Why are tasty things unhealthy

That's because manufacturers increase the amount of added sugar to breads made with whole grains because consumers still look for that sweet taste of white bread with the "healthy" feeling of eating whole grains.

Short for polyoxyethylene- 20 -sorbitan monostearate, this emulsifier is widely used in the food industry. Made of corn, palm oil, and petroleum, this gooey mix can't spoil, and it often replaces dairy products in baked goods.

It's commonly contaminated with 1,4 dioxane, a chemical which has been shown to cause cancer in animals and could in humans as well, according to a study in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. Instead: Foods coated with real chocolate. We like these 7 Best Healthy Chocolates.

Last we checked, cucumbers are naturally green, so we're not quite sure why so many brands Like Vlasic Dill Kosher Pickles feel the need to add yellow dyes to their pickle jars. Vlasic also uses polysorbate 80, the same emulsifier used in diet ice creams that's been linked to causing cancer in mice.

Additionally, a number of pickle jars are also filled with sodium benzoate, which has been shown to damage mitochondria, the "power station" of cells. Instead: You don't have to go too far out of your way to find pickles without this additive. If you don't swallow it, can chewing gum count as a food?

Point is this: Although the bulk of gum is indigestible, there are some ingredients that are: the sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners. Sugar alcohols are sugar substitutes have been shown to cause bloating and other gastrointestinal distress. Sorbitol, in particular, takes a relatively long time to digest, and any undigested sugar alcohol in your small intestine acts as the perfect environment for the fermentation of bacteria, thus, causing even more bloating and flatulence.

As for artificial sweeteners found in popular gums , you're looking at ingesting additives that have been scientifically shown to trigger your sweet receptors and rev hunger—hence another reason why you're always hungry. Instead: If you've got a chewing habit, try sunflower seeds. Not only are they tasty, but they are also an excellent source of vitamin E, the body's primary fat-soluble antioxidant.

Don't let its reduced fat content fool you: low-fat peanut butter is in no way a health food. While peanuts on their own are a good source of protein and fiber, the other ingredients used in low-fat peanut butters will have you running for the hills.

When the naturally-occurring fats are stripped from peanut butter, they're often replaced with tons of sugar and excess salt to make up for what would otherwise be a bland and flavorless product. Instead: Skip all the waist-widening sugar and salt and enjoy some full-fat natural peanut butter instead. Spread the Love brand peanut butter is made without added salt, sugar, or oils, and has all the cholesterol-lowering MUFAs that you get from peanuts in their natural state.

Peanut butter is also incredibly easy to make on your own: throw some peanuts and a little bit of oil or honey, as per your taste, into a blender and puree until smooth. Unhealthy Ingredients: Artificial flavors, disodium inosinate, and caramel color.

When you grab a veggie burger, you should look for a solid substitution for the minimally-processed, beef-based patty. Unfortunately, countless vegetarian options are not the clean dream you think. MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger is full of questionable ingredients like artificial flavors, disodium inosinate which acts similarly to MSG in that it improves flavor and revs your appetite, so you eat more of this frankenpatty , and carcinogen-tainted caramel color.

Instead: You're far better off with a veggie burger like Amy's Sonoma Burger, which is made entirely of organic vegetables, quinoa, and walnuts. You'll find some more of our favorites in the 32 Best and Worst Veggie Burgers. Oatmeal, a food so innocent, has been corrupted. But with what, you ask? A whole lot of sugar. And it's even worse in the new way brands are packaging instant oatmeal: cups.

Because the serving sizes are a bit bigger, manufacturers cram in even more of the stuff. That's over 40 percent of your recommended intake of added sugars for the entire day—and it's not even noon! Instead: Start your morning off on the right foot by opting for some unflavored oats instead.

Not only will this save you some serious calories, but it also lends the possibility of adding healthy, filling ingredients, like raw almonds and fruit, to your recipe instead. Pretty much every other kind of lemonade? Mostly garbage. On top of the boatload of sugar that's in most lemonade recipes, brands like Minute Maid give their bottled and canned lemonade drinks a vibrant hue by using yellow 5, which has been linked to hyperactivity and impaired renal function in animal test subjects.

Instead: Opt for some infused water instead and you'll save yourself a huge number of calories, a ton of sugar, and keep those kidneys working—we hear they're pretty important, after all. Unhealthy Ingredients: Sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial colors, carnauba wax. You know those scented candles that smell so delicious you almost want to take a bite? That's pretty much what you're consuming when you add some sprinkles to your ice cream.

