Over time the choice of food has become a careful and cautious decision for people who want to lose weight, who want to build muscular bodies or who just want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This is because as the food industry becomes more and more commercialized, even the bright green packet of vegetables that says ‘healthy’ and ‘organic’ could have some harmful or problematic chemicals and/or nutrients that are actually bad for you.
The average consumer must have an idea of the foods that will make you sick, the foods that will make you fat and the foods that you should never eat. Aside from these, a health conscious individual should know the worst foods to avoid that include generally unhealthy foods and fattening foods.
To get a better idea of what foods to avoid, the following is a list of foods to avoid broken down into three broad categories, which are; foods that will make you sick; foods that will make you fat; and foods that you should never eat.
Before we begin, it is important to understand that a number of factors are involved in certain foods, causing certain reactions, so while chocolate is definitely a fatty food, dark chocolate has been known to help cardiovascular disease patients.
1. FOODS THAT WILL MAKE YOU SICK
This list includes some fan favorite foods that have been known to cause food poisoning and general sickness. Food poisoning is caused by infectious bacteria attaching itself to the food you eat and in turn infecting your digestive system. So the key from this category is to avoid foods that have higher risks of being infected.
– Salad Green Vegetables
Kale, Spinach, Lettuce, Cabbage are all some of the most important diet requirements in a healthy diet, yet according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “they have been involved in over 8,836 reported cases of food related illness.”
These popular greens are easily prone to contamination by fertilizer, dirty water rinses, or even the hygiene standard of where you purchase it from. In order to avoid getting sick ensure that the veggies are thoroughly washed and do not mix them when handling meat or other items to avoid cross contamination.
– Beef
The problems with all bovine produce is self-explanatory. Beef has had a history of being the cause of numerous illnesses on a massive scale, such as several E. coli outbreaks in the United States and the infamous mad cow disease in the United Kingdom. These diseases can cause severe diarrhea, vomiting and failure of certain organs as well.
The key is to know where the produce is coming from. Mass produced farms that are controlled by large meat packing corporations such as Tyson Foods have questionable practices when it comes to the production and supply of meat.
You would be better off buying meat from local farmers or suppliers and taking certain precautionary measures when cooking. For example, using a thermometer in the thickest part of the beef when cooking to make sure it has reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit will eliminate most bacteria.
– Ice Cream
It’s not surprising to find everyone’s favorite summer snack food in this list. Aside from the obvious cold properties of ice cream that can dry your throat, trigger sinusitis and cause headaches, ice cream is also not prone to bacterial outbreaks. Case in point is the ‘Blue Bell Meltdown of 2015.’ In 2014, Blue Bell recalled its signature ice cream after strains of listeria monocytogenes – a foodborne pathogen that causes numerous severe illnesses – were found during routine product sampling.
There isn’t much one can do to protect themselves from the bacteria in Ice Cream as the fault lies with the production process. However, given how much Ice Cream is produced worldwide the chances of getting sick are slim.