The 100 Unhealthiest Grocery Foods in America

The average supermarket is a minefield of thousands of items and it can be hard to pick out exactly what is and isn’t good for you. Quite a few foods can help strengthen your body, but even more can turn it to mush—and none more so than the dietary detonators that follow.

Luckily, not all grocery picks are bad, but here, we’re highlighting the 100 unhealthiest grocery store foods you should stay far away from. This way, you can confidently navigate the store aisles, knowing you’re not adding any of these less than stellar foods to your cart. Instead, add any of these  The 100 Healthiest Foods on the Planet.

Loaded with preservatives and salt, these are some of the worst saboteurs of a slim belly. You’ll be sure to Google “how to stop belly bloat” after eating them and seeing what happens.

Deli meats are notoriously high in sodium, and none are worse than ham. In hopes of boosting the flavor and extending the shelf life of deli cuts, manufacturers will inject a sodium solution directly into the meat, turning a few slices of lean protein into a vessel that, in the case of this Oscar Mayer folly, pack in a nightmare level of sodium. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, but an ideal limit would be 1,500 milligrams for most adults per day. Here, you’re getting 600 milligrams of sodium from just three slices of ham! Added to the rest of the food you eat in the day, and you could easily exceed the daily maximum intake.

Most deli meats fail in one of two ways: too much fat or too much sodium. Buddig’s products routinely fail in both ways.

Land O’Frost competes with the Buddig buy we just mentioned for the most calorie-dense lunch meat around.

There’s more sodium than regular pork bacon, but also more than triple the number of ingredients—with just two grams of protein per slice. You might think you’re eating better by reaching for turkey bacon, but that’s not the case here.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Bacon Brands—Ranked!

Pepperoni is the downfall of far too many pizzas served in America, and the blame rests entirely on its egregious load of fat and preservatives. This one is no exception.

Just two slices of Bar-S Bologna will cost you 720 milligrams of salt, which is about a third of your entire day’s worth!

RELATED: “Healthy” Foods With More Sodium Than French Fries, Says Science

Throw these on the grill, and you’ll also be throwing some pounds on your frame.

Both kielbasa and chorizo are spicy sausages, but they can be packed with calories, fat, and sodium. Opt for Al Fresco’s chicken sausage instead, and you get more protein while cutting down on the calories, fat, and sodium, too.

RELATED: 25 Foods High in Sodium You Should Watch Out For

More calories, less protein, and a hearty dose of kidney-harming phosphates. This is a skip.

About 80 percent of this brat’s calories come from fat.

Canned ham carries far more sodium than fresh ham. Unless you simply must have it, switch to chicken and save yourself the added cardiovascular strain.

Even Spam’s light version contains a high sodium content and added nitrites.

RELATED: Are Nitrates and Nitrites in Food Bad For You?

This canned protein contains as much saturated fat as two whole Snickers bars.

Just because these products don’t have meat in them doesn’t make them automatically healthier.

While we love that this plant-based sausage packs in the protein, it’s got way too much sodium to make it on our Eat This list, so it’s on our Not That list instead.

RELATED: The Best Plant-Based Bacons for Bacon Lovers—Ranked!

With only 15 grams of protein, this option really doesn’t give you much of the nutritional benefit you’re looking for in a meat alternative—especially seeing that you’re getting a whopping 568 milligrams of sodium per serving.

The right way to start your day is to ditch these high-sugar cereals. To see more of the boxes you should ditch, don’t miss Every Cereal Brand in America—Ranked!

Granola must have a top-notch PR guy. After all, someone managed to convince an entire nation of eaters that clumps of oats and raisins glued together with sugar is somehow healthy. One cup of this one has the calorie equivalent of about four servings of Cookie Crisp cereal!

RELATED: Turns Out, Cereal Is Even Worse For You Than We Thought

This is among the most sugar-loaded boxes in the cereal aisle. What’s more, it barely has any fiber to stabilize your blood sugar.

RELATED: No-sugar-added recipes you’ll actually look forward to eating.

This pick is not just devoid of fiber, but it’s also soaked with hydrogenated oils (a source of saturated fat) and colored with artificial, potentially carcinogen containing caramel color.

Loaded with sugar, lacking in fiber, and saturated with sodium, this cereal should be skipped. And who’s really sticking to a mere ¾-cup serving, anyway?

Double up on the serving size, and you’ll take in 18 grams of sugar, which is the equivalent of 4.5 tablespoons.

