are the first three ingredients mentioned on Nestle’s Coffee-Mate’s Vanilla Bean Liquid Creamer. Do you want to add that to your cup of coffee in the morning? Mono- and diglycerides are examples of synthetic additives that can be found in coffee creamers. Despite the FDA’s assertion that monoglycerides are safe in moderation, several of them include trans fat. Trans fat may elevate cholesterol levels and raise your risk of diabetes and heart disease, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Instead, sip this: Cow’s milk is an alternative that can give your morning cup of coffee a good protein boost if you are able to consume dairy. Try a low-sugar, plant-based creamer like Natural Bliss Vanilla Almond Milk Creamer or a plant-based powdered creamer like Coconut Cloud Vanilla Coconut Milk Creamer if you want something with more flavour.
2) Bleached white flour bread
Chemicals used in bleaching, such as azodicarbonamide, are unhealthy ingredients.
If bleached flour is listed on the bread’s ingredient list, you’re probably eating some unsavoury chemicals. Azodicarbonamide is a plastic dough conditioner that some manufacturers use to make bread dough fluffier. According to the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, you should stay away from it since baking causes azodicarbonamide to break down into a compound called urethane, which is known as a carcinogen and can cause cancer.
Eat this in its place: Whole-grain and whole-wheat breads are widely available without bleaching agents. Furthermore, they are healthier for you in a number of other ways as well because many of them contain whole or sprouted grains, which provide you significantly more fibre. Try a loaf of Might Manna bread or one of Dave’s Killer Bread’s loaves, for instance.
3) Sugar-added fruit juice
Added sugars, fruit that lacks fibre, and high-fructose corn syrup are all unhealthy ingredients.
At first glance, juice could appear to be a healthy option, but not all fruit juices are created equal. Some store-bought juice brands only provide goods that are more added sugar than actual fruit, but things like 100% pomegranate juice offer tonnes of antioxidants and vitamins in addition to their natural sugars.
For instance, Simply Cranberry Cocktail has only 27% non-concentrate cranberry juice according to their website, and each serving has 29 grammes of added sugar. Furthermore, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that the majority of the sweetness in juice originates from fructose, a form of sugar linked to the growth of visceral adipose tissue in obese individuals—yep, that’s belly fat.
Instead, sip this: To eliminate added sugars from your drink, stick with 100% juice and stay away from anything that has “cocktail” in the label. According to Lauren Manaker, MS, RDN, registered dietitian and author of The First Time Mom’s Pregnancy Cookbook and Fueling Male Fertility, ‘For instance, every bottle of POM Wonderful 100-percent pomegranate juice has the juice of whole-pressed pomegranates and nothing else – no fillers, and never any added sugar’.
4) Diet sodas
Ingredients to Avoid: Aspartame
What do flame retardants, false sugars, and artificial colours all have in common? They are components of your favourite diet carbonated beverages. According to a study published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, almost all well-known diet sodas contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener that was initially created to help people lose weight but has since been discovered to have the opposite effect by raising glucose levels, overloading the liver, and causing the excess to convert to fat. Furthermore, a recent study from PLOS Medicine discovered a connection between aspartame and a higher risk of cancer.
5) Fried foods
Oil that is very heated and inflammatory is not healthy.
Fried calamari, pork rinds, chicken-fried steak, and chicken-fried chicken. The biggest problem with these fried foods, aside from the extremely high fat and calorie content, is that they have significant quantities of inflammatory Advanced Glycation End products, or AGEs. These substances are produced when foods sourced from animals are cooked for a long time at high temperatures. In a 2015 review article that was published in the journal Advances in Nutrition, researchers came to the conclusion that AGE exposure over time might cause chronic inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, which can subsequently increase the risk of disease.
6) Bacon and sausage
High-heat cooking techniques, nitrates, and nitrites are unhealthy ingredients.
The worst of both worlds is processed meat. One is that they are frequently made with red meat, which has a lot of saturated fats. Additionally, processed red meat frequently contains high quantities of sodium as well as chemicals like nitrates and nitrites, even though red meat on its own isn’t particularly bad for you. According to Meat Science, nitrites have been linked to a number of tumours in studies and can become carcinogenic nitrosamines when subjected to high heat. (And you usually toast your bacon in a frying pan and your sausages on a grill with flickering flames, right?
