Foods to avoid while trying to lose weight

 
Here are some of the foods to avoid while trying to lose weight including refined sugars, condiments, refined flours, cheeses, starchy vegetables, popcorn, fried foods, artificial sweetners, caffeine and junk foods.

List of foods to avoid while trying to lose weight:

1. Refined sugars: Refined sugar is usually considered table sugar or sucrose. Refined sugars include white sugar, corn syrup, refined maple syrup and refined honey. It is found in processed foods, sodas, drinks, fat free yogurt and designer coffee. One 12 oz soda contains 10 tsp of sugar. It is good to avoid refined sugar while trying to lose weight. Instead of refined sugars, you can choose whole food sweetners such as raw honey and black strap molasses.

Refined sugar contains zero calories, no vitamins and no minerals. Refined sugars raises the insulin level in your blood. Raised insulin levels depress the immune system.

2. Condiments: Condiments is used to enhance the flavor of food. Condiments found in ketchup, mayonnaise, salad dressings, pickle relish, tartar sauce, steak sauce, barbecue sauce, margarine, soy sauce, creamy horseradish sauce, cocktail sauce etc. Avoid salads with rich dressings. This leads to fat storage and water retention. The better condiment to lose weight is lemon and balsamic vinegar.

3. Fried foods: Avoid fried foods such as french fries, and fried chicken. Instead of deep frying, you can bake, saute or boil in a pan. Or you can steam vegetables.

4. Reduce sodium content: Some of the foods high in sodium include MSG, soy sauce and brine.

5. Refined flours: Another important food while trying to lose weight is refined flours. Avoid pasta, white bread, all purpose flour (maida), pretzels, processed foods, doughnuts and pizza.

6. Cheeses: Try to reduce cheeses in sandwiches, soups and pastas. Some of the cheeses include cream cheese, butter and cottage cheese.

7. Avoid canned soups: Avoid canned soup if you are trying to lose weight. One can of diluted soup contains about 1700 mg of sodium. The daily intake of sodium is about 2300 mg.

8. Meats: Avoid processed meats, sausages and hot dogs.

9. Glycemic fruits: Reduce the use of high glycemic fruits, especially if you are trying to lose weight such as bananas, watermelon, oranges, raisins, prunes and pineapple. These fruits are high in sugar.

10. Starchy vegetables: Reduce starchy vegetables such as potato, yam, squash and parsnips while you are trying to lose weight. Too much starchy vegetables over an extended period of time can lead to weight gain.

11. Oils: Avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. Instead you can use healthy oils such as canola or olive oil for cooking.

12. Alcohol: Avoid alcoholic beverages to lose weight. Alcoholic beverages contain massive amount of calories.

13. Other foods: Other foods to avoid to lose weight include artificial sweetners, syrup, cream, pie, chips, cookies, caffeine, popcorn, hamburgers, high fat dairy products such as whole milk, yogurt, avocados,canned juice and fruit juices.