CHAPTER ONE

Roll your cart down the aisle and you’ll be assaulted by bright lights, enticing smells, and row upon row of shameless hucksterism (“9 vitamins and minerals! Everyone’s a winner!”). That’s fine when the stakes are low, but going home with a 5-foot-tall Kung Fu Panda is far less important than going home with a trunk filled with food that will slim down that grizzly bear of a belly.

The truth is, the grocery store is your first stop in building a healthy lifestyle for you and your family. But it’s also a business. Supermarkets are designed to make you spend as much money as possible, often on high-margin products loaded with cheap ingredients and non-nutritive calories. Major food conglomerates are far more concerned with their bottom lines than your waistline, and as a result, their foods are filled out with cheap, nutritionally sparse ingredients like refined white flour, hydrogenated oils, and hundreds of additives, preservatives, and sweeteners derived from staple crops like corn and soy.

The key to any good offense is a solid defense. You may be a well-meaning shopper, but without a thoroughly planned attack, an innocent weekly grocery run can turn into an all-out assault on your health and your finances. Thankfully, mastering the supermarket is far easier than outsmarting a carny. Smart shoppers share a set of characteristics, and by pawing through the research and spending countless hours in supermarkets, we’ve finally managed to crack the code. Adopt these 7 Habits of Highly Effective Shoppers and you’ll be well on your way to being a master of the modern-day market.

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research tracked the grocery-shopping habits of 1,000 households over 6 months and found that shoppers who paid with cash bought fewer processed foods and more nutritious items than those who opted to use credit. The credit users not only bought more junk, they also spent an average of 59 to 78 percent more on their grocery bills. The explanation: Credit and debit cards are more abstract forms of payment, so you don’t use them as carefully as you do cash. The $4 price tag on a box of cheese crackers doesn’t mean much when you don’t have to think about the money that’s about to leave your wallet, and as such, credit-card users are far more likely to make impulsive decisions in the aisles. Plan to drop by the ATM before your next supermarket trip.

It’s a no-brainer that an empty belly leads to increased food cravings, but hunger may also affect your decision-making skills more generally. In a 2010 study, researchers at University College London discovered that hungry participants made riskier gambling decisions than those who were satiated, leading the investigators to argue that the hormones your body releases when you’re hungry influence your ability to think rationally. That means you’re more likely to risk your health on bonbons than you are to invest in bananas, and once you get home, you’re forced to live with the repercussions of that decision. The bottom line: An empty stomach is the enemy of rational shopping. Plan your market trips to fall right after meals, or fortify yourself by eating a handful of fiber-rich nuts just before shopping.

Before you get in your car to drive some-where you’ve never been, what do you do? You write down directions. Okay, you probably tap the address into an iPhone or an onboard GPS, but the objective is the same: You’re trying to make all the right turns that will lead you to your destination. Similarly, if your destination is a healthy body and an affordable grocery tab, you need directions. The supermarket is a highly complex thoroughfare, and every turn brings you closer to or further from the body you want. Creating a grocery list helps you stay focused on what you want to buy, leaving you less susceptible to marketing tactics and impulse purchases.

Most people leave their grocery shopping for Saturday or Sunday mornings, when the supermarket looks more like a ravaged battlefield than a center of commerce. Consider making midweek evening runs, instead. According to Progressive Grocer, only 11 percent of Americans shop on Wednesdays, and on any given day, only 4 percent shop after 9:00 p.m. So if you’re shopping at, say, 9:00 p.m. on a Wednesday, you’re able to get in and out quickly, which means you’ll spend less time fighting impulse items in both the aisles and at the checkout line. As a bonus, you’ll free up your Saturday morning for something more enjoyable, like cooking a healthy breakfast.

Pushing a shopping cart instead of carrying a basket may help you make smarter supermarket choices. A study published in the Journal of Marketing Research found that, all other things being equal, the strain of carrying a basket made shoppers more likely to reach for quick-grab impulse items—like the crackers and chips concentrated at eye level in the aisle. If you’re lugging around a heavy basket, you’re not taking the time to read labels and reach for more nutritious foods.