7) Sugary cereal
Ingredients to avoid: refined carbohydrates and added sugar
There is no way to sugarcoat the fact that sugar is terrible for the body. Overconsumption of the substance can create obesity, which can then result in diabetes and heart disease, among other health issues. Unfortunately, a lot of cereals contain more sugar per serving than is found in a Boston Cream Donut, making them some of the unhealthiest breakfast options. For instance, Fruity Pebbles only have 1 gramme of protein and no fibre in a cup, but Golden Crisps have 21 grammes of added sugar, 2 grammes of protein, and no fibre at all. You won’t feel satisfied after breakfast if there isn’t any fibre or protein to balance out these sugar bombs.
8) Frozen entrées
Ingredients to avoid: excessive sodium and preservatives
Why add preservatives when freezing food is such a great technique to extend its shelf life? Unfortunately, many producers add a lot of these when creating frozen meals. For instance, a Bob Evans Farms Sausage & Potato meal contains 1,470 milligrammes of sodium in addition to a tonne of chemicals and preservatives. Marie Callender’s Cheesy Chicken & Bacon Pot Pie is a frozen dish that has 1,500 milligrammes of salt and a staggering 28 grammes of saturated fat. You’ll see that these selections approach the daily recommended limit of salt in just one meal when you consider that it is 2,300 milligrammes.
9) Restaurant desserts
Ingredients to avoid: too much sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat
The fact that most of these dessert meals are high in everything, including calories, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar, makes them among of the unhealthiest foods available, even if restaurant desserts are frequently worse for your health because of the disproportionately large quantities. Consider the Chili’s Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake, which has 105 grammes of sugar and 1,210 calories, 50 grammes of fat, 25 grammes of saturated fat, 0.5 grammes of trans fat, and 890 milligrammes of sodium.
10) White sugar (too much of it)
Sugar is a bad food when ingested in excess.
American individuals consume roughly 77 grimes of sugar daily, which is about 20 grimes more than the FDA’s suggested intake of 50 grimes, according to the American Heart Association. Additionally, the American Heart Association advises Americans to consume even less than that! Increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity have all been related to Americans’ heavy consumption of refined, white sugar.
11) Store-bought frosting
Titanium dioxide, caramel colour, and artificial colours are unwholesome ingredients.
Birthdays are a reason to rejoice. Something that you shouldn’t rejoice about? You’re using chemicals to make your icing. One of the unhealthiest meals to consume, brand-name frostings like Duncan Hines’ Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla are coloured with potentially carcinogen-contaminated dyes (such caramel colour and titanium dioxide) and artificial colours. Just keep in mind that “the dose makes the poison,” Manaker advises. Therefore, having a piece of cake on your special day is unlikely to be harmful. consuming daily birthday cake made with these ingredients? That’s a different tale.
12) Pancake syrup
High fructose corn syrup and caramel colour are unhealthy ingredients.
Natural maple syrup and extra-sugary pancake syrup are very different. Popular syrup brands like Aunt Jemima and Mrs Butterworth’s aren’t truly manufactured with maple syrup at all; instead, they contain the liver-damaging high fructose corn syrup and the carcinogen contamination of the caramel colour.
13) Bottled smoothies
Ingredients to avoid: fruit deficient in fibre and excessive sugar
It’s nearly a given that busy mornings call for grab-and-go meals, so it’s simple to understand why pre-made smoothies are so popular. They appear to be the ideal option when you’re in a bind to satisfy your appetite. However, the time-saving beverages have a drawback: Most of them lack nutrition compared to freshly produced smoothies and are so high in calories and sugar that your blood sugar is certain to soar. Take the Pomegranate Blueberry Smoothie from Naked as an illustration: If you drink the full bottle, there are 61 grammes of sugar and 0 grammes of fibre in it, therefore there is nothing to help control your blood sugar levels.
14) Charred meats
Ingredients to avoid: intense heat
Although grilling is fantastic, you must watch your char! As the creatine, carbohydrates, and amino acids in meat react to your grill’s high temperatures during the charring process, something known as heterocyclic amines, or HCAs, are created. HCAs have been associated in numerous published research to an elevated risk of several malignancies, including pancreatic cancer.
15) Fast food
Too much sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat are unhealthy ingredients.
