Our food supply has become so polluted that it’s difficult to discern what’s a whole food and what’s not. I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods of the Decade’ in half. Today’s blog contains the second half: 5 through 1. Click Here to see Part One. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in my previous blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we often believe are healthy are covered in today’s blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

#5 — Fried Chicken (A popular kids’ menu item.)
Fried chicken comes in many forms for kids: chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, etc. Parents often think this is a better choice than a hamburger. There’s six to ten grams of trans fat in each order of onion rings or chicken fingers.  KFC Original Recipe Chicken Dinner has seven grams of trans fat, mostly from the chicken and biscuit.

#4 — Microwave Popcorn
A report from the FDA indicates that a chemical coating used in microwave popcorn bags breaks down when heated into a substance called perfluorooctanoic (PFOA). The Environmental Protection Agency has identified PFOA as a “likely carcinogen.” Another study has found an acid that can be extracted from the chemical causes cancer in animals and is “likely to cause cancer in humans.”

Why is cereal on ‘Nonna’s Top 10 Worst Foods’ list? Madison’s not sure.

A second potential danger in microwave popcorn is diacetyl, an FDA-approved chemical found in the fake butter flavoring. There’s even a debilitating respiratory disease called “popcorn workers lung,” (the medical name of the condition is bronchiolitis obliterans) suffered by microwave popcorn factory workers caused by extended inhalation of the chemical’s fumes. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, (NIOSH) concluded that diacetyl needs further study so that workers in the flavorings and snack industry are no longer at risk. Do your family a favor and purchase a hot-air popper! It’s just as fast as the microwave variety and when you use organic popcorn and real butter, it’s a healthy snack.

#3 — Processed Lunch Meats
Hot dogs are considered “kid food.” You’ll find them on many children’s menus and are considered a summer staple. Most cured meats, expecially breakfast and other sausage, bacon, luncheon meats, and hot dogs, contain nitrites and nitrates. They’re added to processed meats to prevent botulism and enhance the taste and color of the meat. Without nitrates processed meats would be brown, just like cooked hamburger. Once inside the body, they can form nitrosamines, a cancer-causing chemical. These carcinogenic compounds have been associated with cancer. They have also been linked with leukemia and ADD/ADHD in children.

#2 — Boxed Cereal (including instant oatmeal)
More than 2.7 billion packages of cereal are sold in grocery stores each year. It’s the third most popular supermarket product (behind soda pop and bread). This translates to an average of 10 pounds, or 160 bowls, of cereal per American each year.

Extruded grains are industrially processed foods, including “healthy” breakfast cereals, which really aren’t so healthy. For all boxed breakfast cereals, grains are extruded — forced out of a hole at high temperature with pressure in order to make them into the various shapes typically found in breakfast cereals. The extrusion process destroys most of the nutrients in the grains, including fatty acids. Boxed cereals end up being empty calories. Cereals marketed to children are even worse as they are loaded with added sugars. Even the organic oatmeal pictured has 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Make your own hot oatmeal, it’ll cost less, taste better, and have less sugars.

#1 — Fruited Yogurt
The number one food parents believe is a healthy food and it’s NOT…is fruited yogurt. Yogurt is full of probiotics. Probiotics live in the tube that runs right through the middle of us. It includes our nose, sinuses, mouth, upper airways, lungs, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and anus. We no longer eat a healthy diet with natural foods containing good bacteria, so the bad bacteria proliferate. We think we’re eating healthy foods with probiotics, such as fruited yogurts. But fruited yogurts have up to 7 teaspoons of sugar in a serving. The sugar feeds the bad bacteria, so we’re not better off than when we started. The solution is to eat PLAIN yogurt with active ingredients and add fruit-only jams for flavor. (Vanilla flavored yogurt is not the answer, either. There’s more added sugar in the vanilla yogurt!)

Click Here for The Decades Top 10 Worst Foods…items 10 through 6.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures. For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

I must admit this list was harder to put together than I first thought. Our food supply is mostly processed and when you’re talking about processed anything, well, it’s just not healthy. I decided to pick the most common horrible foods I could think of. Ones we regularly eat and many times think of as healthy food choices.

I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods’.  Today’s blog contains the first half of my Worst Foods List: 10 through 6. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in today’s blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we believe are healthy will be covered in my next blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

“According to a recent report, due to the recession, Americans are eating cheap, unhealthy, fatty foods. So apparently, the recession started in 1957.”
…Conan O’Brian

Angel’s tongue is blue from the dyes in birthday cake frosting. You can’t readily see the effects of trans fat in the icing.

#10 — French Fries
French fries come in at number ten, because we really know this is an unhealthy food. Still, 21 percent of toddlers eat French fries EVERY DAY! French fries are potatoes, so what could be bad about that? Most French fries are purchased out. They are cooked in altered fats and seasoned with salt and many times with MSG (a hidden toxin). There is between 4 and 7 grams of trans fat in a single serving of fries.

#9 — Soda Pop
More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.  Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets. A single can of soda pop has between 14 17 teaspoons of sugar!

#8 — Birthday Cake
Kids go to parties all the time. Birthday cake is made from white flour, sugar and altered fats. The icing is primarily trans fat and food coloring. Trans fat has a half-life of 51 days, so if your child goes to a party every 2 months, then trans fat is continually in his body!

#7 — Non-Dairy Whipped Topping (like Cool Whip)
Cool Whip is made of water corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils (“hydrogenated” IS trans fat). Trans fat molecules are absorbed into your cells, compromising the cell’s metabolism. Trans fat lowers the HDL (good cholesterol) and increases the LDL (bad cholesterol), leading to heart disease. In pregnant women, trans fat, like alcohol, drugs, carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, and pesticides, pass through the placenta to the baby, affecting the baby’s metabolism in direct proportion to the amount ingested by the mother. In addition, there’s a correlation between trans fat and Type 2 Diabetes. To make matters worse, trans fat inhibits the absorption of vitamin K (vital for bone growth). Trans fat is a toxin interfering with all membrane function.

#6 — Store-Bought Cookies and Crackers
Cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Many baked goods are moving away from trans fats and using interesterifed fats. Interesterified fats are like trans fats raising the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. At the same time, lowering the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. Just because the package boasts, “No trans fats” doesn’t mean that it’s a healthy product. Look for interesterifed fat on the nutrition label.

Click Here for The Decade’s Top 10 Worst Foods…items 5 through 1.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.