They say everything in moderation, however with junk food, it's important to stay as far away as possible. Junk food, especially processed foods are simply never a good idea.  The problem is, sometimes it can be hard to decipher what junk food is.  Some things common sense tell us to stay away from, even though fighting cravings can feel impossible.  Other foods seem healthy, but are just junk food in disguise.  What should we be cutting from out diet, forever?

1.     Donuts: Donuts are fried, sugar laden, and made with refined grains (the opposite of whole grain). Every single one of those things is bad for you.  Each donut you eat is easily 400 or more calories, none of them healthy.  Besides the high sugar content, they are packed with trans-fat and sometimes carcinogenic additives like titanium dioxide. 

2.     Microwave Popcorn: Here’s another trans-fat culprit.  Even if fresh popped stove-top popcorn might eliminate the negative aspects of popcorn, most of us only ever get microwave popcorn.  It’s fast and convenient… and full of hidden ingredients. Besides the trans-fat, some brands contain diacetyl for that rich butter flavor.  Diacetyl has been found to cause lung disease when inhaled.  If you can’t figure out have the ingredients on the label, leave it on the shelf.

3.     Sugary Cereals: Cereal is the easiest way to start the day.  Let’s be honest, we grew up on the stuff and loved every minute of it.  But lots of cereals are packed with sugar and artificial flavors, and unfortunately are low in nutritional value.  In addition, one serving is almost never enough to fill you, typically adding up to less than a cup of cereal.  It’s easy to lose track of how much sugar you are consuming with 5+ servings adding up to days’ worth of recommended amount of sugar. This is basically priming you for an energy crash and weight gain.  

4.     Fast-food Burgers: Cheap food = cheap ingredients.  This equation isn’t universal, but it’s almost always true.  When it comes to fast food meat, over 90% of the burger is made from fillers and other non-meat products.  Kind of crazy, right?  One study sought to quantify what were in some of our favorite fast food brands and found that the meat content ranged from 2 to 15%.  While the rest of the burgers were filled up with water, connective tissue, blood vessels, nerves, fat, cartilage, and other stuff we don’t want entering our bodies

5.     Farmed salmon: Farmed salmon is fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers among other gross things.  So all the regular benefits you would get from free swimming counterparts, like vitamin D and omega-3s are there in much lower level in farmed salmon.  Farmed salmon meat is also much higher in contaminants and carcinogens like PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT.   Farmed fish are also treated with antibiotics and pesticides to keep them “healthy” until they are farmed.  Try buying wild-caught Alaska salmon instead to reduce your consumption of all these contaminants. 

Here’s a list of great tasting and healthy alternatives instead! :

·       Green smoothies

·       Chocolate-banana smoothie bowls

·       Guacamole

·       Homemade granola

·       Avocado toast

·       Coconut yogurt

·       Lemon tea

·       Dried Mango

·       Quinoa

·       Brown rice pasta

·       Hummus

·       Roasted Sweet Potatoes

·       Chia pudding

·       Veggie burgers

·       Dark chocolate

·       Seasonal berries

·       Grilled pineapple

·       Almond butter

·       Popcorn

·       Chocolate Almond Milk