Super Foods vs.Ten Foods You Should Never Eat

Super Foods

Health experts agree that simple diet changes including the addition of an array of easily found SuperFoods can do wonders for our overall health, disease prevention and longevity. Although the list of SuperFoods varies somewhat from study and expert to expert, the following foods rank high and overlap.

• Apricots
• Bananas
  
• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Chili Peppers
  
• Flaxseed
• Garlic
• Mangoes
  
• Mushrooms (Shitakes and other exotic mushrooms)
  
• Oats
• Oranges
• Papaya, Pineapple and Kiwi
  
• Pumpkin
• Wild Salmon
• Soybeans and Tofu
• Spinach
• Strawberries
  
• Tea (green or black)
• Tomatoes
• Turkey (skinless turkey breast is the best)
• Walnuts
• Yogurt

Ten Foods You Should Never Eat


1. Judging by the label, Pepperidge Farm Original Flaky Crust Roasted Chicken Pot Pie has 510 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat. But look again. Those numbers are for half a pie. Eat the entire pie, as most people probably do, and you're talking more than 1,000 calories and 18 grams of sat fat. Then add the 13 grams of hidden trans fat (from the partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening) in each pie and you're up to 31 grams of artery-clogging fat – that's far more than a day's allotment.


2. McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips sounds healthy. In fact, ounce for ounce, the Selects are no healthier than the chain's Chicken McNuggets. A standard, fivestrip order has 630 calories and 11 grams of artery-clogging fat. That's about the same as a Big Mac, except the burger has 1,010 mg of sodium, while the Selects hit 1,550 mg, even without the salty sauce.

3. Each slice of The Cheesecake Factory's 6 Carb Cheesecake has 610 calories – that's the same as you'd get from a slice of their Original Cheesecake. Think of it as an 8-ounce prime rib for dessert – with 29 grams of saturated fat, 1½ days' supply. The next time you step on the bathroom scale, you may never know that the carbs were missing.

4. Dove squeezes some 300 calories and 9 to 13 grams of saturated fat (half-a-day's worth) into a tennis-ball size serving (half a cup) of its Dove Ice Cream. That puts it in the same ballpark as Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. With names like "Unconditional Chocolate," Dove is trying to link chocolate with romance. A scoop of its ice cream will fill your heart all right … but not with love.

5. No one expects a Mrs. Fields cookie to be good for you, but who would guess that a single Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate & Walnuts cookie has more than 300 calories and as much saturated fat as a 12-ounce sirloin steak? It's also got six teaspoons of sugar. If you can't resist Mrs. Fields, share the smallest bag of Nibblers (six half-ounce cookies) with a friend. Or walk a few feet and look for a piece of fruit at another store instead.

6. The Starbucks Venti Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème with whipped cream is more than a mere cup of coffee. Think of it as a milk shake. Few people have room in their diets for the 770 calories and 19 grams of fat (10 of them saturated – half-aday's quota) that this hefty beverage supplies. It's the nutritional equivalent of a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza that you sip through a straw.

7. Burger King makes some of the most harmful french fries you can buy. A King Size order packs 600 calories and three-quarters of your daily maximum for heart-unhealthy fat.

8. Campbell's red-and-white-label condensed soups are brimming with salt: Half a can averages more than half of a person's daily quota of salt. Instead, try brands like Healthy Choice and Campbell's Healthy Request, which have less than half as much sodium.

9."Swoops are the essence of your favorite chocolate candy," explains the package. "The unique shape envelops your mouth in chocolate bliss." Hershey crams almost 200 calories, seven or eight grams of saturated fat (a third-of-a-day's worth), and more than four teaspoons of sugar into each six-Swoop pack. Swoops? Oops is more like it.

10. A Mint Chip Dazzler at Häagen-Dazs stores (three scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, Oreos, chocolate sprinkles, and whipped cream) has 1,270 calories and 38 grams of saturated fat – that's two days' worth. Think of it as a portable T-bone steak with Caesar salad, and baked potato with sour cream. But that's dinner – yet many people have a Dazzler as a dessert after lunch and dinner!

Sources: Health Check Systems, WebMD and Center For Science In the Public Interest