Drive down the street of any town, and chances are you�ll run across multiple fast food restaurants. Americans eat out an average of four to five times a week, and a significant portion of those meals come from fast food restaurant chains ranging from McDonald�s to Applebee�s. Families choose these restaurants because they are fast, cheap, and convenient� but at what cost?
Here�s the list of the unhealthiest fast food items and substitutions you can make.
1. Soda
Acidifying, chemical-laden, and loaded with either HFCS or artificial sweeteners (diet varieties), avoid all sodas at all costs. Instead, have some plain water or bring your own.
2. Fried chicken
Made from conventional chicken laden with hormones and antibiotics, covered with gluten-containing breading and chemicals like MSG and salt, and fried in cheap, rancid oils, fried chicken is high in calories, fat, and other chemicals that can make you sick. Skip it altogether. Please, please just never eat fried chicken.
3. Egg and sausage sandwich
Hormones, salt, antibiotics and dairy make that breakfast sandwich a non-healthful choice. Instead, start your day with a Glowing Green Smoothie. You can make several and keep them in your freezer so you can always defrost one and still have one in a bind.
Bacon cheeseburger
Where do I begin? Fat, calories, and cholesterol are only part of the problem with bacon cheeseburgers, which also contain HFCS (in the buns and condiments), dairy, salt, hormones, and antibiotics. It�s just plain nasty. Instead, opt for a veggie burger or an avocado sandwich.
What Are The Top 10 Healthy Foods?
9 � Avocados
Many people avoid avocados because of its high fat content; they believe that avoiding all fats leads to better health and easier-to-control body weight � this is a myth. Approximately 75% of the calories in an avocado come from fat; mostly monosaturated fat.
Avocados are also very rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin K and vitamin E. Avocados also have a very high fiber content of 25% soluble and 75% insoluble fiber. Studies have shown that regular avocado consumption lowers blood cholesterol levels.
Avocado extracts are currently being studied in the laboratory to see whether they might be useful for treating diabetes or hypertension.
Researchers from Ohio State University found that nutrients taken from avocados were able to stop oral cancer cells, and even destroy some of the pre-cancerous cells.
Recent developments on the benefits of avocados from MNT news
Avocado consumption may be associated with better diet quality. Consuming avocados may be associated with better diet quality and nutrient intake level, lower intake of added sugars, lower body weight, BMI and waist circumferences, according to a study published in Nutrition Journal.18
10 � Oatmeal
Oatmeal is meal made from rolled or ground oats. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the term �porridge� or �porridge oats� are common terms for the breakfast cereal that is usually cooked.
Interest in oatmeal has increased considerably over the last twenty years because of its health benefits.
Studies have shown that if you eat a bowl of oatmeal everyday your blood cholesterol levels, especially if they are too high, will drop, because of the cereal�s soluble fiber content.
When findings were published in the 1980s, an �oat bran craze� spread across the USA and Western Europe. The oats craze dropped off in the 1990s.
In 1997, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) agreed that foods with high levels of rolled oats or oat bran could include data on their labels about their cardiovascular heart benefits if accompanied with a low-fat diet. This was followed by another surge in oatmeal popularity.
Oats is rich in complex carbohydrates, as well as water-soluble fiber, which slow digestion down and stabilize levels of blood-glucose. Oatmeal is very rich in B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium.
<<Print>>