9 Foods to Be Avoided to Fight Obesity and Diabetes

The healthiness and fitness of your body depend on what you eat. Most obesity issues and diseases can be easily avoided by choosing the right foods to eat or not to eat.

Let us look at nine common unhealthy foods you must avoid like a devil.

Foods Causing Obesity and Diabetes

Several factors cause obesity. It’s associated with several related conditions, collectively known as metabolic syndrome.

Some of the foods may become responsible for metabolic syndrome in us. In this article, we are going to look at 9 kinds of foods that may cause obesity and diabetes in people.

1. Soda and Soft Drinks

Numerous cases of obesity and massive weight gain are caused by addiction to soda and soft drinks. These cases are more common among children and youth.

Extensive research done by epidemiologist Hannah Gardener, Ph.D., of the University of Miami, points out that daily soda drinkers (including diet soda) are showing a 48% increase in instances of heart attacks compared to people who did not drink it or rarely did.

“The first thing that anyone should do if they are trying to lose weight is to eliminate or cut down on soft drinks,” says Marion Nestle.

Soda, otherwise known as “liquid candy,” contains a lot of sugar or fructose that is very dangerously rich in calories.

The liquid calories found in soft drinks are one of the primary reasons for fueling the obesity epidemic (especially among people living in developed countries).

Soda and soft drinks also contribute greatly to tooth decay and cavity formation.

Clinical research results point to the weakening of bones in persons who regularly take soda or cola.

Colas contain many phosphoric acids, which weaken the calcium metabolism and development of bone mass. Girls are more prone to the ill effects of colas than boys for reasons unknown still.

Say NO to soda and soft drinks for the better interest of your ‘healthy and hearty living.

Adopting the good old-fashioned mineral-rich natural water and organically flavored seltzers is better.

2. Sugar and Fructose Corn Syrup

Sugar is said to be the “new tobacco.” It is already a fact of the dangerous nexus between sugar with diabetes and obesity.

Most people think that fructose corn syrup is safer than sugar. It is entirely untrue. Most of the fructose corn syrups have more calories than normal sugar.

Sugar is becoming a “killer food” that promotes obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and fatty liver. Recent findings also point fingers at sugar for abetting certain types of cancer.

Sugar and fructose corn syrups are the biggest culprits in abetting obesity.

Every health expert has condemned sugar for decades as it packs up the body with empty calories.

There is no doubt that the excess use of sugar in any form can make you fat … and it is true. But it is not easy to say NO to sugar.

We have an inborn tendency to consume more sugar-rich food; the main reason is that the empty sugar calories do not make us feel satiated soon.

fruit-corn-syrups-weight-gain-effects-chart

Getting rid of sugar addiction is the biggest challenge in dieting. It means you are giving up all fructose, dairy fat, refined grains, and added sugar products.

You don’t require as much sugar as you think you do.

The best way to keep sugar consumption in check is to start cutting down on ONE sugar-rich food from your diet weekly.

Begin to train your sweet buds to enjoy foods that are not sweet.

3. Fruit Juices

Fruit juices are deliciously tasty. It is also conveniently available in every food joint and office canteen.

The benefits you get from fruit juices are more harmful than good.

The goodness of fruit juices is only right for your taste buds, not your health.

However, whole fruit is healthy as it is a fiber-rich carbohydrate option. Whole fruits also have rich nutritional value.

It is proven that people who consume a lot of fruit juices become heavier and bulkier than people who have whole fruit.

Studies have shown that children with lots of fruit juices suffer from overweight and tooth decay.

Fruit juice is full of fructose that immediately causes a sharp increment in blood sugar. It adds up to the empty calorie storage within the body, and it is one of the major reasons for obesity. It is still worse when fruit juices contain added sugar and sweetened cereals.

Obese people must avoid fruit juices at all causes and should opt for a balanced amount of fiber-rich whole fruit.

Another option is to substitute fruit juices with green tea or skimmed milk or lemonade with as little natural sugar as possible.

4. Unsaturated Fats

One of the worst fats you can eat is unsaturated or “Trans Fat.” It is also called trans-fatty acid; it increases LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the blood and fat deposits within the body.

Foods that contain trans fat are dangerous for obese people; they must be carefully avoided.

Be mindful of most junk foods and fried food items prepared in restaurants, mostly made in trans-fat.

It is an industrially produced fat by solidifying vegetable oils with the help of high-pressure hydrogen gases.

Regular consumption of food items prepared in Trans Fat is a thoughtless eating habit that promotes obesity, heart ailments, and diabetes.

Unsaturated fat is comparatively cheap to buy, and thus, it is widely used by food processing companies and people experiencing poverty who cannot afford refined oils.

Trans-fat-Caused-Health-Issues-Graph

Food manufacturing companies prefer to use hydrogenated oil as it is not spoiled easily and has a long shelf life.

Restaurants mostly use it in deep fryers as leftover oil can be reused again and again without getting spoiled.

Avoid trans-fat in frying and cooking food.

It is better to avoid all junk foods and processed packaged foods prepared in hydrogenated oil, so it is always wise to read the ingredients list on the food packet cover before you purchase it to see if it contains no trans-fat.

