The 20 Worst Supermarket Foods

[Family Ties Forever!]

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What Are Worst Supermarket Foods?

Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Updated: 9:54 pm CDT September 15, 2009

Houston -- Eating healthy or trying to lose weight usually means skipping fast food and heading to the grocery store instead. But are we really making healthy choices?

Find It: Top 20 Worst Supermarket Foods

We've got the scoop on the not-so-skinny list from Men's Health Magazine's Eat This, Not That project. Researchers have come up with a list of what they call the Top 20 Worst Supermarket Foods.

"Just because you bought it at the store and came home and cooked it, doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a healthier option for you," said Dr. Roberta Anding, a registered dietitian at Texas Children's Hospital.

Let's start with breakfast. Do you think the Quaker 100 percent natural granola, oats, honey and raisins cereal would be a healthy start? Would you eat eight chicken wings for breakfast? With 420 calories and 12 grams of fat, a bowl of this cereal has the same amount of calories as those chicken wings. The researchers say you could even have two bowls of Cocoa Pebbles and still have 60 less calories.

Anding says don't let the word natural fool you.

"We have people who believe if it's a natural cereal, somehow we can eat more of it," said Anding. "They think they get their 'get out of jail free' card. So, we've got overconsumption, calories, fat and also sugar. All get on my radar screen."

What about lunch? If you're sending your kids to school with some of those pre-packaged lunches, the researchers say you might as well just let them eat fast food. The Kraft Maxxed Out Lunchable with turkey, cheese and crackers had 680 calories and 22 grams of fat. That's the same number of calories as 15 chicken McNuggets.

"If it's turkey, we automatically believe it's better than roast beef or ham," said Anding. "That's not necessarily true."

Kraft told us it discontinued the Maxxed Out Lunchables this summer and replaced it with a new lunchable full of leaner meat and low-fat cheese.

Anding says always read what you're eating and you'll see the difference it makes.

"Take a look at that back," Anding said. "Take a look at those nutrition facts -- the calories, the fat, the sodium and the serving size are they key things on the back of the package."

What about dinner? Here's a quick one -- Bertolli's grilled chicken alfredo and fettuccine skillet meal for two. If you like that as a family meal, you might as well be frying up lots of bacon for dinner instead. That skillet meal has 710 calories and 42 grams of fat, including 22 grams of saturated fat. That's the same amount of saturated fat as 22 strips of bacon.

And if you like eating bacon, the researchers say you'll love what they call the worst packaged food in the grocery store. It's Marie Callender's creamy Parmesan chicken pot pie. It's loaded with 1,060 calories, 64 grams of fat, 24 grams of saturated fat and 1,440 mg of sodium. That's the same amount of fat as 23 strips of bacon, the same amount of calories as seven Taco Bell fresco beef tacos, and the same amount of salt as eight small bags of potato chips.

"Again, you flip over that label and you're seeing that wallop of sodium, that wallop of fat," Anding said. "You've got to think to yourself, would there be a better option."

Copyright 2009 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved.

[Schmoopie]

Wow good information, but very depressing. I've seen those Eat This Not That books. Those are great!

[Family Ties Forever!]

I was surprised to see the amount of calories and number of alternative pieces of food each item equaled.

[PZelda]

That's hardly a new study.

HEY PEOPLE, BUY FRESH PRODUCE, MEAT FROM THE DELI AND UNCOOKED PASTA.

STAY AWAY FROM BAGGED AND PREPACKAGED FOODS, AS WELL AS DINNER IN A BAG OR A BOX.

I mean, duh.

And really, now. Lunchables. That's the ****ing epitome of LAZINESS. Not to mention that this garbage is VILE. I don't know how kids *LIKE* that GARBAGE.