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

鱼条

鱼条的原材料通常使用鳕鱼，非常健康。但是鱼条的烹饪方法使其含有 20种有害成分，似乎不怎么健康。这些年医生一直建议人们多吃鱼类，因为它们比起牛肉和猪肉，含有更多的健康脂肪和较少的不健康脂肪。当你购买加工过的鱼肉产品或在速食店里点油炸鱼时，其害处立刻大于好处。

酸奶

每当我起床时，我家附近的亚美尼亚人总是在制作他们的酸奶，其实酸奶就是含有有益菌的发酵牛奶。蛋白质、钙和维他命含量丰富，通常给那些对牛奶消化不良的成年人食用。在美国主流超市销售的所谓酸奶，其实是添加糖类和加工过的水果的乳制甜点，伪装成的健康食品。尝试纯天然、无脂肪的酸奶吧，你可以自己添加你喜爱的水果。

罐头浓汤

显然，汤是健康食品，不贵，而且烹饪简单。自己制作汤和面包当午餐，可以多做点汤，把一周的量分小碗装好放在冰箱，每天花费不到一美元。而罐头浓汤根本就是盐、脂肪、人工添加剂、防腐剂和水的混合物，可能还会有点胡萝卜吧。一份罐头浓汤基本含有 1000毫克的钠，几乎相当于你一天钠摄入量的一半。自己用鸡骨、牛骨、蔬菜制作肉汤吧。

绿茶

绿茶在亚洲非常风靡，在日本可谓是一种艺术。临床研究表明，茶叶内含有抗氧化剂和其它有益成分，可能可以预防癌症、心脏并衰老和其它与年龄增长有关的疾玻但是大多数美国人不喜欢这个味道，所以你在这里买到的绿茶饮品中添加了糖份和其它添加剂，还被当作健康饮品来销售。任何瓶子上在“绿茶”后的单词都将健康成分给剔除了。

褐色土豆

褐色土豆品种丰富，皮棕瓤白，本来还和营养食品沾点边，否则它应该早就滚出爱荷华州来吧。褐色土豆便宜、耐寒，是的，有点营养，它们很抵饱。但是它们所含的淀粉在体内迅速转换成血糖，我们称之为葡萄糖，增加了患糖尿病和肥胖症的风险。也因为它们是在美国几百种土豆中最不可口的那种，我们就需要把它们做的好吃一点。我们将它们煮熟、捣碎，淋上黄油，或是把它们切成条，油炸，并撒上盐。

爆米花

现在的爆米花已经不像从前那么营养了。爆米花，没错，是玉米。玉米是高纤维、低热量，含有少量糖份、盐份和脂肪的食物。当然，在你添加了糖、盐和脂肪后卫就不同了。微波炉爆米花为了增加口感而使爆米花含有不少有害成分。多买点爆米花谷粒，分成几份，加入少许盐和（纯）黄油。
（当你在这儿时 :找出为什么爆米花流行的原因）

切片面包

在美国最普遍的就是这种大量生产的白色、松软的、装在塑料袋中的面包，，一周保质期，它就是造成肥胖和糖尿病的主要元凶。正宗的面包是面粉加水，少量盐及发酵粉制成的。包装的白色面含有有糖面粉、玉米糖浆，通常还添加了其他物质。这样的处理使面包一旦下肚，就迅速转化成为血糖，也就是葡萄糖。这造成胰腺超负荷运作，最终损伤器官。甚至是大量生产的全麦面包也不健康，为了使它们可口一些，会使用不健康的方法：添加糖类、盐份和松软剂这三个不良添加剂。