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10 FOODS

You Should Avoid

Quaker 100% Natural Cereal.

This overrated granola cereal contains almost 4 grams of saturated fat per half-cup serving. That's 18 percent of your daily maximum. That's as much saturated fat as you'd get from a hamburger at McDonald's! A much better choice would be a low-fat, whole-grain cereal like Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Wheat, Post GrapeNuts, General Mills Wheaties, or Nabisco Shredded Wheat. Or look for low-fat granola by Quaker and Kellogg's.

Kung Pao Chicken.

One average dinner-size take-out order has 76 grams of fat. That's as much fat as 17 teaspoons of oil! It also averages more than a day's worth of sodium (2,608 mg). The same size order of Szechuan Shrimp or Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables contains one-fourth as much fat and a little less sodium.

Dunkin' Donuts Plain Cake Doughnut.

Thanks to the Hydrogenated shortening in which these doughnuts are fried, a single plain cake doughnut winds up with as much cholesterol-raising fat as a McDonald's Big Mac! If you want good-tasting pastries without the fat, give Entemann's fat-free line a try.

Nissin Shrimp Cup Noodles.

This soup will give you a surprisingly strong shot of fat (about 3 teaspoons' worth) and almost as much sodium (1,550 mg) as you should ideally eat in a whole day. Try Fantastic Foods Only A Pinch soups instead. A serving averages just half a teaspoon of fat and 140 mg of sodium -- a much healthier alternative.

Movie-theater Popcorn Popped in Coconut Oil.

A large bucket of unbuttered popcorn at theaters (like United Artists) that pop in coconut oil has almost three days' worth of artery-clogging fat! Add butter and you'll boost the cholesterol-raising fat to almost four days' worth! That's like eating eight McDonald's Big Macs. Even a small portion contains almost a day's worth of saturated fat. What to do? Choose a theater that uses air-popped popcorn, or at least one that pops its corn in a heart-healthy oil like canola or corn.

Oscar Mayer Lunchables.

It would be hard to invent a worse food than these combos of heavily processed meat, artery-clogging cheese, and mostly-white-flour crackers. The average line averages 5 1/2 teaspoons of fat (that's 60 percent of calories) and 1,734 mg of sodium.

Haagen-Dazs Extraas.

Haagen-Dazs has managed to make its line of gourmet ice cream extra fatty by adding ingredients like fudge, peanut butter, peanuts or brownies to its already-fatty ice cream. Eat a cup of Extraas Triple Brownie Overload or Peanut Butter Burst and you've downed 44 grams of fat...almost as much as half a stick of butter. And a cup of Extraas Cappuccino Commotion or Caramel Cone Explosion has as much artery-clogging saturated fat (20 grams) as two McDonald's Quarter Pounders with Cheese! That's a whole day's quota for many people. A cup of Mattus' Low-fat Ice Cream, on the other hand, has just six grams of fat. And only three of them are saturated. But the taste is as rich as full-fat Haagen Dazs.

Campbell's Regular Soups.

They're brimming with salt. Half a can contains 1,014 mg of sodium. That's about half your ideal quota for an entire day. If you're looking for more than salty water, check out Pritikin soups. A cup averages 160 mg of sodium and one gram of fat. That's a bit less fat -- and far less sodium -- than you'll find in Campbell's Healthy Request or ConAgra's Healthy Choice soups.

Taco Bell's Taco Salad with Shell.

With the shell, this platter of beef, cheese and beans has about 13 teaspoons of fat, about 4 teaspoons of saturated fat, and 838 calories. That's almost all the fat and saturated fat an adult should eat in an entire day. If you're in the mood for a fast-food salad, head to McDonald's. It's Chunky Chicken Salad contains a single teaspoon of fat and 1/4 teaspoon of saturated fat.

Fettucini Alfredo.

An average dinner size entreé contains an amazing 97 grams of fat -- or 22 teaspoons of fat. It's like sitting down and eating an entire stick of butter! If you want a lower-fat pasta meal, try spaghetti or linguini topped with tomato sauce, red or white clam sauce, meat sauce, or meatballs.

8 more foods to avoid

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From the Nutrition Action Healthletter
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009

© 1994 by Center for Science in the Public Interest

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8 More Foods You Should Avoid

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