These sugary little ice cream accessories are little more than sugar, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, and actual wax, just like your favorite candle. Instead: Give your favorite frozen treat a little bit more texture and flavor by adding some slivered almonds or cacao nibs; not only will they make your ice cream more pleasing to your palate, they'll also add some healthy fiber and antioxidants to your snack.

Unhealthy Ingredients: Sulfur dioxide, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, high fructose corn syrup, red Mix up some preservatives, corn syrup, and dyes and you've got… a sundae topping? Maraschino cherries, known for their vibrant hue and perplexing flavor, are an engineered food that have no place in a healthy diet.

When you consider that they can last up to three years in their high fructose corn syrup bath before they even get near their expiration date, you'll definitely want to put them back on the shelf. Instead: Instead of pulling a syrupy, radioactive-looking cherry out of a jar, try getting it the old-fashioned way: from nature.

Cherries are plenty sweet on their own, and even without the benefit of potentially-toxic dyes, they've already got a very pretty color to them. Cherries are also a good source of resveratrol, which can help fight excess belly fat and may even help fend off dementia. All those smiling models in yogurt commercials obviously haven't checked out the ingredients list on their purportedly healthy snack. Most fruit-flavored yogurts on the market contain precious little actual fruit, sweetening their recipes with sugar instead.

And those brilliant hues you thought were the result of fresh fruit in the recipe? They're usually just from fruit juice concentrate. Another additive you have to watch is carrageenan: a plant-based emulsifier which studies have found to cause inflammation in those with gastrointestinal issues. Instead: Yogurt doesn't have to be completely off the menu just because you're trying to eat healthier.

Plain, unsweetened yogurt is full of live cultures that can benefit your gut bacteria, boosting your immune system and potentially lowering your risk of everything from diabetes to depression. If you're worried about the belly bloat that dairy can cause, coconut milk yogurt with live cultures tastes like the real stuff and has all the same benefits for your belly bacteria.

When reaching for a bottled coffee beverage, you're probably more concerned with how under-caffeinated you're feeling and less about what could be lurking under that label. Unfortunately, some of these sickly-sweet drinks are loaded with more added sugars than you should consume in an entire day, as recommended by the FDA. For example, one ounce bottle of Gold Peak Almond Toffee Coffee Drink contains a staggering calories and 53 grams of sugar.

Another shocker? The whole bottle only dishes out 77 milligrams of caffeine, which is significantly less than the milligrams you'd get for an equal serving size of black coffee. Other popular drinks, such as Starbucks Coffee-flavored Frappuccino, are nearly as bad, doling out 32 grams of sugar per 9.

Instead: Keep the convenience and toss out all the added sugar by opting for cold brew instead. This refreshing pick-me-up skips those high-calorie ingredients and gets you more of what you really want: sweet, sweet caffeine. Fortunately, ready-to-drink cold brew is becoming more widely available, with companies like Chameleon, Blue Bottle, Stumptown, and High Brew offering their flavorful, antioxidant-rich coffees in convenient to-go bottles and cans.

Not in the mood for a black coffee? Unhealthy Ingredients: Sucralose, acesulfame potassium, propylene glycol, yellow 5, yellow 6. Looking to add a little zing to your drink? Don't reach for these manufactured enhancers. Brands like Mio are made up almost entirely of artificial ingredients. The third ingredient in many of these little bottles behind water and citric acid is propylene glycol: a preservative, thickening agent, and stabilizer that is also used as antifreeze to de-ice airplanes, as a plasticizer to make polyester resins, and found in electronic cigarettes.

Almost more alarmingly is Mio's use of artificial, non-nutritive sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame potassium, which a recent study published in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics linked to weight gain and metabolic disorders.

Drink This Instead: Throw a couple of fruit slices into your water for that extra zing you're looking for. Something fishy is going down in the frozen-food aisle. To help lower-quality fish retain moisture and to lessen the amount of water expelled during thawing, manufacturers soak fish in a bath of sodium tripolyphosphate STPP —as they do in Mrs.

Paul's Beer Battered Fillets. It might be GRAS, but manufacturers don't need to use this potentially dangerous additive. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO , "polyphosphates are not an essential ingredient of [frozen fish products]. Other negative side effects of adding STPP to fish include significantly increasing the levels of sodium in your food—which can counteract the countless positive heart-health benefits of consuming fish in the first place—as well as increasing your intake of dietary phosphates, which are connected to increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease or prior heart problems, according to research in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Companies aren't required to label this additive, but some packaged products do. When in doubt, stay dry. Seafood labeled as "dry" have not been treated with STPP; seafood marked as "wet" has been soaked in it. Granola has long been associated with healthy living, although considering all the garbage that's put in granola bars, the link isn't exactly clear.