5. Artificial Sweeteners

The research team, including Eran Elinav of the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, published shocking discoveries on artificial sweeteners some time ago. The findings were a big blow to so-called “diet-sugar” and “sugar-free” labeled foods.

Previously it was told that low-calorie sugar is healthy and does not increase blood sugar. Elinav and colleagues found that artificial sweeteners increase weight gain, diabetes and raise the risk of metabolic disorders.

Those who still obliviously trust in the safety of artificial sweeteners are only trying to satiate their craving for sweets, but they cannot go Scot-free of its side effects.

FDA has not officially issued any warning on the usage of artificial sweeteners, and many FDA-approved companies are marketing “diet- sugar.” However, going by the results of many controlled trials, all is not well with artificial sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners may be free of high calories but can still harm you.

It is better to avoid artificial sweeteners as they promote weight gain, heart ailments, and type II diabetes.

6. Fried and Grilled Foods

I am sure you know many people around you who have an insatiable craving for fried and grilled food items like deep-fried chicken, French fries, doughnuts, etc. It is tasty indeed… but future health shock is not so far.

People who gorge on fried food are sure to pile on pounds quickly. They also face the danger of imbalanced nutrition. They will have to face the music of cardiovascular issues and excessive weight gain sooner than later.

A few research studies pointed out that fried food consumption is more dangerous to people with a genetic predisposition to obesity.

A grave concern with fried food is that most of these items are prepared in “trans-fat” oil, which promotes obesity and bad cholesterol. It is verified that fried food items like French fries, doughnuts, and deep-fried chicken have a trans-fat presence of about 30 to 45% in them.

In addition, the unhealthy carbon-based chemical is formed in many foods when fried in oil at a high temperature above 120 degrees Celsius. It has adverse effects on health.

If you crave fried food, keeping your cravings in check is better. No weight loss solution is possible if you do not give up fried food items like French fries, deep-fried chicken, doughnuts, etc.

7. Processed Food Items

In today’s world, people are busy with work and other activities. It has become a very convenient option to use highly processed and canned food, especially ready-to-eat food’.

First and foremost, highly processed foods are very low in nutritional value and contain life-threatening preservatives and flavor-blending chemicals.

Children fed on processed food develop an ill-healthy body and diseases at a very young age.

It has also been found that processed foods promote obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.

The chemical ingredients in them damage the digestive system and add toxic contents to the body.

Various bad chemicals are added to processed foods to prolong shelf life and preservation and attractive coloring and flavor.

American Cancer Society’s controlled research has shown that some of these chemicals added to processed food cause some cancers.

As far as possible, avoid processed foods. It is better to take a little trouble to cook fresh food at home if you want to be in good health.

It is good to check the ingredients list on every processed food item’s packet before you buy, and if you find any unusual ingredient, say NO to it.

The simple thumb rule is to avoid every ready-made food manufactured in factories.

8. Foods Prepared In Seeds and Vegetable Oils

Some companies created a misconception (probably as a clever marketing strategy) that seed and soybean oil is good for health. Oil-rich food is bad regardless of whatever oil is used to prepare it.

Recent studies and research have shocking findings proving that vegetable and seed oils are harmful to health.

Many health experts encouraged the consumption of vegetable oils like corn and soybean oil as they are rich in Omega-6 fatty acids.

However, recent research findings say that Omega-6 in the right proportion with Omega-3 can only ensure the body’s optimal function. The Omega-6 and Omega-3 must be in proper proportion and balance.

Regularly using vegetable oils will add too many Omega-6 fatty acids into the body, eventually leading to several health problems due to inflammation.

Diseases like cardiovascular issues, systemic inflammation, and cancer can arise from the over-consumption of seed and vegetable oils.

9. Gluten Rich Whole Grains

The notion has always been that ‘whole wheat’ is very healthy, especially for the heart. However, some of the prominent research on gluten-rich whole wheat (whole grains) has something very contrary to pinpoint.

It was recently found that about 50 to 60% increased the level of LDL in people who have been using whole grains like wheat as a staple diet.

Another major health drawback of having a lot of whole grains in the diet is the increase in gluten sensitivity. Gluten can be critical in damaging the digestive system and aggravating celiac disease. It also steadily increases the sugar level in the blood to make people diabetes-prone.

It is better to substitute the whole-grain diet with a low-carb diet if you wish to keep your body weight under check and control. The low-carb diet also improves metabolism, whereas whole grains like wheat weaken it.

Obese people will find it tough to cope with their weight increase if they devour a lot of whole grains like wheat which has an explosive quantity of carbohydrates.

Some of you may require grains in your diet because of the demands of the regular physical activities you have to do due to the nature of your work and activities. If you cannot do without grains, then non-gluten rice and oat grains are the right choices.

Grains are important mainly for their carbohydrate value. You need to have non-gluten grains only for the body’s energy requirement.

If you do not want to be obese and sickly, you must consume grains, not more than your body requires. You should strictly avoid whole grains as they make people more gluten-sensitive.

It is easy to lose weight fast if you avoid or cut down on these food categories discussed above.