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The Worst Foods You Can Eat

If you want to stay fit and healthy, keep these six supermarket staples out of your grocery cart.

By Reader's Digest Editors
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#1 Worst Food: Processed Meat

According to Webmd.com, the American Institute for Cancer Research says meats preserved by smoking, curing, or salting, or that contain chemical preservatives, are linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. These products also tend to have lots of salt, fat, and cholesterol, and very few nutrients, like fiber.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#2 Worst Food: Frozen Meals

They may look tiny, but frozen dinners can be loaded with calories. Livestrong.com found one popular national brand of chicken pot pie contains 64 grams of fat and 1,020 calories per serving. And while the diet versions of these frozen foods may be low in fat, they are heavily processed and are often high in sodium.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#3 Worst Food: Doughnuts

Maybe America should run from Dunkin’, and any other outlet selling these nutrition bombs. Store-bought doughnuts contain the unholy trinity of unhealthy ingredients, reports livestrong.com: trans fat, sugar, and refined flour. Many contain a whopping 10 to 20 grams of fat each and between 250 to 300 empty calories.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#4 Worst Food: Potato Chips

You already know that these fat-filled “bad carbs” are no good for your waistline. What you may not know is potato chips (along with French fries) contain acrylamide, a known carcinogen that is formed when foods are baked or fried at high temperatures. "I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans,” Clark University research professor Dale Hattis is quoted as saying at sixwise.com.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#5 Worst Food: Low-Fat Foods

Don’t be fooled by the “Low-Fat” label. Makers of cookies, salad dressings, yogurt, and other foods labeled low-fat often substitute sugar, salt, and unhealthy fillers to add flavor and texture to otherwise bland processed products. Author and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz advises you to always choose real foods over processed, low-fat options.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#6 Worst Food: Margarine

Though it’s billed as a cholesterol-free, healthy alternative to butter, margarine is the ultimate source of trans fats, which actually elevate cholesterol and damage blood vessel walls, reports The Natural Health Hub website. So skip the fake stuff and go with olive oil or other monounsaturated fats.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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#7 Worst Food: Soda

Chugging soda is one of the easiest ways to pack on the pounds (the average can contains 10 teaspoons of sugar). But drinking as few as two soft drinks a week can nearly double a person’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer, too. That’s the finding of a study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, according to a report on e-how.com. Want more bad news? Consuming more than 2.5 sugary sodas per day significantly increases your risk of death from cardiovascular disease as well as your risk of developing diabetes.

Plus: The 10 Worst Foods for Your Stomach

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Your Comments

  • Hpfk

    Remember how they told us we HAD to eat margarine because butter would KILL US?????

  • jud

    My gossh since when is fiber a nutrient???? wrond advice

  • nadia

    All Yummy foods included in this list now please tell me what to eat

    • Foooooo

       Sand, dirt and rocks

  • http://www.facebook.com/davor.prcovich Davor Prcovich

    I can’t have a toast with olive oil FFS !!!

  • Lageupta50

    My name is Madynia screen name. And I have a digestive system that can not process processed meats fake or created foods chemically altered or modified foods also all chemical food dies and coloring’s example F.G.&.C yellow # 28. and most chemically created modified or altered food preservatives and all fructose’s and all high fructose sweeteners. When I eat these things a very similar thing happens to me that would happen if someone drank a small amount of auto antifreeze and then I end up in the ER desperately trying to restart my digestive system. It usually takes about 14 days for my digestive and colon tract to restart and start processing food and pulling nutrients again and I really suffer. Could this be because the first 6 years of my life my mother only gave me veggies and fruits other than water no candy cakes or pies.    

  • Lageupta50

    My name is Madynia screen name. And I have a digestive system that can not process processed meats fake or created foods chemically altered or modified foods also all chemical food dies and coloring’s example F.G.&.C yellow # 28. and most chemically created modified or altered food preservatives and all fructose’s and all high fructose sweeteners. When I eat these things a very similar thing happens to me that would happen if someone drank a small amount of auto antifreeze and then I end up in the ER desperately trying to restart my digestive system. It usually takes about 14 days for my digestive and colon tract to restart and start processing food and pulling nutrients again and I really suffer. Could this be because the first 6 years of my life my mother only gave me veggies and fruits other than water no candy cakes or pies.    

  • Helalbd69

    pok

  • Cbustosaguilera

    OMG !!! I LOVE DOUGHNUTS!!!

  • Cbustosaguilera

    OMG !!! I LOVE DOUGHNUTS!!!

  • Jjk6

    Anyone invoking the “expertise” of Dr. Oz immediately loses credibility.

  • Sjohnson

    #6 needs updating. It’s easy to find 0 trans fat tub margarine these days.

  • Soandso

    Fiber isn’t a nutrient.

  • Soandso

    I see they reference LiveStrong a lot in these slides… are they recommending we all secretly take steroids to boost our performance?