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Bread can be made with just two ingredients: water and flour. Store-bought breads, on the other hand, can be made from more than 20. These are among the worst of the worst. Find out better options with our 20 Best and Worst Store-Bought Breads.

With just one gram of fiber per slice, you’re better off skipping the sandwich and making it open-faced. This loaf is nothing but empty carbs and added sugars.

After flour and water, the third ingredient is sugar, and the fourth is inflammatory soybean oil. That doesn’t sound appetizing to us.

Most breads are made from a form of wheat, but unless it says “whole,” you’re paying for stripped-down grains with little fiber.

RELATED: Wheat Bread Isn’t Actually The Best For Weight Loss, Says New Study

With 5 grams of sugar and zero blood-sugar-stabilizing fiber, we’re hoping you skip this loaf every time you’re shopping for sandwich ingredients.

This bread is made with simple-sugar-heavy flour that’s devoid of all the fiber whole wheat has to offer.

Sorry, but swapping out your bread for a wrap is one of the 18 “Healthy” Swaps That Aren’t Better For You.

A basic tortilla takes about four ingredients to construct—flour, water, oil, and salt—but Mission uses much more. So what is this wrap made of? A lot of enriched flour and vegetable shortening, neither of which makes for a healthy wrap. And there’s no real spinach in these wraps, just spinach powder, which is reflected in the measly fiber content.

Switch to Food for Life’s Whole Grain Pocket Bread, and you’ll double the fiber and drop 50 calories.

This tortilla contains 2 grams of saturated fat coming from hydrogenated soybean oil, an inflammatory oil.

Each of these tortillas delivers 17 percent of your day’s sodium—and that’s before putting any fillings inside.

These are some of the worst carbs to eat in the a.m. Ditch them, as well as these 45 Worst Breakfast Habits Making You Gain Weight.

This is essentially a wedge of empty carbs, so it’s an invitation for a blood sugar roller coaster.

RELATED: Learn how to fire up your metabolism and lose weight the smart way.

This bagel packs as many carbs as five slices of toast and more than half a day’s worth of sugar! This is not the way to start your morning.

This sweet breakfast bagel boasts more than triple the amount of sugar than fiber—we’ll pass!

These grains are less than great.

Refined grains like this tend to prime your body for belly fat storage.

RELATED: One Major Side Effect of Eating Brown Rice, Says Science

We applaud the organic effort, but it doesn’t mean much once Gold Medal strips most of the fiber from the grain.

Wild rice has more protein than brown rice, but it still comes up short when stacked against more robust whole grains and seeds.

Neither cheese nor broccoli places higher than partially hydrogenated palm oil in this box’s ingredient list.

A single serving chews through about 40 percent of your day’s sodium allotment.

You’ll get a slew of empty carbs and about a third of your day’s sodium intake from this.

RELATED: 8 Ways to Eat Carbs and Still Lose Weight

Lower sodium? Lower than what, a salt shaker? It might bill itself as lower sodium, but it’s still a high number.

Pass on these pastas. And for more information consult The Best & Worst Pasta on the Shelves—Ranked by Nutritional Benefits

Yolks or not, this pasta is still made with regular, nutrient-hollow refined flour.

These numbers are pretty standard for run-of-the-mill white pasta. Aim for better.

RELATED: Doing This With Pasta May Actually Make It Deadly, Science Says

Not even spinach can save this linguine. The green leaf is the second ingredient, yet it brings more color than it does nutrients to these noodles. Add some real fresh spinach to your dish for a boost of nutrients.

This iconic box isn’t the healthiest, complete with a third of your day’s sodium allotment when it’s prepared according to instruction.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Boxed Mac-and-Cheese Brands

If you’re going to make a cheesy pasta dish, the least you can do is start with a more wholesome noodle than this one.

Eat the whole bowl, and you’ll get half your day’s saturated fat and sodium, plus a pool of inflammatory vegetable oils.

RELATED: The Worst Habits For Belly Fat, According to Science

Alfredo is bad enough as it is, but Pasta Roni’s version compounds the nutritional negligence with partially hydrogenated oil and a smattering of artificial colors. Each serving of this side dish has a meal’s worth of calories (440 when prepared). It also has the sodium equivalent of 97 Cheez-Its! Save yourself by boiling your own pasta and tossing it with olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan.