With the exception of alcohol, every packaged food and beverage in the super-market has an ingredients statement. By law, the more of an ingredient a product contains according to weight, the higher it appears on that list, so effective shoppers learn to ignore front-of-label claims and read ingredients statements instead. Claims like “made with whole grain” and “reduced fat” can fool you into thinking you’re making healthy choices, but if your “reduced fat” food lists sugar as the first—or second or third—ingredient, then it’s not doing you any favors. A good general rule for label scanning: The fewer the ingredients, and the easier those ingredients are to pronounce, the better.

For practical and economic reasons, most supermarkets in America live by the same organizational principles. Long-lasting boxed and bagged foods end up in the center aisles, while perishable, single-ingredient foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and dairy live along the outer walls. And that’s where you should live, too. Every time you enter the supermarket, make a full lap around the outer wall before making strategic inner-aisle strikes for things like oatmeal and whole-grain crackers. The more time you spend working the perimeter, the healthier you’ll be. To better understand the subtle ways supermarket organization can trick you into spending cash on empty calories, turn to an Anatomy of a Supermarket.

One supermarket trend we really like: It’s easier than ever to buy better-tasting food— that’s also better for you. Case in point: the wide selection of all-natural, organic products and high-quality specialty items at Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, and the Fresh Market. We say kudos to them. And to the patrons who seek them out. But beware: These 21st-century “health food” stores can actually trick you into eating less healthfully. How? By making bad-for-you food even more appealing. Your best defense: knowledge. That’s why we uncovered the secret ways these supermarkets supersize your stomach.

1. THEY DRIVE YOUR SENSES SENSELESS.Those delicious in-store product samples that you find in every specialty supermarket? They not only whet your appetite for the product, but also encourage you to buy more food overall, according to a study from Arizona State University. In fact, the research indicates that even the smell of cooking food might contribute to this effect. The stores are well aware of this. In fact, the Fresh Market invites you to “help yourself to a sample of freshly brewed coffee” and brags that “fragrant smells fill the atmosphere.”

2. THEY DRIVE CALORIE COUNTS UNDERGROUND. When you buy a package of cookies, the complete nutrition information is listed. But when you buy cookies made at an in-store bakery, you won’t find calorie counts. That goes for all the bakery items, from the “gourmet muffins” at the Fresh Market, to the “bakery fresh chocolate chip cookies” at Trader Joe’s, to the “gluten-free vanilla cupcakes” at Whole Foods. For perspective, just one of those Whole Foods cupcakes packs 480 calories. (The calorie count is listed online, but not in the store.) Knowing those numbers is critical: University of Missis-sippi researchers found that unhappy people —who are more likely to overindulge in comfort foods—ate 69 percent fewer calories when they checked the calorie content before digging in.

3. THEY MAKE THE JUNK LOOK GOURMET. Ever notice that more-expensive products tend to come in fancier packages? Researchers at the University of Michigan recently found that food purveyors may actually use fancy fonts and labels to help justify higher prices. The scientists theorize that attractive fonts and labels give people the perception that they are getting more value for the higher cost.

4. THEY BASK IN THE HEALTH HALO. Do you consider products from specialty supermarkets to be healthier than those from other grocery stores? If the answer is yes, you could be doing your waistline a disservice. When people guess the number of calories in a sandwich coming from a “healthy” restaurant, they estimate that it has, on average, 35 percent fewer calories than they do when it comes from an “unhealthy” restaurant, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Remember that the next time you reach for that package of Whole Foods’ Organic Fruit & Nut Granola. One cup of this “healthy” product contains almost 500 calories.

5. THEY BULK YOU UP “IN BULK.” On the Fresh Market Web site, the store claims to have the largest bulk snack selection “in town.” But be careful what you buy in this bulk section: It may cause you to look like you fit in there. Why? By filling your own bag with a big scoop, you’ll likely underestimate how much you’ve served yourself. Case in point: A Cornell University study found that nutritionists who were asked to serve themselves ice cream with large bowls and spoons dished out about 57 percent more than those given smaller bowls and spoons. Buy basic staples like spices, grains, and legumes in bulk, but make sure your snacks always come with serving sizes and calorie counts.

