Avoid These! 20 Worst Foods You Can Eat

#1 Fruit Juice

You may think drinking fruit juice is healthy, but in reality, it's equivalent to blending 4 Krispy Kreme donuts in a blender and drinking them straight. Yikes!

This is because most fruit juices contain only minimal amounts of real fruit juice. The rest of it is made up of sugary corn syrup. And the au-naturale fruit juices aren't any better either (even the ones you squeeze out at home).

This is because juicing fruits gets rid of the nutritious fibers in them and serves you only a glass full of concentrated fructose, which is a sugar known to enhance fat deposition in the body.

Here's the healthy alternative: Cut fresh fruits and eat them!

8 Heart Healthy Fruits and Why You Should Have Them

#2 Deep-fried Food

I know, I know! No one considers them healthy, anyway. But it bears repeating because these little, fried munchkins are among the most delicious foods one can eat in life!

But the dangers are not just because of the high-calorie count and fat value. Frying food at high temperature is known to produce Advanced Glycation End-Products (AGEs), which leads to abnormally high oxidative stress and inflammation in your body.

Here's the healthy alternative: Learn to use spices and herbs in your cooking. They can make even the blandest tofus taste delicious!

#3 Sausages, bacons, and all kinds of processed meat!

Processed meats are bad for you because they are high in saturated fats and AGEs and are treated with dangerous nitrogenous compounds at the time of processing. That's a double punch to your gut because when the nitrates and nitrites in these meats come in contact with high heat, they get converted to nitrosamines, which are volatile and extremely carcinogenic!

Here's the healthy alternative: Eat fresh meat, preferably procured from the local farmer's market. And always throw away the charred areas!

15 Harmful Effects of Processed Foods

#4 Breakfast Cereal

We aren't talking about bran flakes or muesli when we say breakfast cereal is bad for you. The worst breakfast cereals are the cute ones that target our fun side.

This is because these colorful cereal are not only made of unhealthy, processed carbs, they also have a generous dusting of sugar to keep you coming back for more. And we all know what these ingredients are capable of doing.

Here's a healthy alternative: Switch to oats, cracked wheat, bran flakes, or muesli.

#5 Frozen Food

If you know what's good for you, you will stay the hell away from frozen food. Why? Because they are packed with preservatives that convert into harmful carcinogens when heated.

Plus, studies have shown that frozen meat products are usually contaminated by harmful bacteria and parasites.

Here's a healthy alternative: Eat fresh.

#6 Cake Frosting

Frosting on cakes and muffins may look cute, but they are nasty little dollops of transfat and food coloring. So beware when you see one!

Here's a healthy alternative: Make your own healthy frosting out of avocados and dark chocolate.

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#7 Charred Meat

Studies have found that when proteins are charred, they coagulate into dangerous carcinogenic compounds called HCAs that can cause colorectal, pancreatic, or prostate cancer.

So if you forget to reduce the heat and end up charring your dinner, make sure you chuck out the burned areas. Because if you don't, you will end up spending more on hospital bills.

Here's a healthy alternative: Pan sear your meat and pay attention to the sides and bottom while cooking.

#8 Brown Rice

Arsenic, a heavy and poisonous metal, is known to seep into the husks of rice during cultivation. That's why having brown rice for long periods of time is not a very healthy choice because unlike white rice, the husks are not removed from them during processing.

Here's a healthy alternative: Have wheat rotis instead.

Brown Rice vs. White Rice - Which is Better?

#9 Diet Soda

Diet drinks are marketed as zero calorie drinks. But what you may not know is that the artificial sweetener in them, namely aspartame or bisphenol-A, produce the same insulin reaction in your body as real sugars, and lead to the same consequences.

That means fake sugars are so good at mimicking real sugars they end up fooling your body into growing fat!

Plus, these chemicals are carcinogenic in nature and unstable at higher temperatures.

Here's a healthy alternative: Don't drink any!

#10 Sports Drink

Sports drinks may supply you with the much-needed electrolytes after a tough workout or game, but they are packed with sugars and other additives that ironically are really bad for your health.

Here's a healthy alternative: Have coconut water instead, as it is full of electrolytes minus the calories.