The combination of sugar, corn syrup, and sorbitol, a weight gain-inducing trifecta found in Quaker Chewy Chocolate chip granola bars should be enough to have most health-conscious consumers steering clear, but the fattening soybean oil and widely-banned potential carcinogen BHT are just the icky cherries on top of this unhealthy recipe. Loaded with mixed nuts, honey, rice, and flaxseed, this omegarich concoction only tastes decadent. Unhealthy Ingredients: High fructose corn syrup, caramel color, carrageenan, artificial flavors.

Replacing your meal with a pre-packaged shake means you're replacing all the fiber, vitamins, and minerals you'd normally eat with a whole lot of scary ingredients instead. From blood sugar-spiking high fructose corn syrup and maltodextrin to tumor-promoting artificial colors, these icky shakes are better off in the garbage than on your table.

Instead: Instead of those chalky, medicinal shakes that are high in sugar and low in any redeeming nutritional values, check out our guide to these grab-and-go options: 10 Best Store-Bought Protein Shakes, According to Experts. Mama's baby may like shortening bread, but that's because the infant's knowledge of what inflammatory oils do to her body is patchy at best. Oils high in omega-6 fatty acids, like soybean oil, contribute to chronic inflammation: a state that causes medical problems that range from weight gain to depression.

Palm oil is high in saturated fats that increase levels of bad cholesterol. Separately, when you pick up one of the "light" versions of these butter spreads, you're also ingesting mono and diglycerides, which Isabel Smith, MS, RD, CDN, tells us are considered to be a class of trans fats that have escaped FDA classification as trans fat.

Instead: Choose healthier monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, and increase your intake foods that contain unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, like chia seeds, flax seeds, and fish. That's 12 grams; the donut only has 10 grams. Lisa Moskovitz, RD, founder of The NY Nutrition Group, says, "High fructose corn syrup has been shown to increase appetite and lead to health problems such as obesity and diabetes.

This creamy dressing will serve up nearly 30 percent of your day's recommended intake of fat in just two tablespoons. Even worse is that's mostly from inflammatory soybean oil, that studies show can actually increase appetite.

Instead: Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, honey, mustard. These are just some of the whole ingredients you can use to concoct in your kitchen that will be far less likely to do you harm.

And whatever you do, stay away from these 20 Unhealthiest Salad Dressings on the Planet. Just because it's not full of alcohol doesn't mean that fruit cocktail is any healthier than an oversized margarita. In fact, with the high fructose corn syrup in these fiber-less fruits, it may be worse. Plus, the BPA used to package many kinds of fruit cocktail has been linked to endocrine issues and obesity, too, making this supposedly healthy snack a poor choice for anyone.

Instead: Just eat fruit. It's healthier, it's not loaded with added sugar, and it hasn't been sitting in a plastic cup on your supermarket's shelf for a decade we hope. Unhealthy Ingredients: Sugar, artificial sweeteners, caramel color, polysorbate They say getting a great body is 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent exercise.

Unfortunately, most protein bars are percent garbage. The combination of sugar, carcinogenic colors, and polysorbate 60, an emulsifier that can create potentially-toxic compounds when combined with other ingredients, makes most protein bars less snack and more health hazard. If you think you're getting a better deal by opting for sugar-free recipes, think again; the artificial sweeteners used in sugar-free protein bars have been linked to weight gain and cardiometabolic risk, according to a recent study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Instead: Loading up on protein doesn't have to mean loading up on sugar and preservatives, too. A handful of raw almonds, a piece of cheese, or a hard-boiled egg can all help improve your post-workout recovery without weighing you down.

Uncle Ben may not be such a good guy after all. Uncle Ben's Cheddar Broccoli rice is loaded with diglycerides: a food emulsifier that still contains small amounts of trans fats. Odder yet is the inclusion of corn syrup solids, a fattening sweetener that's most commonly found in desserts, but manages to make it into this recipe just to spoil the fun.

Instead: Instead of eating those preservative-laden pre-seasoned rice mixes, you can easily save both your money and your health by making a batch of easy-to-prepare brown rice. Brown rice is not only filling, but a good source of resistant starch, which researchers at South Dakota State University have linked to improvements in gut bacteria, potentially lowering consumers' risk of diabetes and obesity along the way.

If you're not a fan of unseasoned rice, try adding some healthy toppings, like a little heart-healthy olive oil, metabolism-boosting chili pepper, or antioxidant-rich spices, like sage, basil, and oregano.

