It’s important when you begin your journey to health and fitness that you learn as much about nutrition and the many things you can do that will improve your dietary intake.

But, it is also just as important to understand what it is you should not be doing and eating if your goals are now vital health and fitness.

Truth is, some foods are downright dangerous to your health (beyond the norm) when consumed on a day to day basis.  

In many cases, it’s not enough to simply start eating the right ones, it’s the harmful foods that you are consuming that are more detrimental and those are the ones you need to get acquainted with and eliminate.

The point is, if you are not presently aware of these dangerous foods you will continue to consume them and they will continue their damaging effects on your body and before you know it, it’s too late and disease has struck and you are suffering.

Turning away from foods that you are used to eating – especially if you have an emotional attachment to them can be very challenging and takes effort and constant resilience to stick with it. Try focusing on the positive steps you are taking…for every “no” you put forth against damaging food products is one more step in the right direction and one step closer to your goals. Each “no” will also give you more strength to say “no” again. With each “no” you put forth…it gets easier and easier.

Soon you’ll start feeling the effects and seeing the benefits that eating the right foods bring – higher energy levels, a boost in health and your ability to enjoy the lifestyle you want to lead.

Here’s 4 foods that you should be making every effort to cut out of your diet plan now.

Foods with Trans fats: Trans fats are a manufactured form of fat that gets created whenever a fat gets an added hydrogen atom. This helps to boost the shelf life of many foods as well as the texture. But, it only damages your health. Are you willing to trade your health in so that you can keep your snacks on the shelf longer?

Trans fats are without a doubt the worst kind of fat you can consume (they have been connected to cancer development, worse even than high doses of saturated fat which you actually need some of in your diet).

You’ll find Trans fats in most processed foods such as chips, packaged snacks, deep fried foods and many frozen foods as well. Most times you will actually see the words “trans fats” on the label but be on the lookout for the words “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.” You need to avoid these foods as much as possible if you care about your health.

Fruit drinks and Soda: Drinking either one of these is a sure way to fill your body with sugar and chemicals. And, if that is not bad enough, these type of drinks are slightly addictive only making you reach for more and more as time goes on.

These high sugar drinks are going to spike your blood glucose and cause a flood of insulin to enter your body, encourage fat storage and promote diabetes development. Soda and sweetened fruit drinks will also slowly erod your bones as well. Diet soda is not better – even though they have removed the sugar. They have simply replace the sugar with artificial sweeteners or “chemicals.”

High Fructose Corn Syrup: This dangerous ingredient is one of the leading causes of obesity today. Fructose itself is not all that bad – fruit does contain fructose but offers other healthy nutrients and low levels of fructose. Enjoying a piece or two of fruit daily is not going to affect you in a negative way.

Regular glucose sugar gets stored in the muscle cells as muscle glycogen but fructose does not move into the blood stream but goes straight to the liver. Since the liver has a maximum capacity of 50 grams the excess fructose will simply get converted to triglycerides in your body and deposited right onto your body as fat storage.

Candy processed food product, sugary substances and fruit beverages are typically the worst culprits but condiments and sauces need close attention too.

White Flour Products: If you are looking to accelerate your aging process then look no further than consuming white flour products. The nutritional value has been stripped during the processing so it’s going to cause your blood glucose levels to spike setting you up for diabetes, fat gain and low energy.

Stay away from white breads, white pastas, muffins or anything else prepared with white flour. These foods also contain gluten which is extremely harmful to your overall health and can be dangerous if you are gluten intolerant.

For a more extensive list of dangerous foods and to discover 100 foods that are actually good for you  check out: “The Anti-Aging Foods Compendium.” It’s time to discover the difference between low nutrient foods and high nutrient foods and foods that are downright dangerous.