List of foods ‘worse for you than smoking’ as doctor issues serious warning

It's almost impossible to escape food influencers and healthy recipes when we look online these days and it's easy to understand why.

Many people are less than satisfied with what's being served up in supermarkets, considering the high proportion of ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to a number of health issues.

NHS doctor Chris van Tulleken suggested on the Diary of a CEO podcast that ultra-processed foods (UPFS) have 'overtaken tobacco as the leading cause of early death on planet Earth', and yet it's still something we all, sometimes unknowingly, eat every single day.

But what are the foods that we should be looking to avoid on our big shop, if we want to truly treat our body as a temple.

Supermarket bread

Even though we've all been told growing up that wholemeal and brown bread is good for us, the reality is that none of the mass produced stuff is particularly good for the body, and a quick look at the often gigantic ingredient lists might give you a clue as to why.

You might be better off in a bakery (Getty Stock)

According to the National Library of Medicine, bread also makes up 11 per cent of the calories we ingest, so it's worth getting some that has minimal additives, to ensure that you limit the amount of UPFs that you are consuming.

The good news here is that it should encourage you to visit your local bakery for some fresh bread that not only tastes way nicer, but is also clearly far better for your health.

Failing that, we can all go back five years in time and start making our own sourdoughs again.

Energy drinks

While they might be the go to before an early work shift or after a gym session, energy drinks aren't always what they are made out to be.

Too many energy drinks can be bad for us (Getty Stock)

Although they can help to boost alertness and recovery thanks to the glucose, caffeine and sugars, regular consumption can lead to serious health issues, particularly with the heart.

Breakfast cereals

Apart from being cereal offenders when it comes to lying about ingredients on packaging, the popular breakfast choice is rarely a healthy option due to the sheer amount of ultra-processed grains and sugar that they contain.

Breakfast cereals are often high in sugar (Getty Stock)

While you can find some low sugar or minimally processed options such as porridge, it's probably worth avoiding the chocolate options, even if you do just get a craving for a bowl of Coco Pops every now and then.

The occasional bowl won't hurt of course but eating processed cereals every day would have a detrimental impact on our blood sugar and insulin levels.

Hot dog

A staple at sports matches particularly in the UK and the US, the humble hot dog is one of the earliest examples of a UPF, and you won't be surprised to hear that it's one of the worst foods we can eat.

Sausages are highly processed (Getty Stock)

Processed meats such as sausages have been linked with cancer and heart disease, due to the additional nitrates and high levels of saturated fat and salt.

You've also likely got a supermarket brand bun to go with it, which as you will now know, is not a winning combination for our body.

Vegan meat and cheese

Vegans love to tell you how healthy they are and often, they're not wrong, as they can follow a more natural diet which focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.

However, if they still want the taste of bacon without the guilty conscience of eating Babe, then they might have to put up with some ultra processed options.

You're always better off with real cheese in my opinion (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

These meat substitutes often contain additives and emulsifiers which make the plant proteins look and taste as much like meat as possible.

Meanwhile the cheese that we find on vegan pizzas not only tastes absolutely awful, in my opinion at least, but also has very little protein or calcium content.

Chicken nuggets

The go-to meal for a fussy child or a hungover student, we've probably all heard the horror stories about what's actually inside chicken nuggets.

Nuggets might be tasty but they're rarely healthy (Getty Stock)

While the meat content varies depending on the brand, you're likely to find a combination of tendons, skin, bone, collagen and fat inside the delicious treat.

Protein levels are therefore lower and the end result is often high in fat, sugar and salt.

Reformulated potato snacks

This feels like a fancy way of saying crisps and that's essentially it, with many of the salty snacks we love to enjoy alongside our pints containing dehydrated processed potato, refined vegetable oils, rice and wheat flour, emulsifiers, salt and colouring.

Potato snacks are high in additives and salts (Getty Stock)

Depending on the flavour and brand, they may contain other additives, while some have argued that a substance formed from the high temperature that these crisps are made at may even be carcinogenic to humans.

Margarine

Some health influencers and carnivore dieters will tell you that butter is one of the best things for our health and they might just be right, as long as you get the right brand.

Butter is the better choice than margarine (Getty Stock)

Margarine is the processed, more cost-effective form of butter, with added emulsifiers, salt, proteins, vitamins, colours and flavourings.

Thickeners are also added to ensure that we can still spread it effectively on our morning toast, but, as with the other examples, substituting health benefits for ease is a common theme here.

Ready meals

As previously mentioned, the things that are quick and easy to make are rarely going to have good ingredients inside, and while it's a hammer blow to students and tired workers everywhere, the ready meal is included in that.

Of course, you can find some healthier alternatives but many brands will contain preservatives and other additives as a way of making the meal look and taste better for longer, while also being high in salt and saturated fats.