10 Processed Foods Nutritionists Actually Eat at Home

They're in your kitchen right now. Foods you eat every day, perhaps even foods you think are healthy. But these everyday staples might be undermining your health without you realizing it. Dr. Anthony Balduzzi, founder of The Fit Father Project and The Fit Mother Project, has helped over 30,000 families transform their health through proper nutrition. After losing his father at a young age, he dedicated his life to studying health and nutrition, earning degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in naturopathic medicine. "These foods are like landmines when you're out in the world," Dr. Balduzzi warns. Here are the top 10 foods he says you need to watch out for – and what to eat instead.

Store-Bought Chips: Your Daily Diet Destroyer

"Chips are literally the living definition of empty calories," Dr. Balduzzi highlights in his post. Just three ounces of chips weekly adds over 24,000 calories to your diet annually – equivalent to about seven pounds of fat. The combination of low-quality potatoes, inflammatory oils, and excessive salt makes them particularly harmful. Instead, try brands made with almond or cassava flour and avocado oil, or make your own apple or zucchini chips at home.

Non-Organic Bread: The Pesticide Problem

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"If you're eating non-organic bread, your bread is sprayed with glyphosate, which is also known as Roundup," Dr. Balduzzi reveals. This pesticide can damage your gut microbiome and potentially cause various health issues. The solution? Switch to organic sprouted bread like Ezekiel Bread or organic sourdough, which offer better nutrition and are often easier to digest.

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Commercial Baked Goods: The Thyroid Disruptor

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Those tempting pastries and donuts aren't just sugar bombs. "These bromides actually get into your thyroid gland," Dr. Balduzzi explains, "and block the absorption of iodine, leading to a sluggish metabolism." Many commercial baked goods contain these thyroid-disrupting compounds. Instead, opt for healthier breakfast options like avocado toast on organic bread or egg-based recipes.

Cream-Based Pasta Dishes: The Hidden Calorie Trap

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"Even a cup of chicken Alfredo has about 500 calories," warns Dr. Balduzzi, "and let's be honest, this stuff's so good, you want to eat six cups." His solution? Choose organic wheat or legume-based pasta with low-sugar marinara sauce instead. The lycopene in tomato-based sauces offers additional health benefits for vision and overall health.

Fried Fish and Chicken: The Heart Risk Factor

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The evidence is clear: eating fried fish just once weekly increases heart failure risk by 48%. "Fried foods are toxic for your cardiovascular system," Dr. Balduzzi states. The high-temperature frying creates inflammatory compounds that damage your arteries. Instead, opt for baked, grilled, or air-fried preparations.

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Processed Meats: The Cancer Connection

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"If there is one resounding thing that nutritionists agree on, it's that processed meats are bad for you," Dr. Balduzzi emphasizes. Hot dogs, sausages, and deli meats contain nitrites and nitrates that can increase cancer risk, particularly colon cancer. Choose whole cuts of meat instead, like chicken breast or grass-fed beef.

French Fries: The Aging Accelerator

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"When we take carbohydrates like potatoes and cook them on high heat with vegetable oils, it creates compounds called acrylamides," Dr. Balduzzi explains. These compounds accelerate aging and increase cancer risk. His alternative? Bake sweet potato wedges with olive oil and seasonings for a healthier version of this popular side dish.

Excessive Dairy: The Addiction You Didn't Know About

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"Dairy has a compound called beta casomorphine, which is a natural opioid," Dr. Balduzzi reveals. This explains why we often feel good after consuming dairy – and why it can be addictive. He recommends limiting dairy to occasional use and choosing fermented options like kefir or Greek yogurt when you do indulge.

Processed Plant-Based Foods: The False Health Hero

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Not all plant-based foods deliver on their healthy promise. "What's not awesome is a lot of these fake foods that are trying to be vegan," Dr. Balduzzi cautions. Many contain pesticide-sprayed soy protein and artificial additives. Instead, choose whole food plant-based options like black bean burgers or vegetarian chili.

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Sugary "Health" Drinks: The Wellness Impostor

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"These things are glorified sugar shots," Dr. Balduzzi warns about supposedly healthy fruit drinks, noting that many contain 30-40 grams of sugar per serving. Despite their promises of vitamins and antioxidants, these drinks can seriously impact your health. Stick to whole fruits for natural sweetness and nutrients, or make fresh vegetable-based juices at home. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.

You might think you are eating healthy, but you are actually consuming foods that are bad for you. Autumn Bates (@autumbates) is a Clinical Nutritionist who has a Master's in Nutrition Human Performance and is a social media influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers. Her videos, which focus on healthy eating, weight loss, and intermittent fasting, regularly go viral, including a recent video highlighting healthy foods that aren’t actually healthy. “I'm gonna be sharing 10 different health foods that are actually pretty sketchy and are something that you might want to look into avoiding. Some of them are pretty surprising,” she says, adding that “chances are you're probably having some of these already.”

Margarine

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You may have grown up thinking that margarine is healthier than butter, but according to Bates, this isn’t correct. “Margarine is basically some type of vegetable oil” that is solid at room temperature. “This is not something natural. Vegetable oil should not be solid at room temperature, which means that they're physically reconfiguring the chemical. So at the molecular level, they're literally changing these molecules into something that isn't naturally found in nature,” she points out.

