There is much confusion today about what to eat and what not to eat. Throughout our lives we have been subjected to everything from square meals to food pyramids. We have been pitched foods such as margarine as replacement for such things as butter. Artificial sweeteners have allowed us to have our cake and eat it too, and low fat foods have been touted as the solution to a dieter's dreams.
With years of consumers using these products behind us, we can now, in hindsight, better evaluate the consequences of long term use of these products. However the available data seems to be confusing and the information disseminated to the public appears contradictory to what has been instilled in us over the years.
A cogent discussion of this topic should begin with an analysis of what is currently being said about the it, so some research is in order. To this end an extremely non-scientific analysis was carried out, to determine what is currently being recommended to the public.
For the results presented here, a Google search was performed on the phrase "foods to avoid for health." As most people only read content from the first few pages of search results, we selected websites from only the first three Google search pages. Pages were excluded from this evaluation if they discussed foods that should be avoided for a specific condition, i.e. during pregnancy, or if they were recommending specific brand names instead of general categories of food.
Here are the top 11 foods to avoid based on this study with their relative occurrence in parenthesis.
- Margarine (4)
- Butter flavored microwave popcorn (4)
- Cured meats or sausage (4)
- Soda (regular or diet) (3)
- Canned tomatoes (3)
- Bread (3)
- Reduced fat peanut butter (3)
- Soy protein isolate (3)
- Non-organic potatoes (2)
- Artificial sweeteners (2)
- Fat free foods (2)
While this is by no means an extensive list of foods to avoid, each member of this list has reasons for being included, some of which may not be obvious or may fly in the face of what we have been told over the years.
In the near future we will give more information why each of these appears on this list and based on that reasoning provide additional information on how to make better food choices. Feel free to send a comment to our office or participate in our social media discussion of the topic.
Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If you are anything like me, you search the internet looking for justification for your indulgences. Chocolate is one of those indulgences that needs no justification, however, guilt is a terrible thing. It is never a good idea to overindulge in any one kind of food, and one you should always scrutinize the form of the food in which you are consuming. With this in mind let's examine the claims posted at 
