Avoid These 5 Common Office Snack Foods That Could Harm Your Health

Eating right is critical to your performance, so it’s really
important to make the right food choices throughout the
day.
Although some offices provide free snacks and lunches
for their employees, you need to evaluate whether those
choices will enhance or sabotage your health. Just
because it’s free doesn’t mean you should eat it!
Related: Nestle Candy Products Will Get Slightly Less
Junky This Year
Here are the top five foods to keep out of your desk
drawer for good:
1. Microwave popcorn
When it comes to microwave popcorn, everything from
the bag, the oil and the corn is bad news. Don’t believe
for a second that the delicious popcorn smell wafting
through your office signals a good thing!
Food companies might not want to publicize all the
details about “artificial flavors,” but some emit possibly
toxic fumes. The flavoring ingredient diacetyl , which
some major manufacturers have eliminated from their
products, has been linked to research showing lung
disease among employees at popcorn and flavoring
production facilities.
We don’t know what the manufacturers have substituted
diacetyl with and there is the possibility that some
brands still use it. That’s because “artificial flavors” are
a secret concoction of ingredients that are not required
to be disclosed, so you don’t know what’s really in them.
A possible substitute for diacetyl is 2,3-pentanedione,
which is linked to lung damage in animal studies.
The bottom line is, you don’t know what you are
ingesting when it comes to “artificial flavors,” so it’s a
good idea to avoid them.
Some brands still use partially hydrogenated soybean oil,
a major source of artificial trans fat that is associated
with up to 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year,
according to the CDC. The preservative propyl gallate is
on the Environmental Working Group’s list of the worst
food additives because it’s associated with tumors in
rats and estrogenic activity. The bag may be lined with
perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical linked to
cancer and the popcorn itself may contain harmful
pesticide residues.
What to eat instead: Try homemade “Superfood
Popcorn” with only three amazing ingredients: coconut
oil, hemp seeds and red palm oil. Get the recipe here
and put it in a reusable bag to bring to the office.
2. Doughnuts
No one thinks doughnuts are healthy, but this treat is
super popular at meetings and I used to get excited
when someone brought these in.
That was until I found out that commercially made
doughnuts contain a lot more than just carbs and fat --
they’re loaded with harmful additives too. Donuts may
contain partially hydrogenated oils (PHO), an ingredient
the FDA is reviewing the safety of, along with high
fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a slew of preservatives,
emulsifiers, fake flavors and colors.
Some doughnuts even contain butylated hydroxyanisole
(BHA), a preservative that’s linked to cancer . It’s not
worth sabotaging your health with these unnecessary
ingredients.
What to eat instead: Bring trail mix (made with raw nuts,
coconut and dried fruit) or fresh fruit to your meetings
so you don’t feel tempted if a donut box arrives. If you
want to treat your co-workers, bring in some delicious
homemade cookies such as these .
Related: Your Poor Eating Habits Are Hurting Business
3. Diet soda
A calorie isn’t a calorie when it’s made up of additives
that affect how much you eat and the way your body
metabolizes those chemicals . Low calorie beverages will
not fight obesity,and if anything, the reliance on
chemical-filled drinks just perpetuates the problem.
Despite what you might have heard, artificial sweeteners
have been shown to stimulate your appetite , increase
sugar cravings , and thereby promote fat storage and
weight gain.
What to eat instead: Brew some energizing green tea or
sip on lemon water at your desk. If you crave the fizz,
try packing some of my Real Ginger Ale or an organic
store-bought Kombucha.
4. Supermarket birthday cakes
The ingredient list on most store-bought cakes is so long
I literally have trouble keeping count – but I’ve seen
close to 80 ingredients !
The majority of the ingredients are fake chemical fillers
and substances that are obviously not real food, and it’s
nearly impossible to find one without artificial colors and
partially hydrogenated oils. Most cake manufacturers
use no real cane sugar at all and the whole cake is
sweetened with genetically modified sugar beets (which
will just say “sugar” in the ingredients) or high fructose
corn syrup. Some cakes also contain paraben
ingredients, such as propyl paraben, which is believed to
be an endocrine disruptor linked to cancer.
What to eat instead: It’s ridiculously easy to make a
cake from scratch, decorating it with organic candies,
dried fruit, chocolate sauce and/or natural food colorings
yourself. Get my recipe here.
5. Processed frozen lunch entrees
Just because they’re quick and low calorie doesn’t mean
you should eat it. The vast majority of these meals
contain a shocking number of potentially harmful
additives, and I’ve seen some with well over 40
ingredients!
Common ingredients in these meals are sodium
phosphate , partially hydrogenated oil , high fructose corn
syrup and caramel coloring . None of the ingredients are
organic or non-GMO verified and it's full of sugar and
corn-derived ingredients.
What to eat instead: When you cook dinner, make it a
point to make enough so that you have leftovers. Pack it
up for lunch the next day and freeze the rest in lunch-
size portions to use later.