Everyone from dietitians to health food fanatics to school children can tell you that sugary sodas, diet or regular, are not a wise point from a nutrition standpoint. The war on the carbonated concoctions has successfully iterated its message across America. To prove their point, health experts point to the chemicals you find on the back of the bottle. But the soda industry isn’t the only one to blame for ladening products full of sugar and chemicals, a lot of processed (and some unprocessed foods) pose health concerns on par with the fizzing beverages.
One surefire way to get rid of chemicals is to give up processed foods entirely. “Unprocessed October” was started four years ago when food blogger Andrew Wilder decided to go an entire month without eating processed foods. It was an experiment Wilder embarked on to remove unnecessary sugars, fats, and preservatives from his diet. Check out the following seven chemically charged offenders to see what unwanted additives might be lurking in your diet.
1. Processed Meats: Chicken Nuggets
The outrage of non-chicken chicken McNuggets is as ubiquitous as the dangers of soda, but if you think avoiding McDonald’s has you off the hook, think again. A study conducted by the National Journal of Medicine concluded that randomly sampled chicken from two national chains was mostly composed of chicken fat, along with “epithelium, bone, nerve, and connective tissue.” Even worse, that chicken can now be processed in China, without FDA regulation of the processing plant. In August, Congress ended the Bush-era ban keeping processed chickens from flying the Chinese coop to the U.S. market. Even if you manage to avoid that, Dana Angelo White, a registered dietitian (or RD) says even the whole breast meat options contain oils and preservatives.
2. Microwave Popcorn
A long-time staple, the problem here doesn’t originate with the popcorn, but with the bag. Chemicals embedded in the lining like perfluorooctanoic acid, (PFOA) which is linked to infertility, latch on to the popcorn, and then you. Environmental Working Group senior scientist Olga Naidenko explained that this chemical and other compounds ”stay in your body for years and accumulate there.”
The chemicals have been known to cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer in lab animals, and researchers fears high levels of consumption by humans may yield the same result.
3. Stick Margarine
Stick margarine differs from tub margarine because it normally has more trans fat. This, Mayo Clinic nutritionist Jennifer K. Nelson says, is a problem because it increases the risk of heart disease, raises blood cholesterol levels, and manages to lower good cholesterol too. Registered dietitian Kari Hartel adds to the list of health problems associated with margarine a greater risk of stroke and Type 2 diabetes.
4. Canned Tomatoes
Again, the issue experts raise with this isn’t the content — but the container. University of Missouri-Columbia Professor Dr. Frederick vom Saal told MSN that the cans themselves contain bisphenol-A, or BPA. BPA has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. ”You can get 50 micrograms of BPA per liter out of a tomato can,” Saal said, “and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,”
5. Salad Dressing
Both fat-free and regular salad dressings can irk those in the food industry. Dana White avoids them because of the unnecessarily added sugars and preservatives, especially since dressings can be made at home rather than purchased. Dressings, especially the low-fat kind, will often also contain high-fructose corn syrup, the same ingredient decried in sodas.
In 2010, researchers at Princeton found that consuming high fructose corn syrup may cause weigh gain at a higher rate than table sugar and increases the amount of fat bodies will store.
6. Energy/Protein/Granola Bars
RD Sari Greaves says most products in this market ”are nothing more than glorified candy bars.” They “can be packed with enriched white flour, high fructose corn syrup, and other sweeteners.” Plus, since people often eat them in addition to a meal, instead of a replacement, these bars can pack several hundred additional calories onto a persons diet per day in addition to a host of unusual chemicals.
7. Non-organic apples
Apples are not processed in the same way the foods above are, but still containing plenty of chemicals to make you think twice about this fruit, or perhaps want to take a power washer to it. Apples consistently top the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list, meaning they tested highest for rates of residual pesticides. Pesticides like Paraquat, used under the brand names: Gramoxone by Syngenta. It is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, even though Paraquat poisoning poses serious health risks — whether ingested or inhaled — including liver, kidney, and heart failure, according to the CDC.
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