Low Fat Yogurt

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The second item on her list? Low fat yogurt. “Yogurt isn't naturally low fat. In order to make it low fat, they have to remove the fat in the first place. So considering there's only three different macronutrients, meaning protein, carbs, and fat, then when they remove a pretty major component of the yogurt, which is fat, then they have to replace it with something else,” she reveals. “And in most cases, for these low fat yogurt, they're adding back in carbohydrates in the form of sugar. Now, fat is satiating. It helps to make it so that you're actually feeling full after your meals. Carbohydrates don't have those same satiating effects, especially when they're in the form of a simple sugar. So not only will you not be satiated, but you'll want to eat more often throughout the day and it'll likely cause you to crave even more sugar. Plus sugar has that anabolic fat storing response. So swapping regular yogurt for low fat yogurt is actually working against your goals.”

Processed Vegan Meats

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Number three? Processed vegan meats, including Beyond Meat. “Now, one of the reasons why people see benefits when they go more plant-based is because they're incorporating more plant foods. Plant foods contain a variety of different micronutrients, all of which will actually benefit health. But when you're utilizing something like fake meats instead of a more plant-based whole source of protein, like with beans, lentils, peas, you're getting a much more processed food, and that means you're missing out on a lot of the benefits that come along with incorporating more plants into your diet,” she says. There are also lots of other additives you should not be eating. “So when it comes to incorporating more of a plant-based diet, it's always just best to get it from the whole source because you're going to miss out on getting any potential negative side effects of the additives that go along with these fake meats, and you're going to get all the benefits of the whole plant itself.”

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Low Calorie Ice Cream

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Number four, low calorie ice creams. “So this is one such as Halo Top, but there's a lot of other different ice creams that I've seen that are in the market now, and these seem pretty enticing. Because I mean, who wouldn't be excited when you saw the whole pint of ice cream's only 280 calories? It seems guilt free, and that's really what they're marketed as. But these low calorie types of ice creams really rely on sugar alcohols for the sweetness factor, and these sugar alcohols can cause GI distress in a lot of people,” she says.

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Prepackaged Juice

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Number five, prepackaged juices. “So there can be benefits from juicing your vegetables, especially because our farming is so nutrient poor, so it's hard to get a lot of the minerals that our body needs from just the food itself,” she says. She adds that a lot of the juices aren’t organic, “which means that you're going to be increasing your pesticide intake and you're essentially just drinking like a pesticide juice at that point,” she says. “If you are going to juice, then you're best off either going to a local organic juice shop where they're actually making the juice right in front of you and you can see it and you see what's going into it or making it yourself and getting the veggies from a local farmer's market.”

Prepackaged Butter Coffees

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Number six, prepackaged butter coffees. While she loves keto coffee and the benefits it offers, most of the prepackaged options “undermines the purpose of keto coffee in the first place,” she says. “So this happens a lot with food production companies when they see that there's a trend going on in what people want, they automatically go to mass produce it, but they want to create the product even more flavorful, which tends to be for them adding more sugar so that the consumer will be more likely to buy it and then continue buying it.”

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Gluten-Free Cereal

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Number seven on the list is gluten-free cereal. “In the last 10 years or so, gluten has gotten a really bad reputation and so people are trying to avoid it in general, and this mass avoidance of some types of food can lead to using way too much of another type instead,” she points out. “Plus, it makes it seem like just because something is gluten-free means that it's good for you. And that's definitely not the case. Sugar is technically gluten-free, but it doesn't mean that you should be pouring sugar all over your food. And with that in mind, a lot of these gluten-free products typically contain a lot of additives that will help to make the product have the same texture as the gluten containing product. So it's much more processed than if you were to just use the original version. Plus it's still cereal, so it likely contains a high amount of sugar anyway, and that'll just cause us crazy spikes and falls in blood glucose levels that will work against your wellness goals in the first place.”

Gluten-Free Crackers

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Next up, gluten-free crackers or chips, the “same exact concept,” as gluten-free cereal. “Just because they're gluten-free, it does not mean that it's healthy for you. And like I mentioned, these gluten-free products are typically more processed, contain more sugar and have more additives in general. And that's again, to make it actually taste like the original product that contains gluten in the first place.”

Nut Milk or Dairy Free Yogurt

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Number nine, nut milk or dairy free yogurts, which is “along the same type of mindset as the gluten-free issue,” she says. “You know, a lot of people are trying to avoid dairy because some people have some issues with dairy or because again, dairy has gotten a bad reputation, but specifically with yogurts, one of the reasons why it's actually able to form the yogurt is because bacteria is feeding off of the natural sugars that are within milk. Now, almond milks or other types of milk don't necessarily have the same natural sugar that bacteria is able to ferment, which means that they have to add it in. So you're getting a lot of added sugars with this. You're also probably getting a lot of different gums and additives as well in order to make that same consistency that other yogurts have. So again, it's a much more processed product.” She recommends “real yogurt” instead, “or if you're going the dairy free route, look for ones that don't contain any additives or any added sugars, they are going to be a lot more expensive, but it's actually going to work for your wellness goals not against you.”

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Protein Bars

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Number 10, protein bars. “I've talked extensively on protein bars and why these are actually working against your goals, including causing you to feel bloated and lead to weight gain,” she says.