Nutrition & Diet

19 Most Unhealthy Junk Foods You Should Never Eat

You might be surprised by what is on the list.

June 21, 2024

Woman eating a takeaway fried chicken wing from fast food cafe with a mouth and teeth close up — Shutterstock

Are you eating the worst type of junk food but don't even know it? Thomas DeLauer (@ThomasDeLauerOfficial) is a YouTuber with over 3.68 million subscribers who share content about how to improve your life. In a recent viral video, he reveals 19 of the most unhealthy junk foods you should never eat — and some of them might surprise you. "The 19 worst junk foods you could ever eat, and we're not talking about random stuff we've pulled off of Google," he says in the clip.

Doritos

The first item on his list is Doritos, "one of the worst things," DeLauer says. "You've got a high amount of fat. You've got tremendous texture. There are food scientists who make millions of dollars doing what they do because they're so good at it, getting the texture, just the powder when it hits your mouth, just the texture of the powder on your hands and how you lick your fingers afterward, that has an impact on your brain that keeps you coming back for more. Not to mention refined starch, not to mention the MSG."

Fried Sweet Food

Traditional spanish treat street fast food churros on a plate with hot chocolate sauce — Shutterstock

The next item on his list is "any kind of fried sweet food," DeLauer says. "So a funnel cake, a churro, a Twinkie is a perfect example. Why? You have the texture from the fat, the sugar, and those combinations. Those are the bad ones," he says.

Ramen

Raw instant noodles on the table. — Shutterstock

"This next one is kind of a surprise. It's ramen," DeLauer reveals. "Ramen is a very high glycemic, ultra-refined noodle. There's usually a bunch of soybean oil and possibly even trans fat oils added into the mix. But then, if you look at most ramen, there's what is called TBHQ. Now, more research needs to be done, but TBHQ could be associated with neuronal cell death and actual DNA damage. So, it's very, very dangerous stuff to be playing with. I'm not saying if you eat ramen, your brain cells are gonna fall apart. Like that's not the case, but that is what I would consider terrible junk food, okay? Something that's gonna keep you coming back for more and more and more."

Fruit Loops

Fruity cereal in a bowl with milk and pink spoon in a wooden background — Shutterstock

"This next one is kind of funny, it's Fruit Loops," DeLauer said. "Now, Fruit Loops don't really combine sugar and fat, but Fruit Loops are so high glycemic and the problem that we have with them is the time of day we typically eat them. You roll out of bed, and you have fruit loops, and you're not having any protein along with it, right? So you have this big glycemic spike." One way to mitigate this is to put protein powder in your milk, he says.

Milkshakes

Frozen Blended Vanilla Milkshake with Ice Cream and Sprinkles — Shutterstock

Number five? Milkshakes. Not only does a milkshake have sugar and fat, but the "delivery system, the fact that it's liquified, this has a huge effect," he says, noting that it impacts gut hormones "that register how quickly something's coming in," DeLauer says, adding that they send feedback to the brain to tell you to get full. "When something comes in, in a liquid form like this that's very high calorie, you have a minimal glucagon-like peptide GLP one response. So very limited feedback to the brain to tell you to stop. So you could pound a 600, 700 calorie milkshake and not even have a blip on your radar of feeling full."

White Chocolate

Next up is white chocolate. "I say this because, although there are worse things out there than white chocolate, it's pure cocoa butter, cocoa mass fat, and sugar," DeLauer says. "Dark chocolate has polyphenols in it that actually counteracts some of the sugar. Although it's not perfect, I don't think you should be eating 65% dark chocolate with a bunch of sugar. That's, let's be real. You should be eating like 88 or 90%. The fact is, when you compare white chocolate to dark chocolate, there's no comparison."

French Fries

French fries are up next. DeLauer points out that next to chips, French fries are a better option, as they will leave you more satiated. However, "there's soybean oil, trans fats, high glycemic carbohydrates because of the way the potatoes are cooked," he says. "And next thing you know, you're just eating a ton of 'em. A lot of times there's also acrylamide in them too, which isn't exactly the healthiest thing for our neurons and for our cells in general for metabolic function."

Ice Cream

Next up is ice cream. "I don't think I need to say a whole lot more," DeLauer says. "What about things like Halo Top or Enlighten, these different lower sugar ice creams? They're better, for sure, but you can still expect to light up your brain. Sweet things will still excite your brain. You'll still probably want to eat more, although I will say yes, getting rid of the sugar is probably a good start."

Salty Fried Foods

Breaded Fried Chicken Wings, Fingers and Drumsticks on Wooden Rustic Background Top View. Hot Crispy Chicken Nuggets, Fillet Strips, Meat Pieces in Breadcrumbs — Shutterstock

His next item "is a little bit vague, but salty fried foods, most fried foods are salty. So things like onion rings, things like fried chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks," DeLauer says. "The reason is when there's salt added to the equation, there's a study published in nature that demonstrated that salt might impact our brain from a different angle. So they found that it could alter brain signaling, which means that if we have fat, we have sugar, and we have high salt, not just a little bit of salt, but high salt. We have multiple signals going into the brain. Remember, our brains are wired for survival. Salt is critical for survival. You put an animal out in the middle of a field, and you put a salt lick out there. It's gonna find the salt to stay alive. It's critical. So, our brain is wired to find salt. So think about the satisfaction response we get from salt, from sugar, and from fat all in one sitting."

