7 Foods that will Ruin your Diet

Javier Colomer 8 min. of reading Well-being habits Leave a comment

Pay attention, because we are going to talk about 7 foods that will surely ruin your diet

Today, we are going to be dealing with a key aspect when it comes to changing what we eat. Something that, regardless of our efforts, can make everything go to waste.

This is a selection with 7 foods that will ruin any diet, even if we are doing things right most of the time.

You have probably already heard the following complaint many times:

“…I do not know why I gain weight if I barely eat anything…”

Quite frequently, the foods we are going to talk about here are those that will ruin your diet.

Index

1 Features or products that are not good for the diet
2 Alcohol
3 Juices
4 Cheese
5 False chocolate
6 Fried food
7 Sauces and seasonings
8 Sugar-free
9 Bibliography
10 Related Entries

Features or products that are not good for the diet

Are there general rules that we can use to identify those foods?

Yes, there are.

These foods share a series of features that are precisely the reason why we tend to eat them so much. However, we do not tend to perceive an excessive consumption, which ends up hindering our weight loss.

These features are:

Having a very low nutrient density

This means that these foods are nutritionally poor.

Their micronutrient content is low (minerals, vitamins, trace elements and bioactive compounds like antioxidants). The problem of eating nutritionally poor products is that they displace others with a higher nutrient density.

In the long term, a diet that does not have enough vitamins and minerals can slow down the weight loss processes.

What are empty calories? More info here.

For example, copper is essential in order to keep our metabolism healthy; magnesium supports the production of energy and many other tasks; and zinc is involved in the biosynthesis of testosterone.

The situation is as follows: a high percentage of the population has a subclinical deficiency of many of these micronutrients.

What does this mean? It means that it does not cause a disease, but it silently conditions our health and makes it difficult to lose weight.

A high calorie density

To the previous features, we have to add that these are products that provide a lot of energy every 100 grams.

Moreover, there is another underlying threat: our biology pushes us to look for these hypercaloric foods.

In our biological code, energy means a higher chance to survive.

Without any doubt, this made sense many years ago, but it is making things harder for us today.

Highly palatable

In other words, they are hyperpalatable foods.

This means that they are really pleasant to our palate, so eating them is extremely pleasurable. In fact, our own brain reward system will strongly lead us to those inputs that provide a more hedonistic reward while making the lowest effort.

In this category, we could also include sex, food or money, depending on the person and their genetic susceptibility.

Actually, this is the biological basis of addiction.

In this case, we are talking about extremely pleasurable foods that alter our reward mechanism. Consequently, we will not stop thinking about this type of products and look for a rational excuse to eat them.

Have you ever had a cake or sweet in the fridge and you could not help but eat it, even though you did not want to? Because I have.

Barely satiating

Another almost invariable feature of these foods is that they are barely satiating due to their organoleptic features and fiber content.

In fact, they are usually hyperglycemic foods, low in fiber and protein, which are precisely the main satiating elements of the diet.

A low satiety index results in more hunger throughout the day. Consequently, we will transgress the diet more times and our chances to succeed will significantly drop.

So, what is the big issue. What are those foods that will surely ruin our diet?

Alcohol

Alcohol definitely deserves a place in this category.

This is due to several reasons. Even if its calorie content were low, we need to discourage the use of alcohol because it is one of the main carcinogen substances of our society, along with tobacco. In fact, it can cause mouth, bladder, larynx, liver cancer and many others.

If we leave that aside, we need to take into account that alcohol is one of our main entertainments.

If you go out with some friends, you may drink 2 or 3 glasses of alcohol and some beers (which is quite common). However, this can completely ruin the weight loss progress of a whole week.

Think about it: the effort of a whole week can go to waste in just a few hours.

It is true that some drinks like red wine or tequila have less calories than others (such as Whiskey or cocktails). But if you really want to lose weight, the best decision you can make is: no alcohol.

Juices

Many people still believe that juices are healthy products.

Natural or not, juices mainly provide two things: the sugar from fruit and water.

Eating a whole fruit is actually quite different. For instance, it also provides more micronutrients, bioactive compounds, fiber that increases the satiety…

Cheese

Cheese is not unhealthy in itself.

However, it can be problematic for many people. You probably know someone who just loves cheese…

…who would eat cheese all the time…

Or if that is your case, be careful. Cheese, specially if we combine it with farinaceous products (toasts, bread, pizza, burritos) is extremely palatable. In fact, you may eat 1500 calories without even noticing.

In general, if you are going to eat cheese, eat it alone or add it to your salads.

False chocolate

Another problematic product is “false chocolate”.

What I mean are those chocolates with less than 80% cocoa. To top it all, sometimes they even have nuts, raisins or dates or other hypercaloric ingredients.

This makes it difficult to eat “just an ounce after lunch” and we end up eating more than what we should.

In general, do not buy chocolate with less than 85% cocoa.

Yes, it tastes bitter, but real chocolate is bitter. In fact, what you were eating before was milk, sugar and a little bit of cocoa.

Fried food

Frying is the fastest way of transforming healthy foods in unhealthy.

Not only because it easily bends to calorie content, but because frying vegetable oils produces unhealthy oxidants.

For example, one of them is Acrylamide, keep reading....

Yes, olive oil is the best oil for frying, but the best thing is not frying at all.

Sauces and seasonings

Ketchup, mayonnaise, Caesar sauce or aioli…

This is another simple way of transforming something as healthy as a salad into something that is not that healthy anymore.

Change those seasonings for a typical salad dressing (oil, vinegar and salt). Moreover, you can use spicy seasonings or lemon and you will be eliminating hundreds of calories weekly.

Sugar-free

The growing popularity of sugar-free products has also brought other threats to our kitchens.

The sugar-free label is read by most of us as “healthier”, specially if we suffer diabetes or obesity.

But that is not always the case and instead, companies replace sugar with other ingredients that can or cannot be healthy.

In addition, the fact that they are regarded as healthier has an interesting effect: people eat more of these products.

Obviously, not all products are the same.

Sugar-free refreshments are always better than the originals, but sugar-free sweets are still sweets and we should eat them during special occasions.

I hope that this article was helpful and that you will be able to use some of the tips. See you in the next one!