Although it is quick and tasty, fast food is frequently quite rich in sodium, saturated fat, and total fat. For this reason, it is among the unhealthiest foods you can eat and has been repeatedly linked to conditions including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
16) Energy drinks
Too much sugar, glucose, and caffeine are unhealthy ingredients.
Energy drinks are just pricey chemical mixtures that include a lot of sugar (or unsettling artificial sweeteners) and enough caffeine to make a strong cup of coffee. Here are several reasons to worry: Energy drinks are 11 percent more damaging to your teeth than conventional cola, according to a University of Maryland study. Gross, you say? A case study with a 50-year-old construction worker revealed another troubling conclusion: drinking too many energy drinks can harm your liver. According to the study, which was written up in BMJ Case Reports in 2016, the individual contracted severe hepatitis after ingesting four to five energy drinks each day for three weeks.
17) Ready-to-bake pie crust
Ingredients to avoid: BHA and BHT
When baking, using a prepared pie crust may save you some time, but the options available on supermarket shelves are not at all wholesome. Unbleached flour is the primary component in well-known brands of products like Pillsbury’s Refrigerated Pie Crust, which also contains BHA and BHT, two preservatives that are prohibited in some European nations.
18) Artificial sweeteners with sucralose
Sucralose is an unhealthy ingredient.
Sucralose-based sweeteners, such as Splenda, may have no calories, but that doesn’t imply they have no negative impact on your health. A recent evaluation of 37 studies published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal examined the dietary habits of approximately 406,000 persons. Sucralose and other non-nutritive artificial sweeteners, according to the study’s findings, may actually contribute to weight gain and cardiometabolic risk if eaten frequently. Additionally, a study published in Cell Metabolism discovered that sucralose use enhanced cravings and appetite. Additionally, it has been discovered to affect the gut microbiota and cause glucose intolerance.
19) Breakfast biscuits
Unhealthy Ingredients: partly hydrogenated oil, excessive sodium, and bleached flour
Making biscuits from scratch can take a very long time, but store-bought varieties, like Pillsbury, that you can just toss in the oven, are frequently laden with salt, bleached flour, and partially hydrogenated oil. The FDA stated in 2015 that partly hydrogenated oils were unsafe and could cause heart disease or cardiovascular events.
20) BBQ sauce
Ingredient to avoid: high fructose corn syrup
Although barbecue sauce may be the condiment of choice for those who enjoy smokey and sweet foods, it can be bad for your weight. The majority of bottled BBQ sauces are heavily loaded with added sugar and sugar substitutes. Take Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Barbecue Sauce as an example; not only does it contain 15 grammes of sugar in only two tablespoons, but high fructose corn syrup is also listed as the first ingredient.
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a connection between HFCS and a higher risk of heart disease. This sauce, which is also created with corn syrup and sugar, is similar to adding nearly four sugar packets to your pulled chicken or bratwurst.
21) Sports drinks
Ingredients to avoid: excessive sugar and synthetic dyes
Someone was really onto something when they came up with the Gatorade Dunk tradition, in which winning sports teams pour coolers of the drink on their coaches. It is obvious from a quick glance at the nutrition label that the sports drink is better off leaking into the stands than your stomach.
Sodium and potassium, which are essential post-workout electrolytes, are provided, but it also comes with a hefty serving of calories and sugar. In reality, a bottle of Gatorade contains 48 grammes of the sweet substance. It is obvious that these drinks contain far too much sugar given that the daily suggested limit for males is 36 grammes and for women is 24 grammes.
22) Restaurant or store-bought cheesecake
Too much sugar, fat, and saturated fat are unhealthy ingredients.
Even though cream cheese is delectable on its own, when it is baked into a rich, creamy cake, it reaches new heights. One slice of cheesecake, a delicacy you typically have after dinner, will cost you an absurd number of calories due to its practically universal high fat, sugar, and sodium content. Look at any cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, for example. 830 calories, 59 grammes of fat, 37 grammes of saturated fat, and 51 grammes of sugar are contained in the Original Cheesecake choice.
23) Restaurant tiramisu
Ingredient to avoid: excessive sugar
Confectioners’ sugar, whipped cream, espresso, ladyfingers, egg yolks, and mascarpone, to name a few of the components that swiftly transform this dessert into a high-calorie, sugar-heavy dish, create this creamy treat on the luxurious side. Take the version from The Cheesecake Factory, which has more than 1,200 calories, 66 grammes of sugar, 94 grammes of total fat, and 52 grammes of saturated fat, as an example. When you consider that the recommended daily maximum for saturated fat is only 13 grammes, this dessert is clearly not worth it.