6. THEY BUFFET YOUR BELLY WITH BUFFETS. If you’re watching your weight, don’t step near the Whole Foods buffet. Cornell University researchers found heavier diners tend to overindulge in buffet settings. (Surprise!) Our real beef: While Whole Foods lists selections’ ingredients on the buffet’s ID labels, it doesn’t provide nutrition information for any of them. And yes, one of the items is macaroni and cheese—or “pasta and cheese” as the chain calls it.

Anatomy of a Supermarket

There’s a careful science to the way supermarkets are organized, and it isn’t to make sure you have the most pleasant experience possible. Shelves are stocked and aisles arranged for one strategic end: to ensure you, valued consumer, spend as much money as possible before wheeling your cart back out those sliding doors. If you plan to make it out of the supermarket jungle alive, you’ll need a map, a compass, and plenty of bug spray. Over the next four pages, we equip you with everything you need to escape unscathed.

GROCERY STORES ARE BIGGER THAN EVER.

The Food Market Institute says stores expanded from 35,000 to 47,000 square feet in the past 15 years. And with 38,000 items filling the aisles of the average market, it's never been easier to spend money on food that will sabotage your health and budgetary goals.

1. AVOID THE VEGAS EFFECT

Supermarkets are designed like casinos: clockless and nearly windowless expanses flooded with artificial light and Muzak, places where time stands still. Casinos force guests to navigate a maze of alluring gambling opportunities before they reach essential destinations: restaurants, bathrooms, exit doors. Same goes for the supermarket: The most essential staple foods—produce, bread, milk, and eggs—are placed in the back and along the perimeter of the supermarket to ensure that customers travel the length of the store—and thus are exposed to multiple junk-food temptations along the way.

2. PREPARE YOURSELF FOR STEEP PRICES

The prepared-foods section of grocery stores has grown in recent years as consumers demand more quick, low-cost alternatives to restaurant meals. A 2010 survey found that 64 percent of people had purchased a ready-to-eat meal from a supermarket in the previous month, and experts estimated that the sector would grow to $14 billion by the end of 2011. Unfortunately, markups can be steep and nutrition is scarcely a concern for supermarkets looking to maximize profits. Your best bet on a busy night? A rotisserie chicken—healthy, versatile, and usually about $6 a bird.

3. CHECK YOURSELF OUT

Impulse purchases drop by 32.1 percent for women—and 16.7 percent for men—when they use the self-checkout aisle, according to a study by IHL Consulting Group. Eighty percent of candy and 61 percent of salty-snack purchases are impulse buys.

4. GET TO KNOW THE BIG O

Organic foods and beverages have been one of the fastest-expanding sectors of the supermarket, with sales growing from $1 billion in 1990 to $26.7 billion in 2010. Organic foods can cost between 20 and 100 percent more than their conventional counterparts. To maximize your purchasing power in the organic-produce aisle, see Your Organic Primer.

5. BUY YOUR LETTUCE LAST

Consumers tend to shop in a counterclockwise pattern, according to a study from the Wharton School, so grocers place the produce section at the front of the store. Why? Because research shows that shoppers who peruse the produce aisle first spend more time and money in the store.

6. WORK THE PERIMETER

The produce section accounts for only 10 percent of a supermarket's sales, whereas the nutrient-depleted middle aisles make up 26 percent of sales. The most successful (i.e., healthiest) shoppers invert that ratio, spending the lion's share of their dollars in the produce and refrigerator sections and a small percentage in the murky middle aisles.

7. SKIMP ON THE SNACKS

The densest collection of those temptations is found in the snack aisle, which on average packs in a waist-widening 446 calories per 100 grams of food. Cereals come in a close second, costing you 344 calories per 100 grams.

Anatomy of an Aisle

It’s not just the overall layout of a supermarket that affects purchasing; no, every last square inch of real estate has been carefully considered by the engineers of profit. The biggest factor in the way your supermarket shelves are stocked? How much a manu-facturer is willing to pay to have its products placed in prime positions. Called slotting, this pay-for-placement practice has come to dominate the arrangement of the modern super-market, and consciously or not, it has tremendous impact on the products Americans stock their pantries with. Here’s how to beat the system.

