Fish Sticks

The fish part is usually pollock, rather healthy. The stick part seems to be the remaining 20 ingredients listed on the box, which aren't so healthy. Doctors have been advising people to eat more fish for years, because they are high in healthy fats and low in unhealthy fats compared to beef and pork. Yet when you buy processed fish products or when you order deep-fried fish from a fast-food joint, the bad starts to outweigh the good.

Yogurt

Armenians in my neighborhood when I was growing up used to make their own yogurt, which is essentially milk fermented with certain bacteria. This is high in protein, calcium and vitamins and can be eaten by adults, who generally cannot digest milk well. What is sold in mainstream U.S. supermarkets under the name yogurt is really a dairy dessert loaded with sugar and processed fruit, disguised as a health food. Try plain, fat-free yogurt and add your own fruit.

Canned Soup

Soup is remarkably healthy, inexpensive and easy to make. A lunch of hardy homemade soup and bread, cooked in bulk and frozen in individual containers for the week, will cost less than a dollar a day. Canned soup, on the other hand, is a miserable concoction of salt, fat, artificial additives, preservatives, water and maybe part of a carrot. One serving typically contains 1,000 milligrams of sodium, about half your daily allowance. Save your chicken and beef bones and vegetable tops and make you own broth.

Green Tea

Green tea is widely consumed throughout Asia and is nothing short of an art form in Japan. The tea contains antioxidants and other healthful components shown in clinical studies to possibly prevent cancer, heart disease, senility and other diseases associated with aging. But most Americans don't like the taste, so what you get here is a green tea drink loaded with sugar and other additives, sold under the disguise of a health drink. Any ingredient after the words "green tea" on the bottle chisels away the health benefits.

Russet Potatoes

At the risk of pissing off Idaho, the Russet varieties of potatoes, with their brown skin and white flesh, are only marginally healthy to begin with. Cheap and hardy, yes, with a few nutrients, they serve some purpose as a filler. But their starch is quickly converted by the body into blood sugar, called glucose, and raises the risk of diabetes and obesity. And because they are arguably the least flavorful of the hundreds of potato varieties in the Americas, we have to do things to make them tasty. We boil and mash them and cover them in butter, or we cut them into strips, deep-fry them and cover them with salt.

Popcorn

Popcorn today rarely resembles the healthy treat it used to be. Popcorn is, well, corn. It's high in fiber, low in calories, and contains only nominal traces of sugar, salt and fat. That changes, of course, when you add sugar, salt and fat. Microwave popcorns are the biggest offenders with their long list of ingredients to enhance flavor. Try buying popcorn kernels in bulk for pennies a serving and control the amount of salt and (real) butter. [While you're here: Find out why popcorn pops.]

Sliced Bread

The most common form of bread in Americaethe mass-produced white, soft doughy bread in plastic bags with a shelf life of weekseis likely a major component of obesity and diabetes. True bread is flour and water with a pinch of salt and yeast. Packaged white bread contains flour plus sugar, corn syrup and often a dozen other ingredients. The processing creates a food product that, once eaten, is quickly converted to blood sugar, called glucose. This causes the pancreas to work overtime and ultimately destroys the organ. Even mass-produced whole wheat breads are unhealthy because they are made palatable by some evil means: the unholy trinity of sugar, salt and softening additives

魚條

魚條的原材料通常使用鱈魚，非常健康。但是魚條的烹飪方法使其含有 20種有害成分，似乎不怎么健康。這些年醫生一直建議人們多吃魚類，因為它們比起牛肉和豬肉，含有更多的健康脂肪和較少的不健康脂肪。當你購買加工過的魚肉產品或在速食店里點油炸魚時，其害處立刻大于好處。

酸奶

每當我起床時，我家附近的亞美尼亞人總是在制作他們的酸奶，其實酸奶就是含有有益菌的發酵牛奶。蛋白質、鈣和維他命含量豐富，通常給那些對牛奶消化不良的成年人食用。在美國主流超市銷售的所謂酸奶，其實是添加糖類和加工過的水果的乳制甜點，偽裝成的健康食品。嘗試純天然、無脂肪的酸奶吧，你可以自己添加你喜愛的水果。

罐頭濃湯

顯然，湯是健康食品，不貴，而且烹飪簡單。自己制作湯和面包當午餐，可以多做點湯，把一周的量分小碗裝好放在冰箱，每天花費不到一美元。而罐頭濃湯根本就是鹽、脂肪、人工添加劑、防腐劑和水的混合物，可能還會有點胡蘿卜吧。一份罐頭濃湯基本含有 1000毫克的鈉，幾乎相當于你一天鈉攝入量的一半。自己用雞骨、牛骨、蔬菜制作肉湯吧。

綠茶

綠茶在亞洲非常風靡，在日本可謂是一種藝術。臨床研究表明，茶葉內含有抗氧化劑和其它有益成分，可能可以預防癌癥、心臟并衰老和其它與年齡增長有關的疾玻但是大多數美國人不喜歡這個味道，所以你在這里買到的綠茶飲品中添加了糖份和其它添加劑，還被當作健康飲品來銷售。任何瓶子上在“綠茶”后的單詞都將健康成分給剔除了。

褐色土豆

褐色土豆品種豐富，皮棕瓤白，本來還和營養食品沾點邊，否則它應該早就滾出愛荷華州來吧。褐色土豆便宜、耐寒，是的，有點營養，它們很抵飽。但是它們所含的淀粉在體內迅速轉換成血糖，我們稱之為葡萄糖，增加了患糖尿病和肥胖癥的風險。也因為它們是在美國幾百種土豆中最不可口的那種，我們就需要把它們做的好吃一點。我們將它們煮熟、搗碎，淋上黃油，或是把它們切成條，油炸，并撒上鹽。

爆米花

現在的爆米花已經不像從前那么營養了。爆米花，沒錯，是玉米。玉米是高纖維、低熱量，含有少量糖份、鹽份和脂肪的食物。當然，在你添加了糖、鹽和脂肪后衛就不同了。微波爐爆米花為了增加口感而使爆米花含有不少有害成分。多買點爆米花谷粒，分成幾份，加入少許鹽和（純）黃油。
（當你在這兒時 :找出為什么爆米花流行的原因）

切片面包

在美國最普遍的就是這種大量生產的白色、松軟的、裝在塑料袋中的面包，，一周保質期，它就是造成肥胖和糖尿病的主要元兇。正宗的面包是面粉加水，少量鹽及發酵粉制成的。包裝的白色面含有有糖面粉、玉米糖漿，通常還添加了其他物質。這樣的處理使面包一旦下肚，就迅速轉化成為血糖，也就是葡萄糖。這造成胰腺超負荷運作，最終損傷器官。甚至是大量生產的全麥面包也不健康，為了使它們可口一些，會使用不健康的方法：添加糖類、鹽份和松軟劑這三個不良添加劑。