24) Margarine
Palm oil is an unhealthy ingredient.
Margarine’s creamy flavour had to come from somewhere, and typically it comes from the addition of vegetable oils. Many blends can contain palm oil, which has a high content of saturated fat (over 13 grammes for just two tablespoons), and research suggests that there may be a connection between palm oil and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
25) Taco bowls
Ingredients to avoid: too much fat and salt
One of the quickest ways to eat a lot of calories, fat, and sodium all at once is a taco bowl. Things can quickly spiral out of control due to the fried tortilla, meat filling, rice, cheese, sour cream, sauces, and other toppings, turning a simple burrito bowl or taco salad into a dish high in calories.
26) Frozen pizza
Ingredients to avoid: excessive salt and food additives
Even while baking a frozen pizza might take less time than getting one from your neighbourhood pizzeria, you might wish to store these slices in the freezer due to their high sodium content and unsettling food additives. You’re not really safe no matter which well-known brand you choose because Digiorno Croissant Crust Three Meat Pizza contains a whopping 1,200 milligrammes of sodium, 25 grammes of saturated fat, and the additive sodium nitrite. Red Baron’s Classic Crust 4 Cheese Pizza contains ingredients like L-Cysteine hydrochloride, a salt used to treat overdoses, and ammonium sulphate, a common lawn fertiliser.
27) Fettuccine Alfredo
Lots of cream and butter are unhealthy ingredients.
Cream, parmesan cheese, and a lot of butter are used to make Alfredo sauce, all of which are terrible for your waistline. In reality, cream is rarely used in traditional Italian pasta meals, so there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t see this dish on a menu if you visit Italy. However, it is listed on the Olive Garden menu and has 1,310 calories, 55 grammes of saturated fat, and 1,200 grammes of sodium, demonstrating that it is yet another all-American rendition of a traditional meal that you are better off without.
28) Belgian waffles
Ingredients to avoid: excessive salt and refined carbs
Belgian waffles frequently have deeper grids designed to accommodate even more syrup, butter, and cream; this fact alone should be enough to discourage you from ordering one for breakfast the next time you find yourself out at a diner. They can also get worse because they are frequently made with sugar and sweet batters. These waffles include a lot of simple refined carbs, which make them difficult to digest and unpromising for maintaining attention and satiety.
29) Onion rings
Ingredients to avoid: sugar and saturated fat
The onion ring is an excellent illustration of how deep-frying may remove all of a vegetable’s beneficial qualities. Because they frequently contain more calories, saturated fat, and total fat than even fries, depending on the location where they are served, onion rings are frequently worse than even fries. Compared to their fries, which have only 290 calories, 13 grammes of fat, 2.5 grammes of saturated fat, and 300 milligrammes of sodium, Sonic Onion Rings have 580 calories, 29 grammes of fat, 5 grammes of saturated fat, and 570 milligrammes of sodium.
30) Mayonnaise
Fat is an unhealthy ingredient.
Although mayo is wonderful, each serving has a lot of fat. For instance, one tablespoon of Kraft Mayo contains 10 grammes of fat and 1.5 grammes of saturated fat, and we all know how simple it is to consume more than one tablespoon of this creamy condiment. Saturated fat is the item you want to watch out for when it comes to disease prevention and maintaining a healthy heart, and mayo is often rather low in this type of fat. With 10 grammes of total fat per serving, it can make you eat more than you should, which could result in weight gain.
31) Nachos
Sodium is an unhealthy ingredient.
Tortilla chips, while not typically all that unhealthy for you, are the foundation of nachos but don’t include any kind of nutrition. You’re in calorie and fat overload once you toss in ground beef or pulled pork, sour cream, guacamole, and an indecent amount of yellow cheese. Additionally, a lot of places frequently provide this unhealthy pub food staple as an appetiser. Take Applebee’s beef nachos, which have 1,940 calories and more than 4,440 milligrammes of sodium—nearly double your daily limit.
32) Fish and chips
Sodium is an unhealthy ingredient.
It’s the beige attack! You know you’re in trouble when your dinner is one color—in this case, the off-brown colour of deep-frying. However, don’t blame the fish because seafood is a good source of heart-healthy lipids and lean, muscle-building protein. But a seriously out-of-balance fish-to-fat ratio is what’s causing all of this issues. A mound of deep-fried potatoes covered in a crispy batter and laden with sodium and fat.