Although it could help regulate your blood sugar, Polaner's jam shouldn't be your go-to source for fiber. It's sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose, which a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found may be recalibrating the connection between sweetness and calories in your brain.

Researchers discovered that mice consumed 30 percent more calories when they switched from eating sucralose-sweetened food to sugar-sweetened food. The sweetener has also been connected to decreased sleep quality and poor gut health—a recipe for weight gain. Instead: Your safest bet is to top your peanut butter sandwiches with fresh pieces of fruit like banana and strawberries. You'll get a similar taste with none of the artificial sweeteners.

Not willing to ditch your spread? The spread is free of added sugars. Looking to take your peanut butter and fruit sandwiches to the next level? Try using one of our go-to healthy nut butters. It's completely understandable if you're trying to reel in your sweet tooth a bit—just don't use sugar-free sweets as a crutch. Instead of sugar, manufacturers like Russell Stover add in artificial sweeteners like Splenda and sugar alcohols like maltitol, which can have a laxative effect if eaten in excess.

Instead: If you're looking for a treat that will make your taste buds sing—and not send you running straight for the bathroom—skip this bar and check out the best dark chocolates for weight loss instead. Beans, beans, they're good for your heart!

Well, until you add hydrogenated lard to them. High in saturated fat, these refried beans should stay off your grocery list. Replace them with a low-sodium, vegetarian version. And while we're on the subject of canned foods, why don't you also try to steer clear of these Unhealthiest Canned Foods On The Planet.

Chicken nuggets all start with chicken but also contain several synthetic ingredients from diglycerides to Red 40 to carrageenan. These chemicals help make overly-processed foods like chicken nuggets possible because that's what keeps the very few organic materials in the nuggets from going bad or looking weird after days spent traveling on the road or months in the freezer.

But even if you buy them at the grocery store, you might not be safe. Instead: Organic chicken breasts cut into pieces, coated with egg and breadcrumbs, and baked in your oven. Homemade, healthy nuggets. Long story short: it's not real cheese. The sauce is referred to as "liquid gold" and with a super long list of ingredients that includes canola oil—which provides inflammatory omega-6s—and sodium phosphate, it's best to avoid any variation of this stuff.

And can you really trust any cheese product that can sit in your pantry for months and still be edible? Instead: There are plenty of actual cheeses you can turn to for any of your cheesy desires, whether it's to add to a pasta dish or just to munch on as a midday snack. We uncovered the 20 Best and Worst Cheeses in America for you. While there are some very small traces of real cheese in this dip, there are too many scary additives like canola oil, sodium phosphate, and Yellow 5 and 6 to make this game-day staple something you should keep eating.

Instead: Why not just make your own salsa or guacamole even—as we know avocados are great for lowering cholesterol —and add melted cheese to it? A simple and much healthier swap! This processed cheese has a long list of ingredients, including a lot of artificial flavors, colors, fillers, preservatives…and not much actual cheese. Plus, 2 tablespoons of this dip knocks you back mg of sodium! Instead: Reach for a block of percent real cheddar instead.

You can never go wrong with the real stuff. The original Cup Noodles might bring on a case of nostalgia if it's something you used to eat when you were a kid, but it's best to keep this soup in the past. With one single serving dishing up more than 1, mg of sodium, just say no to this processed soup.

Instead: While nothing beats homemade soup , if you're pressed for time, try a canned version like Pacific Organic Reduced Sodium Chicken Noodle Soup that is not only much lower in sodium, but contains simple ingredients you actually want to see in your soup, such as cooked chicken, chicken broth, peas, carrots, and spices.

Reaching for those milk chocolate Milanos might seem like a fancy treat, but don't let the cookies fool you. Not only are there some questionable ingredients listed, but in just three cookies, you're getting over a quarter of your daily recommended intake of added sugars if you're sticking to 2, calories a day.

Instead: Fat Snax cookies are not only low carb, but they also have no sugar. Plus, they're keto-friendly! Each packet comes with two cookies and with the chocolate chip and double chocolate chip flavors, you'll be able to satisfy your sweet tooth with a filling dessert option. Imitation mozzarella cheese listed so high up in the ingredients list says it all!

But there are tons of scary additives and preservatives in here, too, like sodium nitrite, sodium phosphate, BHA, and BHT that are all just no-gos. Instead: You can break out the English Muffins for mini personal pies that make for a filling snack instead. No imitation cheese here! Unhealthy Ingredient: High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated palm oil, soybean oil, sucralose, artificial colors. These frozen breakfast pastries do not contain any nutrients you need to kickstart the day, and they're filled with ingredients you should always stay away from, like high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated palm oil, which is listed as "adds a trivial amount of trans fat.

