The trend of having a healthy lifestyle made us memorize the list of forbidden foods: chips, soda, chocolate bars, and many other treats it would be better to just forget about. However, even the foods that look harmless can actually be really bad for our bodies so it’s important to rethink what we’re sure we know about healthy food.
We have made a list of foods from which it’s better to stay away when you’re doing your grocery shopping.
1. Crab sticks
This is a popular and cheap ingredient in many salads but, unfortunately, it doesn’t have anything to do with crabs except for the name. Crab sticks consist of mashed fillet of white fish which is sometimes substituted with gluten, starch, or egg whites. What never gets substituted is a huge amount of sugar, flavoring, coloring, and flavor intensifiers including MSG which causes addiction.
Except for the obvious harm of becoming overweight from nutritional supplements, there is also the hidden risk of food poisoning. Crab sticks are sold not only frozen, but also chilled. There is a serious risk that the rules of keeping this product are often violated.
2. Fish in plastic packages
Even though such fish is very tasty, it has a very big disadvantage — a really short shelf life.
That’s why the only way to keep it in plastic packages is putting it in oil. If the fish is kept in brine, there is a chance that hexamethylenetetramine was added to it. This chemical is prohibited in many countries.
3. Smoked food
Smoked foods are also very popular all over the world. But they are also the reason for many debates concerning their harm to health. There are traditional smoking methods which work as a natural conservant and can extend the shelf life, and then there are cheaper methods called “liquid smoke” which are really doubtful.
The harmful chemicals with flavor intensifiers, phenols, and formaldehyde are often not mentioned on the pack. Moreover, stale foods are often hidden by the flavor.
If you just can’t resist the flavor of a piece of smoked chicken or fish, choose the products with the signs of natural smoking methods — hook marks, thread marks, and bar marks on the products.
4. Gummy bears
These bright and aromatic bears are very popular among children and adults. However, the ingredients of the modern gummy bears are often far from the classic.
Natural pectin is often substituted with gelatin from pigs, and the beautiful colors are made with synthetic flavor intensifiers and coloring. Besides, some manufacturers use sulfur dioxide as a preservative and they don’t always mention it on the package. It can cause allergy in high dosages.
It’s quite easy to make tasty and natural marmalade at home. For example, you can make it using natural juice.
5. Cornflakes
Cornflakes are very popular in many countries and a bowl of cornflakes is presented as a “healthy” breakfast. However, the ingredients and the way of making cornflakes can give you a clear understanding that all the reasons supporting the benefits of cornflakes are nothing but a marketing trick.
After frying the cornflakes, all the vitamins disappear from the corn flour. Sugar, the oil which is used to fry the cornflakes in, and the preservatives are not useful for your body. Besides, they can lead to weight gain if you eat them regularly.
6. Black olives
This is one of the most controversial foods on our list. Let us get this straight: there are no entirely black olives in the world. Ripe olives usually have a dark violet or brown color.
Black olives in cans are green olives dyed with special nutrients — most of the time with ferrous gluconate. It’s not dangerous in small amounts, but there is definitely nothing useful in this food.
7. Frosting
We are used to associating the word “frosting” with something chocolate, shiny, and delicious. Cocoa, butter, milk, and sugar — this is the standard list of ingredients for making chocolate frosting.
However, manufacturers often use a different kind of frosting to cover cookies, marshmallows, and jelly beans. It looks much better and the colors are beautiful, but the ingredients used to make it are very bad. Food coloring, synthetic flavor intensifiers, and other chemicals are used to produce it.
8. Red beans
Meals with red beans have many advantages and disadvantages. But this time, we added red beans to the list for a reason.
Red beans can be really harmful if you cook them the wrong way. So, if you don’t boil them long enough, they can be poisonous because there are a lot of natural toxins in them. In order to “disarm” red beans, you should soak washed beans in water for a few hours and then boil them at least for one hour.
9. Grapes
This is another food which has a very short shelf life. Grapes should be eaten right after you pick them. Of course, manufacturers and supermarkets don’t like this, so they try to extend the shelf life and improve the appearance of the product by using anti-oxidants. So, if you buy grapes that don’t spoil within a couple of days, it means that they went through a chemical treatment.
