The 20 Worst Supermarket Foods in America

I purchased this book about a month ago and i am amazed everytime I read it. Boy the things you think are okay for you may be the worst for you. I have listed the 20 worst supermarket foods in America based on this book by Matt and David. I think when you read it it will open your eyes the way it did mine.

The 20 Worst Supermarket Foods in America
The supermarket aisles are fraught with nutritional peril. Learn to disarm the food industry's industrial-strength calorie bombs and still eat the food you love - By: David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding

1. Worst Packaged Food in America
Marie Callender's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie1,060 calories1,440 mg sodium 64 g fat (24 g saturated)Marie Callender's perpetrates the ultimate sleight of hand here: The nutrition information says this medium-size entrée has two servings, but honestly, when have you ever split a potpie? Lard-strewn pastry tops and cream-based fillings are the lowest common denominators of the nutritionally nefarious potpie, and this one, with an ingredient list that reads like an O-Chem final, beats out dozens of horrendous iterations to earn this special place on our list.

Sodium Equivalent: 8 small bags of potato chips

Fat Equivalent: 23 strips of bacon

Calorie Equivalent: 7 Taco Bell Fresco Beef Tacos

Eat This Instead!Marie Callender's Oven Baked Chicken (369 g)320 calories990 mg sodium12 g fat (3 g saturated)

2. Worst Frozen Entrée
Hungry-Man Classic Fried Chicken 1,020 calories1,570 mg sodium57 g fat (12 g saturated)They should rename the company Hungry-Men, because there's no way a single man needs more than a pound of fatty fried chicken, oily potatoes, and a brownie.

Calorie Equivalent: 5 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts

Eat This Instead!Banquet Select Chicken Parmesan - 350 calories870 mg sodium15 g fat (3.5 g saturated)

3. Worst Frozen Pizza
DiGiorno for One Garlic Bread Crust Supreme Pizza - 850 calories1,450 mg sodium 44 g fat (15 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)The bloated crust and the greasy toppings will saddle you with 60 percent of your day's sodium, 75 percent of your day's saturated fat, and nearly twice the amount of trans fats you should take in daily.

Calorie Equivalent: 6 slices Domino's Thin N Crispy Cheese Pizza

Eat This Instead!South Beach Diet Deluxe Pizza - 340 calories660 mg sodium11 g fat (4 g saturated)

4. Worst Frozen Breakfast
Jimmy Dean Pancake and Sausage Links Breakfast Bowls - 710 calories 890 mg sodium 31 g fat (11 g saturated) As if the calories, fat, and refined carbohydrates weren't bad enough, Jimmy D tops the whole thing with two Hershey's bars' worth of sugar.

Calorie Equivalent: 6 bowls of Froot Loops

Eat This Instead!Jimmy Dean D-lights Breakfast Bowls Turkey Sausage (198 g)230 calories730 mg sodium7 g fat (3 g saturated)

5. Worst Stir-Fry
Bertolli Grilled Chicken Alfredo & Fettuccine Complete Skillet Meal for Two (1⁄2 package, 340 g) 710 calories 1,370 mg sodium 42 g fat (22 g saturated)A dinner for two should get your blood flowing, not stuff your arteries with more than the entire day's saturated fat. Saturated Fat Equivalent: 22 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead!Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals for Two Grilled Chicken in Roasted Garlic Sauce (1⁄2 bag, 340 g)340 calories880 mg sodium13 g fat (5 g saturated)

6. Worst Packaged Lunch
Oscar Mayer Maxed Out Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Combo Lunchables (1 package) - 680 calories 61 g sugars 22 g fat (9 g saturated, 1 g trans) 1,440 mg sodiumHere's your first clue that this meal has issues: The ingredient list-in its squinty small type-is a full 4 inches long. It includes just about every form of fat and sugar you can imagine. Your child deserves better.

Calorie Equivalent: 15 Chicken McNuggets

Eat This Instead! Oscar Mayer Deli Creations Fajita Beef & Salsa Flatbread (145 g)280 calories9 g fat (4 g saturated)890 mg sodium

7. Worst Individual Snack
Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pie (1 pie) - 520 calories 45 g sugars 24 g fat (14 g saturated, 1.5 g trans) Skip past the enriched flour and water on the ingredient list and here's what you get: animal shortening, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, butter, chocolate liqueur, and so on. Any one of these ingredients alone might prompt you to raise an eyebrow, but taken together they should invoke a gag reflex and a sprint for something far healthier. Saturated Fat Equivalent: 2 McDonald's Quarter Pounders

Eat This Instead!Chocolatey Drizzle Rice Krispies Treat - 100 calories8 g sugars3 g fat (1 g saturated)

8. Worst Frozen Treat
Toll House Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich (1 sandwich) - 520 calories 23 g fat (9 g saturated) 44 g sugars Do you really want more than a quarter of your day's calories to come from an ice-cream novelty? If you're going to take in this much fat and calories in one sitting, it better be dinner.

