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Skip to Article Content- Guide to a Healthy Kitchen
- Healthy Recipe Makeovers Give your favorite comfort foods a healthy makeover.
- Better Brown-Bag Lunches Try these healthy, easy lunches and snacks for work or school.
- Surprise! How to Feed a Crowd Unexpected guests? Here's how to throw together a nutritious meal in a flash.
- How to Whip Up Simple Meals No time to shop? You can usually turn out a delicious meal from what's on hand.
- Healthy Fish Recipes These sizzling seafood recipes will please nearly everyone.
- 10 Tips for Fast, Healthy Meals These quick and easy recipes require very little time in the kitchen.
- Best Food, Worst Food in Pantry Beware of canned soup filled with salt. You have far better foods in stock.
- Best Ways to Cook Vegetables Discover a whole new way to eat vegetables with these tasty techniques.
- Whole Grains With Great Taste They're good for you, and now you can find out how to make them taste great.
- Great Grains You Don't Know Quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, and more: Unusual grains make a comeback.
- 10 Nutrients You May Be Missing Are you getting enough of these 10 key vitamins and nutrients for health?
- High-Fiber Feasts Find out how to get more whole grains into your family.
- Best Leafy Greens Our expert ranks and rates the best leafy greens for health.
- Dairy Myths and Truths Get the plain truth about the benefits and risks of dairy foods.
- How Much Protein Do You Need? Do you get enough protein? Do you get the best types?
- All About Omega Fatty Acids Omega-3 and omega-6 offer proven health benefits.
- The Truth About Gluten Behind the claims and counterclaims about gluten.
- 12 Staples for Every Pantry Make sure you have these culinary work horses in your pantry.
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The Best and Worst Foods in Your Pantry
10 Worst Foods In Your Pantry continued...
4. Movie Theater or Mega Butter Microwave Popcorn
The “Extra Butter” or “Movie Theater” microwave popcorn choices are some of the last products that still have shocking amounts of trans fat in them with a small serving of 3 tablespoons (unpopped) containing about 2.5 grams of saturated fat and 5 grams of trans fat. Each serving also adds at least 300 milligrams of sodium to your day’s total.
5. Chips and Cheetos
This popular snack group category made the list because they are processed with gobs of fat and sodium and usually include a refined grain. A 2-ounce bag of chips or Cheetos usually adds more than 300 calories, 20 grams of fat, and over 450 milligrams of sodium. The worst part is we tend to eat too much of them because even a 2-ounce portion doesn’t seem to satisfy our stomach.
6. Packaged Muffins and Cereal Bars
You expect Pop Tarts to be full of sugar (about 16 grams of sugar each) but you might be surprised to learn that even the more healthful sounding cereal bars or packaged muffins contain about the same amount of sugar (or more) than your typical toaster pastry. Otis Spunkmeyer brand muffins contribute about 30 grams of sugar per 4-ounce muffin, Weight Watchers muffins add about 20 grams of sugar per 2.2-ounce muffin, and a small Nutri-Grain cereal bar has 13 grams of sugar.
7. Crackers (made with refined flour)
They are so easy to eat a lot of because they are bite-size and crunchy. A few years ago crackers were held together with partially hydrogenated fat (which added trans fat) and now the trans fats are mostly gone, but most crackers are still low in fiber and high in sodium.
8. Yeast Breads (made with refined flour)
Yeast breads, from hot dog buns to Texas toast, made the “worst” list for two reasons: They are one of the biggest sources of refined flour in the typical American diet and they are also the No. 1 source of sodium among the U.S. population.