33) Mozzarella sticks
Saturated fat and sodium are unhealthy ingredients.
Although mozzarella sticks contain protein, they are fried, and fried foods in general increase the calories, salt, and saturated fat of everything they come into contact with. Just take a look at Applebee’s mozzarella sticks. With 18 grammes of saturated fat and 2,450 milligrammes of sodium, this appetiser has more sodium than is advised each day.
34) Restaurant French toast
Unhealthy component: more sugar
Making French toast at home isn’t inherently terrible, but ordering it at a restaurant changes everything because it only adds more fat, sugar, and salt to a dish that is already loaded with these ingredients. Nearly 2,000 calories, or roughly one day’s worth of calories, are contained in the Cheesecake Factory’s bruléed french toast. Additionally, it contains an astounding 64 grammes of saturated fat (almost five times your daily limit) and 4 grammes of trans fat (twice the amount the World Health Organisation advises).
35) Croissants
Butter and occasionally margarine in large amounts are unhealthful ingredients.
We are aware that there is nothing like biting into a buttery, flaky croissant. However, consuming this pie first thing in the morning will provide your body with a substantial amount of fat and saturated fat, without any protein or fibre to keep you satisfied. Let’s examine a Dunkin’ Donuts basic Butter Croissant. Only 1 gramme of fibre and 6 grammes of protein are present, and it has 19 grammes of fat, 340 calories, and 8 grammes of saturated fat (or nearly 60% of the daily recommended limit). That’s just for starters.
36) Soybean oil
Soybean oil is an unhealthy ingredient.
Soybean oil is a common ingredient in processed and packaged meals, but it has recently come under fire in the nutrition community. According to certain animal studies, this oil may potentially have an impact on neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s or depression. It has also been related to obesity. There has to be more study because there have only been a small number of studies on the effects of soybean oil on humans.
37) Canned soup
Ingredient to avoid: too much salt
Soup, which is frequently referred to as a wholesome, comforting meal, is actually one of the least sinister diet saboteurs out there. That’s not the case, though, with some canned types. According to a study that was published in the Journal of Nutrition, several well-known soup brands include excessive quantities of salt, and eating too much salt can actually make us overeat. Even while many of us consume more than just a half cup of soup at a time, certain brands, like Campbell’s Homestyle Chicken Noodle, have 890 milligrammes of salt in only a half cup.
When you continuously saturate your body with salt, you can overwork your kidneys in addition to interfering with satiety cues. Because of this, the salt stays in your bloodstream.
38) Bouillon cubes
Ingredients to avoid: Yellow 6, caramel colour, and palm oil
A standard bouillon cube, like Knorr’s Chicken Bouillon Cubes, contains unpleasant substances such palm oil, caramel colour, and Yellow 6. When compared to vegetable oils low in saturated fat, palm oil significantly raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad cholesterol, according to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Nutrition. It’s in your best advantage to be cautious of what bouillon brand you’re buying since it’s followed by possible carcinogen-contaminated caramel colour.
39) Pre-made muffins
Soybean oil, sugar, mono and diglycerides are unhealthy ingredients.
Why does a product with the label “Baked Fresh Daily” have at least two preservatives? Not just Entenmann’s uses deceptive labelling. Toby Spunkmeyer With 210 calories per serving, muffins appear to be a healthy choice, but there are really two servings per muffin. Store-bought muffins typically include a lot of calories and fat, and eating half now and “saving the rest for later” is practically impossible—likely because foods high in carbohydrates, fat, and sugar can be incredibly addictive. Additionally, a lot of commercial muffins contain additives including mono- and diglycerides, soybean oil, and bleached wheat.
40) Boxed mac & cheese
Ingredients to avoid: a lot of salt
Even if you could only manage one cup of Kraft’s Three Cheese Mac & Cheese, you’d still consume at least 750 milligrammes of sodium, and that doesn’t even account for the salted pasta water or salted butter you may add to really amp up the cheese flavour. If you eat half the box (which is easy to do), you can end up taking half of your daily sodium allowance. As prepared, you reach a third of your recommended intake of sodium per serving. According to the CDC, a high salt intake is linked to conditions like heart disease and hypertension.