One container of this cup is loaded with 47 percent of your daily sodium and 25 percent of your day’s saturated fat.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Chicken Soups on the Shelves—Ranked!

This simple-sounding side dish packs a staggering 21 percent of your daily sodium.

These picks aren’t doing your belly any favors. Here’s what happens to your body when you eat pancakes.

While a classic, not necessarily the best option on shelves.

Pillsbury laces its brownies with artificial sweeteners acesulfame potassium and sucralose, as well as sugar alcohol maltitol, which has been found to show laxative-like symptoms when people overconsume it. That doesn’t sound like something you want with your dessert, right?

RELATED: We Tasted 7 Brownie Mixes, and This Is the Best One!

Just because it says it’s gluten-free, it doesn’t make it healthy. For more of the worst GF products, see our report: 40 Best and Worst Gluten-Free Products, too.

Although it may fit your gluten-free lifestyle, this pasta is nutritionally void.

White rice flour is nutritionally bankrupt, just like all white flours. This one is no exception.

These muffins have more sugar than two Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Donuts…

RELATED: The Best & Worst Muffins at Costco—Ranked!

The fiber and protein in this bread could be better. Craft your gluten-free sandwich with Rudi’s Gluten-Free Multigrain bread instead, and you’ll double your fiber and protein intake.

Betty fails to deliver a gluten-free treat that’s worth eating with this cake mix.

Glutino packs in about 25% of your daily sodium allotment in one serving of its pretzels. Talk about a belly-bloating snack!

Read this before you tear into a box or bag. Chomp on the right chips by avoiding any of The 15 Unhealthiest Chips On The Planet!

This is a thoroughly mediocre bag of fried potatoes.

This classic bag of Lay’s packs snackers with an excessive amount of calories and fat.

Gardetto’s finally replaced partially hydrogenated oils with soybean oil, but the bag is still full of sketchy ingredients like caramel color, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, and BHT, so they’re still a pass.

The bag says “real avocados,” but the ingredients statement says “avocado powder,” so none of the fats or fiber in this snack are coming from the creamy, nutrient-dense fruit.

A whopping 11 grams of fat comes from vegetable oil in this product. Unsurprisingly, you can chalk up Cheetos’ bright orange hue to a slew of artificial dyes as well.

RELATED: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-Flavored Ice Cream Is Now a Thing, and We Can’t Deal

Nearly two-thirds of the calories in this pick come from the frying oil.

It takes Frito-Lay a laundry list of ingredients to make these chips. Carcinogen-containing caramel coloring is the most nefarious of the lot.

These Doritos list inflammatory vegetable oil as its second ingredient behind corn, followed by salt and sugar. Need we say more?

Each serving of these little horns contains nearly 40 percent of your day’s saturated fat limit.

Despite corn being the first ingredient, this chip contains seven times more fat than fiber.

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Four different kinds of oil give this mix about as much saturated fat as four strips of bacon.

A thick application of palm oil gives this bag considerably more fat than Rold Gold’s pretzels.

Pretzels are salt magnates regardless of brand, but Rold Gold regularly packs in twice the sodium as its competitors. Each individual Tiny Twist has about 24 milligrams.

RELATED: One Major Side Effect of Eating Pretzels, Says Science

If the sodium count itself in such a small serving doesn’t scare you, how about how salt appears in the ingredients list 11 times?

These fish are swimming in sodium. You’ll get almost 20 percent of your entire day’s worth of salt in one serving.

RELATED: Costco Members Share The 15 Healthiest Snacks You Need Right Now

While we commend Gardetto for removing artery-clogging trans fats by omitting partially hydrogenated oils from their snack line, each carb-laden serving is still doused in a blend of inflammatory vegetable oils, chemical seasonings, and preservatives.

Sorry to add your favorite toppable cracker to the list, but each serving has 4.5 grams of fat from soybean, canola, and/or partially hydrogenated cottonseed oils, plus a hidden shot of high fructose corn syrup.

RELATED: We Tasted 9 Popular Crackers and These Are the Best

It may be a high fiber food, but these popcorn brands are too doused in oil to have any nutritionally redeeming qualities.

Though free from partially hydrogenated oils, Pop Secret still loads on the inflammatory palm oil.

The heavy application of glaze puts this one firmly in the candy category.

RELATED: This One Trick Will Make Your Popcorn Taste Better

Although Jolly Time rid itself of over 2 grams of trans fats, they still drench their kernels in inflammatory palm oil.