Flavored Yogurt

Number 10 is flavored yogurt. "Don't need to go into a lot of detail on this Super thin. So it just digests really fast. It's pure sugar. Come on, it's not good stuff. At least go for straight-up Greek yogurt. I'm a big yogurt guy. But go for Greek yogurt and put some stevia in it, or get one of those OCO zero-sugar options or something like that," DeLauer says.

Donuts

Number 11 is donuts, for obvious reasons. "Again, you're taking high amounts of refined carbs, and you're frying them in credit oil, and then you're putting additional fats, and you're making them as succulent as possible. So you're satisfying this entirely different region of your brain."

Barbeque Sauce

Bowl with tasty barbecue sauce and roasted pork on dark wooden background — Shutterstock

Barbecue sauce is also on his list. DeLauer points out that while there are healthy options, most of them are made with "a bunch of high fructose corn syrup. A study published on nutrients took a look at the effect of high fructose corn syrup on the brain. It was actually a review. So, it looked at multiple studies. They found that even in the short term, there was neuroinflammation and an increase in oxidative stress. There were changes in the brain plasticity, and they were able to associate largely high fructose corn syrup with brain mitochondrial dysfunction."

Margarine

Number 13 is margarine, "and this is on the list because honestly it's pure trans fat. So independent of being hyper palatable, it's just terrible for you," DeLauer says.

Frozen Pizza

Number 14 is frozen pizza. "The reason I say this is because if you go to a restaurant and you get a good quality pizza, you're gonna have refined starches, you're gonna have fats, but you're also gonna have some protein on it," DeLauer says. "You can also get sourdough crust. Some places you can get gluten-free crust some places, but frozen pizzas you really run into just bottom of the barrel, refined garbage, high fat, lower protein, a bunch of preservatives. It's just easy to cram your calories. Again, they put things in there to make it taste even better versus a made from scratch."

Mayonnaise

"Number 15 is an interesting one. It's mayonnaise, and I put mayonnaise on it because it's not just about the mayonnaise," DeLauer explains. "Mayonnaise could be a superfood, but it could definitely be a superfood if it's made with avocado oil or mac oil or whatever. But usually, it's cruddy soybean oil, but that's not the issue. It's what we put mayonnaise on, right? We start putting mayonnaise on hot dogs and put mayonnaise on burgers. You see the drill here, right? We got a high fat, super smooth, creamy texture that makes our brain feel good, and we smother it on bread."

Nachos

Number 16? "Nachos are so calorically dense, plus you get the cheesy consistency," DeLauer says, citing "some evidence out there that cheese can actually affect our opioid receptors as well. What this means is, at a small level, if you start eating lots of cheese like you could easily put away with nachos, it does make you feel kind of euphoric and you have that to add insult to injury. So you have the fat that kind of makes you feel good, you have the carbs, you have the refined starch, you have caloric density, and then you have kind of this potential opioid effect. It's just best to avoid 'em or just go kind of easy on it and definitely don't get the Velveeta. Weird mystery stuff."

Hot Dogs

Barbecue Grilled Hot Dog with Yellow Mustard and ketchup on wooden table — Shutterstock

"Number 17, hot dogs. Now straight-up beef frank is gonna be great," he says, noting that most hot dogs are only 50% meat, "and then it's gonna be on a refined bun. Again, you have very high fat because those hot dogs are high fat along with mayonnaise, along with whatever, probably high fruit, just corn syrup, ketchup," DeLauer says.

M&Ms and Skittles

Number 18, M&Ms and Skittles, because "you got the sugar, the fat, but you also have artificial colors in there," he says. He notes that there is some research linking the yellow number five or red dye number 40 to ADD and ADHD. "We're starting to see more evidence coming out of this, and we're starting to see a lot of brands like moving away from these like yellow number six, yellow number five, red 40, all these stuff because they're not exactly good and they're kind of mystery compounds because they seem to light up the brain in other ways. So, are they more addictive? Not necessarily. It's just doing something in the brain that's probably not the best," DeLauer says.

Fake Dark Chocolate

Pieces of dark chocolate with mint on wooden table — Shutterstock

And lastly, "fake dark chocolate," DeLauer says. "Why do I say that? Because there are a lot of dark chocolates out there that aren't actually dark chocolate, or they're sugar-free chocolates that still have a bunch of maltitol and still have other binding agents. And when you eat them, you still have a major blood sugar spike. Even though they're sugar-free, they still have a lot of carbs, they're gonna wreck your gut, and they're not a food that's going to satiate you. If you're going to have dark chocolate, go for something that, yes, is low sugar or maybe a sugar-free option, but get one that is like 90% dark chocolate so you actually get the benefit as well." And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.