MSN Health published an article about the 10 worst foods you
can eat. It's an appealing concept, though the article was poorly constructed. The author wrote that she wanted to
select "food categories" rather than brands, but she ended up selecting individual food additives and
ingredients anyway, with a few rather narrow categories thrown in. She also failed to identify the criteria she used to
compile the list. The MSN list is as follows, along with their description as given in the article, though
paraphrased here:
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Hydrogenated fats - These might contain trans-fats, but it depends on the company's use of the term vs. partially hydrogenated.
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Olestra - You could be eating fruits and non-"junk food" instead of anything with this fat substitute.
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Nitrates - Used as a preservative, they could turn into nitrite, which has been deemed safe by the FDA.
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Alcohol - Only acceptable in the form of a fine glass of wine with dinner.
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Raw Oysters - Can carry deadly bacteria and should be cooked well.
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Saturated animal fats - Beef, pork and full fat dairy, including butter, cause far, far more harm than good. Flavor was not mentioned.
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Soda - Sugar and sweeteners are bad.
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Home canned foods, esp. low acid ones - Improperly canned food items are a leading cause of food poisoning (clearly high risk, since so many people can their own foods).
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High fat snacks - You could be eating fruits and non-fat snacks (wait, like those made with Olestra?), instead.
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Liquid meals - You could be eating whole, nutritious foods instead of drinking liquid, nutritious foods.
Thank you, MSN, for providing this list. It has inspired us to start a better one. What do you think the worst foods are? My list starts with trans-fats and fast food, followed by artificially genetically modified crops and muffins that have a shelf life of more than 10 days.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-12-2006 @ 8:31PM
suburban misfit said...
Add to that list: pre-packaged, processed "convenience" foods, like the one-skillet frozen meals. Good lord, the fat and sodium in those things!
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1-12-2006 @ 9:06PM
M-L said...
Would someone PLEASE point me to the hard evidence that genetically modified food is bad for humans and not just a hyper-paranoid reaction to Frankensteinism?
And, while you're at it, please define, "artificially" in said context...
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1-12-2006 @ 11:52PM
Andrew said...
Damn, all of my favorites food groups!
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1-13-2006 @ 8:41AM
Chromepoet said...
Fast food: not so much food as a mind-altering substance that causes anger, lack of confidence and mighty love-handles.
I always question alcohol as a bad food. I think alcohol, like raw milk, suffers a chronic, conspiratorial attack by a medical community that fears we will drink ourselves healthy. But I could be wrong:)
After fast food, sugar. Just as the anti-drinking crowd generalizes alcohol as a very bad thing to ingest, I tend to generalize sugar as a very, very bad thing to ingest. In fact, one could generalize white powders as bad things to ingest but that probably goes beyond the scope of this post. In truth, rather than sugar in general, I guess I mean refined cane and beet sugar. Like fast food, refined sugar seems less a food than a mind-altering substance that causes short-temper, short attention span and significant amounts of babble (or is that just my reaction?). Not to mention that unhampered fruits and vegetables taste better when the tongue has not been stomped by the condensed sweet of sugar.
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1-13-2006 @ 10:30AM
Peter said...
Oysters!? Bah! Nothing beats a couple dozen raw oysters along with some warm sour dough bread all washed down with some Anchor Steam fresh from the tap while overlooking San Francisco bay at sunset. That's heaven on a half shell! :)
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1-13-2006 @ 10:37AM
Jonathan Harford said...
Last I checked, the jury was still out on the bad effects of various sweeteners. And Olestra removes dioxins from the body, and is now fortified with vitamins to counteract its leaching effects. I can't help but think MSN's trashing of these foods is just jumping on the popular “synthetic foods are bad” bandwagon.
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1-13-2006 @ 11:32AM
Gina said...
Worst foods to eat? Anything that is "fat-free", "sugar-free", free from additives,
no wheat/flour, pure vegetarian, most soy products (like milk), anything lactose-free, and diatetic.
Bring on the normal food with the normal food pyramid, stop giving grants to any "group" that will "prove" any food is bad for you, get to exercising, eat in moderation, drink in moderation, quit smoking, and enjoy LIFE!!
SHEESH!!
Now back to the normal "Fun Friday" recipes!! I need to try something new
for dinner tonight!! ;)
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1-13-2006 @ 12:08PM
Dominic said...
I disagree entirely with the "liquid meals". I, being into bodybuilding, find it very necessary to have a protein or gainer shake at least twice daily. Indeed, it is that and nothing else which makes me stick to my diet as i do - it allows me something nice tasting, healthy, and very good for my body, all in the same meal. The fact that it is liquid should not be a negative. In fact, the time saved by throwing a few scoops of powder into a shaker with milk is very good for my schedule!
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1-16-2006 @ 7:40PM
kitchenmage said...
I feel compelled to point out that those of us who preserve our own food are generally awfully careful about how we do it. I'll put my homemade stuff up against any mass food producer's any day on the "safe and sanitary" scale. As far as I know, I've never made anyone even a little, tiny bit sick with anything I've canned in the three decades I've been doing it. Which is a lot more than can be said for bigIndustrialFood.
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1-26-2006 @ 3:39PM
grw said...
I'm in agreement with M-L (comment #2). The biggest problem for North American society is not genetically modified grains (or other foods such as genetically modified fruits and vegetables) ... [No, I don't work for Monsanto.]
The biggest problem is the reliance on pre-packaged "ready-to-go" meals (see comment #1 from suburban misfit). Prepackaged meals are in abundance on our store shelves, and fast-food restaurants thrive because we buy their food (proven supply and demand). If everyone would eat more basic foods (whether they were genetically modified or otherwise) we would see a huge drop in obesity and associates diseases. Then we could start to consider the subtleties of whether the "frankenfoods" are really detrimental.
Don't tell me growth factors and hormones are the bane of society until you can get people to stop feeding their children soft drinks, prepared foods, and junk food.
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