Avoid These 10 Unhealthy Foods To Look Your Best

High blood sugar, fatigue, bad skin, flatulence (yikes!), bloating… these are just a few of the awful symptoms that can mess up your day and self-esteem. Looking and feeling your best have positive effects on your mental health, so you see that everything is connected. If you look good, you feel good; thus if you go into the audition room feelin’ and lookin’ amazing, it increases your chances of nailing your audition. And it all comes down to food. You see, no matter how hard you work out, if you eat crap, going to the gym is almost pointless. The formula for being healthy is simple: 80 percent of it it all depends on food and just 20% is exercise.

There is a lot of confusion out there about which foods are healthy, and which are not. Should you start your day by drinking OJ or any other fruit juice? Short answer — no, no you shouldn’t. Same goes for coffee creamer. It may look innocent, but it’s actually making you fat and sick. Continue reading to find out why.

Such artists like actors and models (and anyone for that matter) should not neglect their health as well as their looks; you know the public eye is unforgiving. And if you find this reason shallow — stuffing your face with donuts and deep-fried anything severely affects your overall well-being and lifespan. We consulted a couple of healthcare professionals regarding the foods to exclude from your menu, and all of them said the same things — white flour, soda pops, low-fat yogurt just no name a few. We’re no monsters, though. The basic human psychology is to crave the forbidden fruit, so go ahead, have that bag of chips once in a while and chug that Pinot with your girls (here’s a disclaimer about alcohol’s impact on your health). Long story short — here is a list of ten foods you should ignore to look and feel your best!

Canned Soup

Typically dubbed a healthy, soothing meal, soup indeed is one of the least suspicious diet saboteurs of them all; however, that’s not the case with canned brands. What makes it so addicting? Besides being appealing because of its low cost, many of our favorite brands add excess amounts of salt — some brands like Nissin Cup Noodles, Chicken Flavor contain over 1'400 milligrams or more than half your recommended daily intake — which can cause us to overeat. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition discovered that salt confuses the biological processes that tell you when you’re full. When salt is added to food, it blunts the biological processes that automatically tell us when to stop eating. Besides disrupting satiety cues, when you constantly flood your system with sodium, you can overwork your kidneys. As a result, the sodium sits in your bloodstream where it attracts water, causing water retention and bloat, making you look five pounds heavier!

Coffee Creamer

What’s the problem with coffee creamer? There’s no cream! Many brands are packed with trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil. We suggest adding the good old cow’s milk for non-vegans or the delicious almond milk for the vegan option.

Deep-fried Foods

Fried foods served in fast-food restaurants are often cooked in hydrogenated oils, which are high in trans fats. Many restaurants use these oils because they give food a satisfying taste and crunch. But they’re not good for you. Trans fats raise bad cholesterol levels, lower good cholesterol levels, and increase your chance of having heart disease.

Hydrogenated oil is especially unhealthy when it’s reused, which restaurants (and many people at home as well) often do. Oils break down with each frying, which changes their composition and causes more oil to be absorbed into the food. These changes further boost your chances of having high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Bacon and Sausage

We’re sooo sorry about this, but it’s true. These delicious meat angels are basically the devil. Processed meats are the worst of both worlds. They’re typically made from red meats high in saturated fats, and they contain high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs): inflammatory compounds that are created when these processed meats are dried, smoked, and cooked at high temperatures. Not to mention, those nitrates and nitrites in cured (and natural, “uncured”) meats can turn into carcinogenic nitrosamines when exposed to high heat, and letš be honest, we’re typically roasting the sausages on a flame-flickering grill and bacon on a frying pan.

Sugary Drinks

A can of soda typically has between 30 to 40 g of sugar and almost no nutritional value. A 2007 paper published in the “American Journal of Public Health” notes that there is a significant positive correlation between soft drink consumption and type-2 diabetes. We suggest sticking to non-carbonated water. Add a slice of cucumber or lemon to add some taste AND health benefits. It usually takes about a week of abstinence to lower your soda cravings and adjust your taste buds to plain water.

Boxed Mac and Cheese

Oh, this is so painful, since so many of us have grown up on these boxes of divinity! But you can’t even imagine how high on sodium boxed mac and cheese is! If you have it in you to eat a mere 1-cup serving, you will consume at least 600 milligrams of sodium — and that’s not including your salted pasta water or salted butter you add to make these cheesy concoctions. As prepared, you hit a third of your day’s recommended intake of sodium per serving; and if you eat half the box, you could end up consuming half of your entire day’s allotted sodium.

Granola Bars

This is a surprising one, isn’t it? Granola has long been associated with healthy living, although considering all the crap that’s put in granola bars, the link isn’t exactly clear. The combination of sugar, corn syrup, and sorbitol, a weight gain-inducing trifecta found in chocolate chip granola bars should be enough to have most health-conscious consumers steering clear, but the fattening soybean oil and widely-banned potential carcinogen BHT are just the icky cherries on top of this unhealthy recipe. If you really need that energy boost on the go, eat a banana, for bananas are an excellent source of potassium and vitamin B6, fiber, and carbohydrate. Since they have a lower water content than most fruit, bananas typically have more calories as well as a higher sugar content, which will give you the much-needed carbs.

Fruit Juice

At first glance, the juice looks pretty good! There are lots of nutritional benefits in one glass of orange juice. It’s extremely high in vitamin C, contains no fat and is typically is low in sodium. However, there is a cost — OJ is relatively high in sugar. And what about other fruit? It’s natural! What could be wrong? Well, while 100 percent fruit juice is a better pick than high fructose corn syrup-laden drinks like Sunny D, even the all-natural grape juice still packs up to 36 grams of sugar per cup, or about what you’d get from four glazed donuts. And although this sugar is natural, your body treats it the same way as any other sugar. What’s more, most of the sweetness in juice comes from fructose, a type of sugar associated with the development of visceral adipose tissue in overweight people or in other words that’s belly fat.

Frozen Food

Freezing food is a terrific way to make it last longer. So why add preservatives? Unfortunately, manufacturers do. Most of the frozen dinners are loaded with dangerous trans-fat, sodium, and calories. If you need a quick fix, have some rocket salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes and some goat cheese!

Salad Dressing

Speaking of salad. Did you know that just two tablespoons of salad dressings contain just as much sugar as a donut? And, by the way, that’s 12g; the donut only has 10. High fructose corn syrup has been shown to increase appetite and lead to health problems such as obesity and diabetes. While some dressings go overboard with sugar, other dressings load on the fat. A rich and creamy dressing will serve up nearly 30 percent of your day’s recommended intake of fat in just two tablespoons. So if you have chosen to have a salad (kudos, btw), don’t ruin it with store-bought dressing, instead sprinkle it with some balsamic vinegar or olive oil, a pinch of salt and lemon juice and you’re good to go!

Now that you know what’s right and what’s not, have a sip of water and look through this week’s hottest casting calls!