Cookies, cakes, doughnuts…

Loaded with trans fats, which are now generally considered one of the two most evil foods.

Margarine

Same deal: The fat, derived from vegetable oils, is a mutated lipid that is more dangerous to your health than any of the natural ones. PS: Pastries have been replacing butter usage with margarine to lower their main costs.

Non-diet soda

Filled with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the other evil food. This very cheap, monstrously plentiful corn-derived sugar is a metabolic nightmare. Unlike other sugars, which your body recognizes as food, HFCS produces such a small rise in insulin that you can drink a six-pack of Pepsi before your body realizes you have any actual calories in your stomach.

Mayonnaise

Store-bought mayonnaise is usually made from soybean oil. Soybean oil is a polyunsaturated fat, and polyunsaturates are often lumped together into the omnibus category of “healthy” fats. However, there’s a world of difference between the omega-6 polyunsaturated fats in soybean and other vegetable oils and the omega-3 fats found in fish and flaxseed oil. Research going back decades shows that vegetable oils—corn, soybean, safflower, and sunflower—produce an inflammatory response that’s been linked to a bunch of nasty illnesses. Certainly, we have a myriad of diseases that involve inflammation, starting with arthritis and lupus and working up to heart disease and cancer. I’m not saying mayonnaise causes cancer, just that vegetable oils provide little or no benefit and potentially lead to inflammation that could then make you more susceptible to diseases you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. However, there’s an easy way out: homemade healthy mayonnaise: Whisk together two large egg yolks, three tablespoons of lemon juice, a quarter-tablespoon of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Slowly add a cup of very light olive oil by drizzling some, whisking until it solidifies, then drizzling some more. After a few minutes, you have a great-tasting mayo, and you can make it even better with Dijon mustard, garlic, or Parmesan, alone or in combination.

White bread

No fiber, no nutrients you can’t get elsewhere, and a near-instant surge of sugar into your bloodstream. What’s to like? Williams offers this stark analysis: “For every 5 grams of fiber in white bread, you’re getting 141 grams of carbs.” In contrast: “For every 5 grams of fiber in lentils, you’re getting just under 10 grams of carbs.” Stick to whole grain breads

Cereals with sugar added

Popular breakfast cereals, including those targeting children, are piled high with sugar, fat and salt, it has been revealed. Many contain higher levels of salt than in ready salted crisps or as much sugar as a chocolate bar. Some even contain the same proportion of fat as pork sausages, two fried eggs or a McDonald’s McBacon Roll.

Sweetened fruit juices

May as well just swallow packets of sugar. The manufacturers try to dress them up by touting the vitamin C content, but it’s really just pure sugar, with none of the fiber or micro-nutrients you get from real fruit.

Processed meats

Not long ago, we were told that red meat is linked to all kinds of bad things, including the one thing every guy who enjoys his morning “quiet time” on the throne should dread: colon cancer. But more recent research has refined that idea. Yes, high consumption of red meat is still linked to colon cancer. But you can get around that in two ways: First, avoid processed meat—such as bacon and sausage. According to a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, those who ate the most processed meat in 1982 and 1992–93 were 50 percent more likely to have colon cancer in 2001. Another risk factor: a high intake of red meat relative to poultry and fish. (In fact, poultry and fish were linked to a lower risk of colon cancer.)

 

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