This story has been updated since it was originally posted on 4/29/23 to include more expert insight
There are several factors that affect your ability to lose weight. In addition to hitting the gym and burning calories with fat-blasting workouts, your diet is one of the most crucial components to consider.
While you may know the importance of adding the right nutrients to your plate with healthy recipes and whole foods, it’s also vital that you limit your intake of certain unhealthy foods and ingredients. In addition to the obvious options like fried, fast food, there are a few inflammatory items that may be lurking in your own kitchen. If you really want to watch the pounds drop, experts agree that cutting out white bread, pastries, vegetable oil, and potato chips is always a good idea.
To learn more about how these foods could be holding you back from reaching your goal weight as quickly as possible, we spoke to health experts Lisa Richards, nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet, and Kelsey Mauro, functional medicine gut health consultant, Jay Cowin, registered nutritionist, and Dana Ellis Hunnes, registered dietitian. Find all of their expert insight below.
1. White bread
Many people prefer white bread for their sandwiches, toast, and more. It may even be a staple in your own pantry and diet. Unfortunately, thought, Richards warns that this is one of the worst foods for your overall health and could seriously stall your weight loss efforts. For this reason, cutting it out of your diet is one great step to take on your weight loss journey.
White bread and other refined carbs, Richards says, "have many negative side effects for our health and belly fat is just one of them." Essentially, these processed foods "have undergone a refining process where the fiber and beneficial nutrients are removed and possibly replaced with synthetic versions." That means eating white bread can lead to "quick sugar spikes and inflammation, both of which stall weight loss and damage health."
Luckily, there are plenty of healthier breads to choose from. Switching to whole grain or even sprouted bread could make a major difference in your weight loss progress. Discover one of the best breads for weight loss here.
2. Sugary pastries
Here's another type of refined carb that health experts urge you to kick to the curb if weight loss is your goal (or even if you just want to be healthier overall). Richards cites sugary pastries like donuts and danishes as some of the worst foods for inflammation and weight gain.
"They are a combination of refined carbs and fat from oil," she warns. "These two together provide you with a high calorie, inflammatory, and weight promoting snack."
Like white bread, she goes on to explain that pastries are highly inflammatory and likely to lead to a quick rise in glucose due to all that sugar. "When the body is inflamed for a prolonged period of time it becomes more difficult to lose weight," Richards says, emphasizing that "the body will begin to hold on to weight more easily."
For a healthier breakfast that can still hit that sweet spot, you may want to go with some yogurt, granola, and fruit. Here are some of the best weight loss-friendly breakfasts to choose from.
3. Vegetable oils
When it comes to the worst commonly used ingredients that are likely to slow your weight loss progress, vegetable oils are definitely somewhere at the top of the list. Mauro warns that these cooking oils, which are processed with chemicals and packed with omega-6 fatty acids, "are a key contributor to inflammation" and "can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases and an increased risk of obesity."
Additionally, vegetable oils offer virtually no nutritional value. As Cowin notes, they "contain only trace amounts of nutrients, meaning cooking with this oil doesn't provide much benefit to your body or diet compared to other oils that are higher in unsaturated fats like olive oil." Learn more about the health benefits of olive oil here.
Of course, there's also the simple fact that this ingredient is extremely calorie-dense, with a single tablespoon coming in around 120 calories. Overall, your best bet is to trade vegetable oils for olive oil.
4. Potato chips
If you have a weakness for snacks, you're certainly not alone. If you simply can't last between lunch and dinner without a bit of a treat, you may frequently indulge in tasty, crispy, salty potato chips. Unfortunately, while this addicting snack can definitely please your taste buds, it's not such a good choice for your waistlines.
The main problem with highly processed empty-calorie foods like this, as Hunnes tells us, is that they have "no nutritional benefits and are often devoid of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds." In short, they're not giving your body anything it needs to thrive, all while loading it up with calories. Ultimately, since all of those calories take little energy to process, your metabolism can take a hit—and your dream body will suffer because of it, too.
Additionally, Hunnes warns that potato chips and other processed snacks can also slow your weight loss journey by resulting in "insulin spikes, increases in IGF-1, an inflammatory marker, and increases risk for chronic diseases and deposition (fat storage) of calories in the body." All in all, it's best to leave them on the shelf, resist them as much as possible, and choose healthy snacks instead.
The bottom line
Of course, losing weight should be a comprehensive effort; it will take more than just cutting a few inflammatory foods out if you want to reach your goal weight as quickly as possible. However, if you frequently indulge in foods like white bread and pastries and tend to cook with vegetable oils, eliminating these foods from your diet will certainly take you one step closer.
