Foods To Avoid

from The Dr. Oz Show
Aired 02/19/2010

Making mistakes at the grocery store can take years off your life and off your family members lives. Salty snacks and frozen foods make the list of the top ten best sellers. The number one seller, with $12 billion in sales? Carbonated drinks. Know what didn't make the list? Fresh fruits and vegetables.

Here are the top 5 foods Dr. Oz believes you should keep out of your cart:

1 - simple sugars or simple carbs
These cause blood sugar imbalances and end up as belly fat. Examples are ice cream, sugary drinks, white bread and white pasta.

2 - meats high in nitrates and saturated fats
Nitrates have been linked to stomach cancer and other degenerative diseases. These include things like salami and other foods with additives.

3 - ingredients you can't pronounce
If you can't read it, don't buy it. Long names that can't be pronounced are usually things made in a lab. Healthy foods are natural and whole. Do you need to check the ingredients on a pint of tomatoes?

4 - fake healthy foods
One example is low fat foods. They try to make you think that they're healthy but the truth is, they are not. When the fat is removed, something else has to be added to make it taste good. Usually extra sugar is added. As mentioned below item 1, this causes blood sugar imbalances and extra fat around the middle.

5 - canned foods high in sodium
Too much sodium is bad for the arteries and blood pressure. The max you should be getting is 2300 mg per day although it would be better to consume a maximum of 1500 mg.

Want to get healthy? Eating well is key. The best diet includes fresh foods that are not fried or covered in cheese or cooked to death. If you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you have to look at food in a different way. What you eat determines how you feel. Eat the right foods and you will have energy. Be good to your body and it will be good to you. Abuse your body by feeding it garbage and it will let you down. Start right now. Throw away those doughnuts or what's left of that cake. You'll be glad you did!