Instead: If you're going to eat something sweet for breakfast you should always look for something that will fill you up with fiber and protein. This chocolate bar made the list of our unhealthiest foods in both and , thanks to the fact that it blends fatty chocolate with salty pretzels, creating a saturated-fat-and-sugar knockout. With 20 grams of sugar, you better leave this bar in the candy aisle.

Instead: Dark chocolate is always preferred over milk chocolate, especially it's less processed and has antioxidants. You would think something as simple as applesauce would just contain apples, as the fruit itself is already filled with natural sugars one medium apple has 19 grams. But a small cup of Mott's applesauce with cinnamon comes in at 24 grams of sugar and features high fructose corn syrup listed as the second ingredient.

If we came across it, there were cues that told us to consume these foods. The problem with our intense liking for salt, sugar and fat is that they are readily available nutrients, and we eat far too much more of them than is actually required.

With our ability to combine, create and consume foods, our brain is amazed. It's going, 'What? We've got fat, salt and sugar all in one food? That's just superb'. These things are really innate to us and key for our survival. Just when you thought you had that sugar addiction out of control.

This is potentially why foods high in sugar can affect the reward centres in our brains, and why people can feel 'addicted' to junk foods.

At this stage, more technology and research is required to find out exactly why this occurs and what it means, but watch this space. We'll learn a lot more in the next 20 years about how the brain works," Keast said. To add more salt to the wound that is this junk food phenomenon, certain people have a stronger hedonic drive or liking for junk food.

Their hedonic drive to consume these burgers, doughnuts or chocolate to excess is really strong," Keast said. There's also different psychological reasons why people may have stronger desires or wants for those foods, such as emotional or stress eating. That certainly comes into it. On top of this, when we eat lots of fat, sugar and salt on a regular basis, we tend to adapt to these tastes and need more to feel satisfied. Studies have shown that if we consume more fat, our responses to fat actually reduces.

That's the body saying, 'well, I don't need all of the mechanisms to identify those particular nutrients, so I won't produce as many mechanisms'.

We're requiring higher levels of the food to get that same satisfaction that we used to get. By now you're probably asking: is there a way we can teach our brain to reduce our liking for junk food and increase our liking for healthy food? We haven't been able to, to this date, increase the pleasure they experience from the food. Why does salt make food taste better? Because it triggers serotonin. The same goes for fat and sugar that are great and dense sources of energy. With the modernization humans learned to make foods next-level salty, fatty, and sugary — the combination that sends our brains into a pleasure overdrive.

Yet it is simply too much, and inflicts irreparable harm on our body. The cravings for these extra-flavored foods can be so strong, that many scientists now consider it an addiction 4. As with other drugs, your tongue develops tolerance, so it starts craving for more. If you take a break from junk food, you will not only reap health benefits and shed extra pounds , but develop sensibility to intricate tastes of natural foods.

Put away that package of Doritos. Nuts are perfect and super-beneficial snacks for you to chew on in-between meals. Almonds, cashews, walnuts, and many others — each has its own benefits. Nuts provide your body with essential nutrients, proteins , healthy fats, and antioxidants. They may increase life expectancy, aid in cholesterol reduction, reduce the risk of heart disease, and protect against diabetes 1.

Shrimps, mussels, salmon, scallops — the richness of the sea is marvelous, and the taste is fantastic. You can cook quite a number of dishes with seafood, and yield a host of health benefits. Seafood contains nutrients that help maintain your eyesight, rejuvenate skin, boost your brainpower, and lower the risk of depression 2. Berries are one of the healthiest foods on Earth, and they are incredibly delicious.

Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries — you can eat them raw, make smoothies, or even bake cakes although the last option is not so great for weight loss. Berries are full of fiber and antioxidants that help improve blood sugar and insulin response, fight inflammation, and lower cholesterol levels 3.

To sum up, it is a myth that you need to unlearn in order to become healthier and leaner. Junk food not only harms your health, but blocks your perception of taste, and keeps you on the hook because of all the artificial flavors, salt and other additives. The variety of delicious healthy foods is unlimited, and you definitely should start exploring it right now. Do you know that your body needs some exercise in addition to a proper diet?

Check out this min Full Body Workout at Home. This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances.

It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility! Alex is a professional writer who takes pride in helping people achieve their health goals and motivates others to start taking care of their bodies through exercise and proper nutrition.