Smart? Hardly. This bag earns a heavy glut of fat from oils, cheese, and buttermilk.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Popcorn in America in 2021—Ranked!

“Mania” is correct. You’d have to be a maniac to eat this much saturated fat in one sitting.

If you’re looking for a “light” popcorn, there are better bags to buy. For starters, choose one that doesn’t pop its kernels with palm oil.

Instead of using a good-for-you oil such as coconut oil or olive oil, Pop Secret opts for palm oil.

RELATED: 5 Reasons Vegetable Oil is Worse Than Sugar

Because not all versions are healthy. For a complete list, check out:  22 Best & Worst Fruity Snacks

This pick is made from corn syrup, dried corn syrup, sugar, and palm oil. And those colors? Not real fruit. Instead, it’s artificial colors red 40, blue 1, and yellows 5 & 6.

The sugar coating pushes these dates dangerously close to candy status.

RELATED: Side Effects of Eating Too Many Dates, According to Science

The yogurt is really sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, nonfat milk powder, yogurt powder, whey powder, titanium dioxide (which is also used in whitening toothpaste), soy lecithin, and natural flavor. That doesn’t seem like something you’d expect in a seemingly healthy snack.

Get your hand out of the cookie jar! Here are some other cookies to avoid: The 30 Worst Supermarket Cookies in America

You might get more creme in this version of the classic cookie sandwich, but these Mega Stuf Oreos aren’t worth opening.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Oreos in 2021—Ranked!

Add just two of these coconutty Keebler cookies to your daily diet, and you’ll gain nearly a pound in just 20 days!

RELATED: 8 Best Ways to Avoid Fall Weight Gain, According to Experts

The fat here comes primarily from soybean and palm oils. Remember, even if you remove sugar from the equation, calories still matter.

The dearth of fiber ensures that this will pass straight through your belly, spike your blood sugar, and convert quickly to flab.

RELATED: We Tasted 6 Chocolate Chip Cookies, and This Is the Best One

Even in snack size, these cakes aren’t a safe bet for weight loss. Here are 30 Healthy Baked Goods to Make at Home.

The only reference to fruit in the ingredient list is to “artificial strawberry,” i.e., an additive engineered in a lab to look and taste like the real thing. No thanks, Debbie.

Just because Entenmann’s brownies are mini-sized, doesn’t mean you should make a habit out of them.

One Suzy Q has 90 more calories than a Wendy’s Jr. Original Chocolate Frosty…

Don’t be fooled; the oatmeal here is nothing more than the vehicle for fat and sugar when it comes to these mini pies.

RELATED: 25 Delicious Uses for Oatmeal You Never Knew

The redeemable part of this sweet treat is that it is topped with actual pecans. But it’s still a high-calorie, sugar-filled cinnamon roll…

There are 32 ingredients in this bun—and none of them are worthy of your a.m. meal.

RELATED: The Best & Worst Baked Goods on Shelves in 2021—Ranked!

Kellogg’s too-sweet pastry packs in four types of sugar, leading to blood sugar spikes and a wider waistline.

Little Debbie’s Donut Sticks have three strikes against them: more calories, more fat, and more sugar than Krispy Kreme’s Original Glazed Doughnut.

Packages can boast all they want about a product being made with whole grains, but if it only contains two grams of fiber, it’s not worthy of snack time.

You’ll get 280 calories and nearly a full day’s worth of sugar in this nostalgic, candy-studded brownie.

RELATED: This Beloved Childhood Brownie Treat Is Being Made Into a Cereal

“Frosted” is one of those words that is a red flag, as it just means more sugar.

One cinnamon roll with cream cheese icing packs in a quarter of a day’s worth of belly-bloating sodium in addition to the 22 grams of sugar. You’ll also find partially hydrogenated oils, which is a sneaky source of trans fat, in this recipe.

One sweet bun boasts 20 grams of sugar and 15 grams of fat. No, thanks!

Entenmann’s Party Cake does look festive, but keep in mind that it’s “iced,” which essentially means it’s packing more sugar. One piece has 37 grams of sweet stuff, and 19 grams of fat. Not much to celebrate here!

Read more:

The Unhealthiest Snacks On the Planet

The Unhealthiest Coffee Drinks in America

The Unhealthiest Fast-Food Burgers on the Planet

The post The 100 Unhealthiest Grocery Foods in America appeared first on Eat This Not That.

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