Calorie Equivalent: Two slices of hand-tossed pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut

Eat This Instead!Skinny Cow Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich (1 sandwich) - 140 calories 2 g fat (1 g saturated)15 g sugars

9. Worst Baked Good
Otis Spunkmeyer Banana Nut Muffins (1 muffin, 114 g) - 460 calories 22 g fat (3 g saturated) 2 g fiber 32 g sugars. Despite popular belief, muffins are very rarely healthy. Case in point: The first ingredient in this muffin is sugar. The result is metabolic mayhem: Blood sugar climbs, pancreas goes into overdrive, and the body begins storing sugar as fat. Shortly after, you'll feel sluggish and crave more sugar.

Sugar Equivalent: 3 1⁄2 Rice Krispies Treats

Eat This Instead!Vitalicious Apple Berry Muffin (1 muffin) - 100 calories0 g fat5 g fiber10 g sugars

10. Worst Packaged Side
Pasta Roni Fettuccine Alfredo (1 c prepared with 2% milk and margarine) - 450 calories 25 g fat (7 g saturated, 3.5 g trans) 1,140 mg sodium. Once again Alfredo proves itself to be the biggest belt-busting option on the shelf. This side has a meal's worth of calories, and if you try to turn it into a meal in itself, expect to top 1,000 calories.

Sodium Equivalent: 4 medium orders of McDonald's French fries

Eat This Instead!Pasta Roni Nature's Way Olive Oil & Italian Herb (1 c prepared with water and olive oil) - 250 calories8 g fat (1.5 g saturated)800 mg sodium

11. Worst Cereal
Quaker 100% Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins (1 c) - 420 calories12 g fat (7 g saturated) 6 g fiber 30 g sugars. Granola, for all its good reputation, is usually weighed down by a deluge of added sugars. In fact, for the same amount of sugar, you could have a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles more than twice the size-and you'd get more fiber and save about 60 calories in fat. Calorie Equivalent: 8 chicken wings

Eat This Instead!Kashi GOLEAN (1 c) - 140 calories1 g fat (0 g saturated)10 g fiber 6 g sugars

12. Worst Frozen "Healthy" Entrée
Healthy Choice Complete Selections Sweet & Sour Chicken (340 g) - 430 calories9 g fat (1 g saturated) 600 mg sodium 29 g sugars. Since when has fried chicken been healthy? Certainly not when it's cloaked in sugar. Sugar Equivalent: 2 scoops Breyers Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Eat This Instead! Kashi Southwest Style Chicken (283 g) - 240 calories5 g fat (0 g saturated) 680 mg sodium

13. Worst "Healthy" Pantry Item
Pop-Tarts Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon (2 pastries) - 400 calories14 g fat (4 g saturated) 5 g fiber 28 g sugars. Whole grain ain't the whole truth. There's also a glut of vegetable oil and seven types of sugar stuffed inside.Sugar Equivalent: 1 Snickers bar

Eat This Instead! Sun-Maid Raisin English Muffins with Cinnamon (1 muffin)170 calories0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)2 g fiber13 g sugars

14. Worst Drink
AriZona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5-oz can) 353 calories 0 g fat 82 g sugars It claims to be blended juice, but only 5 percent of this can is any sort of real-fruit derivative. The remaining 95 percent is a blend of water and high-fructose corn syrup. Sugar Equivalent: 4 Original Fudgsicle BarsDrink

Eat This Instead!Tropicana Lime Raspberry Fruit Squeeze (15.2-oz bottle) 35 calories0 g fat7 g sugars

15. Worst Ice Cream
Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter (1⁄2 c) 360 calories 24 g sugars 24 g fat (11 g saturated)Häagen-Dazs makes great-tasting ice cream with an impressively short ingredient list, but that doesn't make up for the fact that their pints are consistently the fattiest in the freezer. Fat Equivalent: 1 McDonald's Double Cheeseburger

Eat This Instead!Edy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup (1⁄2 c)130 calories13 g sugars6 g fat (3 g saturated)

16. Worst Condiment
Eggo Original Syrup (1⁄4 c) 240 calories 40 g sugars. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but not when this sugar slick hits the table. Excluding water, the first three ingredients are all different forms of sugar. If you want real syrup, make sure it's 100 percent maple. Sugar Equivalent: Two Häagen-Dazs Vanilla & Almond ice cream bars

Eat This Instead!Smucker's Sugar Free Breakfast Syrup (1⁄4 c) 20 calories0 g sugars

17. Worst Candy
Twix (1 package, 2 oz) 280 calories / 27 g sugars 14 g fat (11 g saturated) Twix takes the already-dubious candy-bar reputation and drags it through a murky pool of saturated fat. With more than half the USDA's daily consumption recommendation for these dangerous fats in each package, this is one hazardous after-lunch snack. Saturated Fat Equivalent: 11 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead!100 Grand (1 package)190 calories22 g sugars8 g fat (5 g saturated)

18. Worst Yogurt
Stonyfield Farm Whole Milk Chocolate Underground (6 oz) 220 calories 5 g fat (3 g saturated) 36 g sugars. Stonyfield is notorious for being a little too generous with the sugar, but the nearly 3 tablespoons in their Chocolate Underground is bad even by their supersweet standards. Not even Ben & Jerry's makes a flavor of ice cream with this much sugar. Sugar Equivalent: 4 Cherry Popsicles

