Foods to Eat to End Obesity?

First of all, there seems to be many lists of 5 foods to never eat. Looks like whoever creates these lists can’t agree with each other.

I don’t think they’re created by qualified scientists, but more likely marketers selling a quick fix or perhaps influential food writers and celebrity chefs who espouse eating local, unprocessed, fresh foods as the solution to end obesity in America!

You see such lists online all of the time. These foods are supposed to be the most obesogenic foods available to us today. Oddly, bananas seem to be on the list and several other “sugary” fruits and vegetables. Now we’re being told these foods either make you break out in fat all over, stop you from losing weight even when eaten in a calorie-deficit diet, or cause you to hang onto your “unsightly” belly fat.

Sometimes when you click on them you are taken to some website that’s more interested in getting your money than revealing the 5 foods you should never eat. Other times when you click, a list is actually revealed.

One such list of “5 foods” started with bread.

Yep, bread comes in many varieties but I guess “bread” is one food.

The next food was “beer, wine, and liquor.”

Huh? Wait a minute! Wouldn’t that count as numbers 2, 3, and 4? Or if they got grouped altogether as just one food called alcohol, since when has alcohol been considered food? It’s not even regulated by the same government agency as food (Food and Drug Administration), but by the Bureau of Firearms, Tobacco and Alcohol!

The next food was “fried foods.”

Now, this is getting ridiculous! I thought I was going to discover just five foods. “Fried food” isn’t a single food. It’s a method of preparation. What can’t be fried today? There’s fried Snickers, fried Twinkies, fried butter, fried ice cream, and of course all the traditional fried things such as eggs, chicken, rice, clams, etc. And does that include stuff like potato chips? They’re a fried food.

That did it! I am done searching the 5 foods never to eat because soon there won’t even be 5 foods left that are okay to eat!

I’m pretty sure, no matter which list it is, I ate all 5 and I lost weight. I’m still eating them and I have managed to keep off the lost weight for 23 years.

You probably want to know if I have belly fat. Yes, I do!

I’m not going to worry about reducing it until my stomach is as firm and flat as a Barbie doll’s!

There is nothing to be gained by getting obsessive over getting rid of normal, healthy belly fat! If it were true that never eating another ear of corn would rid me of belly fat, I wouldn’t even care! I’ll keep eating corn! I can also introduce you to plenty of corn and banana eating people who don’t have any belly fat!

Bananas are good, and some belly fat is okay!

Bananas are good, and some belly fat is okay!

So, I’m done with the foods I should never eat. If they taste good I’ll eat them. Now, let’s move on to eating delicious junk food to lose weight.

Am I really saying eat nothing but junk food to lose weight? Not really, because I am not a proponent of categorizing food as junk food or health food. I support the idea that there are junky and healthy diets but not healthy and junky foods.

Eating to be healthy or to undermine health is not a matter of individual food choices; it’s how it all adds up and balances over the course of several days.

I am certainly not endorsing a diet that is not one of excellent nutritional quality.

It seems, however, that the generals in the army of anti-processed foods have been spreading their quasi-science and getting more soldiers to enlist and help them fight their battles.

Many of these followers recognize junk food because they know what to look for:

  • It comes packaged in cans and boxes and might be in the grocer’s freezer.
  • The packages list more than 5 total ingredients.
  • Contains ingredients chemicals they can’t pronounce.
  • Made with artificial colors and flavors.

They think they know junk food when they see golden arches, crowns, freckle-faced girls in pigtails, and an old guy with white hair and bow around his neck.

What amuses alarms me is how these same people shop at Whole Foods Market. They want to lose weight and they are devoted to avoiding the “5 never foods.” They also want to skip the processed foods at their neighborhood Shaw’s and Hannaford  for better weight loss, but so many still don’t know what they’re eating or how to make every calorie count towards excellent nutrition.

CASE IN POINT: There is a package on the “impulse buy rack” near the checkout counter at the Whole Foods Market.

It’s Vegan Cheesy Salad Booster! Wow! Vegan salad booster! Who needs to read the nutrition facts on this?

Everything you need to know is right in the name. This is good food for weight loss! It takes a salad, and we all know salad is good weight loss food, and it boosts the nutritious value of that salad.

The package proclaims that the contents are raw, no processing, and it doesn’t contain any genetically modified ingredients! This has to make it a great choice for healthful weight loss!

Salad booster Get your hands on this cheesy addition for any meal. Filled with minerally dense and nutritious superfoods, it’s amazing on popcorn! Ingredients: Organic Sprouted PumpkinSeeds, Organic Sprouted Sunflower Seeds, Organic Sprouted Sesame Seeds, Wild White Chia Seeds, Spirulina, Organic Red Bell Pepper, Himalayan Crystal Salt, Nutritional Yeast, Chlorella, Organic Dulse, Organic Kelp, Organic Dill Weed, Organic Spices, Organic Tumeric and Organic Chilies.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.Check out the nutrition facts label.

Read carefully! 1/2 ounce serving adds 64 calories to your salad. 45 are coming from fat. a 1/2 ounce serving is not even a cupped palm full of these cheesy salad boosters.

Read carefully! 1/2 ounce serving adds 64 calories to your salad. 45 are coming from fat. a 1/2 ounce serving is not even a cupped palm full of these cheesy salad boosters.

This salad booster is mostly fat. Yes, it’s the good kind of fat, but good or bad, every gram of fat has 9 calories. Toss a couple handfuls of this stuff on your salad to boost its nutritional value and you might as well have dumped blue cheese salad dressing all over it, as far as calories go. The saturated fat in the salad dressing and the monounsaturated fats in the salad booster have the same effect on weight. They can increase the calories from deficit to surplus. In other words, they can make you fat!

I’m not trying to influence anybody who’s eating fresh, raw, unprocessed, vegetarian or vegan to change what they’re eating. I’m simply saying that weight loss and good nutrition can be achieved eating processed foods and every food you find on any 5 Foods You Should Never Eat List.

The following is an excerpt from an article written by David H. Freeman. It was published in The Atlantic July/August 2013

How Junk Food Can End Obesity

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My weight loss advice continues to be to monitor your food. Pay attention to the nutrients you get for your calories. Eat what you love; avoid what tastes bad. Give yourself room to eat enough to be full and satisfied by staying physically active doing things that not only get you moving but enhance your joy!

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.