Ingredients to Avoid

Here are a few ingredients you should avoid when at all possible. They can quickly sabotage your weight loss efforts and lead to serious health issues.

Partially hydrogenated oil of any kind--which is basically shortening. These oils love to stick to the walls of your arteries and cause heart attacks. Food manufacturers add partially hydrogenated oils because they are cheaper than butter or other healthier alternatives. Do your best to avoid foods containing this cheap fat. Some foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils are margarine and the majority of crackers and tortilla shells. So you know, La Flavorita makes partially hydrogenated oil free tortilla shells that are excellent. Back to Nature makes terrific p.h.o. free saltine crackers.

High fructose corn syrup--A super cheap sweetener that causes serious spikes in blood sugar levels. This is bad for weight loss and bad for your health in general. This darned sweetener is EVERYWHERE from bread to cereal and pasta sauce and chips and you get the point. That said, there are a lot of good, nutritious foods that don't use high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It might take a little detective work, but corn syrup free foods are out there. Try "energy bars" sweetened with honey or agave nectar rather than high fructose corn syrup.

Palm or palm kernel and coconut oil--These high in saturated fat oils are becoming a replacement for partially hydrogenated oils in some "health" conscious food. But there is nothing healthy about them. Best to avoid or seriously limit their intake. Foods containing canola oil are a better choice, although you still have to watch the total fat content.

Sugar substitutes such as malitol, manitol, sorbitol (notice the tol endings), aspertame, asulphate potassium, etc.-- Numerous studies have shown that "diet" foods containing sugar substitutes short circuit the brain so that it takes much longer for you to register when you're full. This means you consume more calories than you would have consumed without using a sugar substitute. Now doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of sugar substitutes? Also, the sugar alcohols (manitol, malitol, sorbitol) can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea. Not exactly pleasant.

So next time you go grocery shopping, beware of these ingredients.