Eat This Instead! Breyers' Cookies n'Cream YoCrunch Lowfat with Oreo Pieces (6 oz)120 calories2.5 g fat (1 g saturated)11 g sugars

19. Worst Cookie
Pillsbury Big Deluxe Classics White Chunk Macadamia Nut (dough; 1 cookie, 38 g) 180 calories10 g fat (3 g saturated, 2 g trans)13 g sugarsStick to Nestlé Toll House when it comes to big-brand cookie dough; the people of Pillsbury have a penchant for scattering trans fats across your market's refrigerated section. This cookie has one load of dangerous oils mixed into the flour and another blended with sugar and interspersed throughout the dough as "white confectionery chunks."Fat Equivalent: 5 "fun" size 3 Musketeers bars

Eat This Instead!Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (1 1⁄2-inch ball, 28 g) 130 calories6 g fat (2.5 g saturated)11 g sugars

20. Worst Crunch Snack
Gardetto's Special Request Roasted Garlic Rye Chips (1⁄2 cup, 30 g) 160 calories10 g fat (2 g saturated, 2.5 g trans) 40 mg sodium Gardetto extracts the worst part of its Original snack mix and tries to serve it as a gourmet snack-a sneaky move that might have serious repercussions for even casual munchers. Each single serving exceeds the amount of trans fat deemed safe to consume daily by the American Heart Association.Fat Equivalent: 3 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead! Snyder's of Hanover Sourdough Nibblers (16 pieces, 30 g) 120 calories0 g fat200 mg sodium

Habits

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy weekend. Now let's talk habits. We all have them. I know I do. I found this article on Shapefit.com. I thought it was pretty interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Daily Activities To Help Change Habit
"I should change, but I've tried and failed." Does this sound familiar? Often, changing habits does seem insurmountable. Many of us simply don't have enough motivation to change our habits - all of our bad habits - in a way that would truly affect our health. We cling to them because we see them as rewards.

But your habits determine your health. Below is a strategy and focus on daily activities to help you change and eliminate bad habits.

It Takes 21 Days To Break A Bad Habit

To begin with, choose one unhealthy habit you wish to eliminate or change. Or, choose a healthy habit you want to adopt as part of your behavior. If it is a habit to eliminate, you may wish to go "cold turkey" or have a gradual tapering off. Caution: If it is a drug or chemical habit you are planning on eliminating, be sure to obtain an expert's opinion as to whether you need to taper off usage as opposed to quitting cold turkey.

Now that you have decided which unhealthy habit to eliminate, or new habit to adopt, decide on the date you will begin your behavior change. Give this date a good deal of thought and then write it down. For example, "On February 15, 2001, I will become a non-smoker."

In order to ensure behavior change, experts agree that it takes a minimum of 21 days to change a behavior. Again, look at the date you are planning on changing your habit. Count ahead 21 days and mark that date down. Now, make a commitment that you will follow your plan for 21 days.

Helpful Suggestions

Your target date has arrived. It is the first day of your 21-day cycle. Here are some helpful suggestions for habit change:

Write down your goal. There is magic in the written word when it applies to you. Experts recommend stating your goal in positive terms, such as "I want to be lean and physically fit," instead of "I've got to get this flabby body out there huffing and puffing." So, begin with writing down, as a positive goal, the habit you will change.

List your reasons for changing or eliminating your habit. Writing it down will force you to think out in specific terms what this habit represents in your life and the meaning you believe your life will hold for you upon changing the habit. This will also help with your commitment toward taking positive action.

Find substitute routines. For example, if you are changing eating habits and you have identified a particularly difficult time of the day when eating habits are poor, create an activity, a new routine for that time.

Talk to yourself. Tell yourself you're making progress. Remind yourself that you are moving closer to your goal.. Talk to yourself throughout the day about how you are going to avoid triggers that can get you off track and make healthy substitutes.

Recruit helpers for support. Explain to them why you are making this change. Ask for their support. Their support may be needed encouragement.

Be prepared for people who may sabotage your change. Be assertive and tell them what they are doing.

Sustaining Motivation
The following are some suggestions to follow each day in order to sustain motivation and determination:

* Review your list of reasons for quitting or changing.
* Create mental pictures of yourself as having already succeeded with your habit change.
* Make affirmations, positive self-statements about your habit change. For example, "I am filled with so much health and vitality now that I exercise four times a week."
* Reward yourself. Make up a list of self-rewards. Reward yourself verbally.
* Remember to take one day at a time. If you do backslide, don't label yourself as having failed.

Get out your list or reasons for quitting or changing and begin again.
Fatigue, boredom, depression, stress can all make it difficult to stick with your program. But having a relapse isn't as important as how you deal with the relapse. If you are so devastated by failure that you call your good intentions into question, that will make habit change harder for you. But, if you allow for an occasional relapse and treat it as nothing more than a slight misstep that teaches you something, then you're on the right track.

Follow the suggestions in this article, adopt the more helpful attitude of evaluating your progress and accepting relapses, and you will find yourself reaching many of your goals. You will have achieved true behavior change.