“What’s your definition of unhealthy food? What are the worst foods you can eat?”
A high school student asked me those questions the other day, and for one of the few times in my life, I was speechless.
“Can I think on that and get back to you?” I said.
“I need your answers today for my class,” came the reply.
I quickly typed up my answers, which are listed below. I know some of your favorites might have made the list, so I also added an explanation for why they can haunt you in more ways than just heartburn.
Unhealthy food is:
n Food that can’t sustain life long-term.
n Food that is highly processed.
n Food your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize.
n Food that can shrink your brain and broaden your belly.
n Food that is calorie-rich and nutrient poor.
Here are some of my picks for some of the worst food in America:
n Coffee creamers containing partially hydrogenated fats. Ahh, the old innocent-looking liquid is actually a vessel villain in disguise. It is laced full of trans fats. I have a container of vanilla coffee creamer in my office that contains 188 grams of trans fat. Maybe that cream that Grandma stirred into her coffee wasn’t so bad after all?
n Movie theater popcorn. One of my favorite singlehood suppers was a big tub of the stuff. I would request “no butter” and assumed I was crunching a healthy dose of fiber. But what I failed to realize is that the kernels expand and pop in a bed of artery-clogging coconut or palm oil. While the theater signed reading “We pop our corn in cholesterol-free oil” might be true (both of these oils are plant-based), the oils are highly saturated. Ingesting excess saturated fat raises blood cholesterol. Eating a tub of theater-style popcorn is like eating five Big Macs.
n Any appetizer prepared in a deep-fat fryer. Whether it is deep-fat fried mushrooms, cauliflower or onions, the calories and fat are off the charts. A mountainous order of onion blossoms has almost 3,000 calories. A daunting number when you remember that it only takes an extra 100 calories a day to pack on 10 pounds in a year.
n Gatorade. The extra sodium and sugar this sports drink adds to a diet that is already too high in salt and sugar speaks for itself. Unless you or your child are exercising for 60-90 minutes nonstop, you probably don’t need to add a sports drink to your diet.
n Ramen noodles. Would you like a little pasta with your salt? Want a kid to wet the bed? Feed him ramon noodles. Overload a youngster’s system with 1,960 milligrams of salt (more sodium than he needs in an entire day), and he has to drink a ton of fluid to dilute the high-mineral meal. Small children sleep soundly and might not make it to the bathroom. You might think you are saving money on food, but what about all that water to wash the sheets?
n Hamburger Helper. Combine processed white-flour pasta with more than a day’s allotment of sodium. Serve with a fatty meat added, and you have chronic disease in a box.
n Sunny D. Looks like juice, tastes similar to juice and is marketed like juice, but is a far cry from juice. Made from water and sugary syrups, this is about as far removed from an orange as you can get. It contains less than 2 percent real fruit juice. It is soda pop glamorized as juice. It is nothing more than junk filling children’s tummies with colors and artificial flavors.
n Fritos. One ounce of this snack your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize yields 160 calories and 10 grams of fat. Who said anything about stopping at 1 ounce? A small single-serve package contains three servings, or 580 calories. The combination of salt and flavors teases the taste buds and stimulate appetite. All bets are off when it comes to portion control with salty snacks similar to this one.
n Pepperoni. One ounce contains 140 calories and 13 grams of fat. One cup of the sliced processed fat (inadequate protein to be labeled as a meat) is 3 ounces or three servings. And it is generally teamed up with more salt and fat on a pizza.
n Hot-wing sauce. Some brands contain almost a whole day’s worth of sodium in a mere 2-tablespoon serving. Check out the labels for yourself. You might get a headache seeing the huge numerals for sodium on the label and possibly a brain attack from consuming it.
Here is a recipe that combines nutrition and minimal processing with fast preparation. It can be made in 10 minutes. Plus, it is something your great-grandmother would’ve enjoyed.
PUMPKIN PASTA
Serves 6.
1 pound whole-wheat penne
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
2 cups chicken broth
15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
2 pinches ground cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
7 leaves fresh sage, thinly sliced
Grated cheese, for garnish
Cook pasta per package directions, and drain.
Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, saute the oil, shallots and garlic, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the chicken broth, pumpkin and cream. Add the hot sauce, cinnamon and nutmeg. Reduce heat. Simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the sage.
Toss the pasta with the sauce. Add cheese for garnish.
Lynda Murray, MA, RD, LD, CSSD, lives in Burlington, Iowa. She can be reached at dietitianmagician@q.com or www.dietitianmagician.com. Items in this column are intended to be informational in nature only. It is not intended to diagnose or treat.