LOOK BEYOND WHAT THE FOOD INDUSTRY WANTS YOU TO SEE.

The top eight grocery chains now account for 50 percent of all super-market sales, and with this increased clout, they're demanding that manu-facturers pay higher and higher slotting fees for premium shelf space. By some estimates, manufacturers shell out $100 billion a year in shelf fees, representing more than half of the supermarket industry's profits.

1. LOOK HIGH, AND LOW

For a new product, the standard price of admission can run to up to $25,000 per item for a regional cluster of stores. Some have estimated the cost of rolling out a small product line in supermarkets nationwide at $16.8 million. At those prices, only the biggest manufacturers—the Krafts and General Millses and Frito-Lays of the food world—can pay to play, further solidifying their places as brand leaders. Always start by scanning the top and bottom shelves. If you do, we guarantee that you'll find crackers with more fiber, fruit snacks with less sugar, and canned goods with less sodium than those on the costly middle shelves.

2. SHOP FOR CEREAL ALONE

The cereal industry spends more money each year—$229 million—advertising to children than any other packaged food category, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That also means they can afford to place sweet cereals on the lower shelves to catch the eyes of sugar-starved kids, who can then pester their parents for that colorful box of refined carbs.

3. SCAN FOR UNKNOWN BRANDS

As with the music and movies, sometimes the best stuff is the most obscure. Not only can bigger manufacturers afford better real estate, but they often pay to keep smaller manufacturers off the shelf or in disadvantageous locations. In California, independent bakers filed a lawsuit accusing Sara Lee of paying supermarkets to relegate local bagelmakers to only the top and bottom shelves. Sadly, these lesser-known brands are often healthier and more affordable than their big-name counterparts.

The average supermarket is now a minefield of more than 38,000 items. Quite a few can help strengthen your body, but even more can turn it to mush—and none more so than the 20 dietary detonators that follow. Know them and you can emerge from the aisles with the foods both you and your body will love.

WORST CONDIMENT

20. Kraft Tartar Sauce Natural Lemon & Herb Flavor (28 g, 2 Tbsp)

150 calories

16 g fat (2.5 g saturated)

180 mg sodium

In the real world, lemons and herbs are both essentially zero-calorie flavor boosters. But in the bizarro world of supermarket products, they constitute a 250 percent calorie tax on a normal bottle of tartar sauce—and every single extra calorie comes from cheap soybean oil. In fact, just 2 tablespoons of this Kraft-made kryptonite contain about 50 calories more than a full serving of tilapia. If your fish needs a friend, try cocktail sauce, salsa, or even Kraft’s regular tartar.

FAT EQUIVALENT: 10 strips of Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon

Eat This Instead!

Kraft Tartar Sauce (30 g, 2 Tbsp)

60 calories

5 g fat (1 g saturated)

200 mg sodium

WORST COOKIE

19. Oreo Double Stuf Cakesters (37 g, 1 snack cake)

170 calories

9 g fat (2 g saturated)

17 g sugars

The first four ingredients—sugar, palm oil, enriched flour, and high-fructose corn syrup—are each to be avoided individually, so in concert, they create one catastrophic cookie. Consume one of these a day and after a year, you’ll have packed on 17 pounds of fat. Then you’ll be shopping for double-stuff pants.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 80 Jujubes candy pieces

Eat This Instead!

Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Soft Baked Cookies (30 g, 1 cookie)

130 calories

5 g fat (1.5 g saturated)

4 g fiber

8 g sugars

WORST MARINARA SAUCE

18. Gia Russa Select Pasta Sauce Alla Vodka (113 g, ½ cup)

200 calories

18 g fat (7 g saturated)

520 mg sodium

Don’t blame the vodka for corrupting this tomato-based sauce. The real culprits here are heavy whipping cream, butter, and cheese—a fat-filled trio that pads this sauce with more caloric density than most ice creams. And let’s be honest: You’re going to eat more than one ½-cup serving. Make it 1 cup sauce with a couple cups of pasta and you’ve just hit 800 calories—and that’s before factoring in the garlic roll and the glass of wine to wash it down with.

SATURATED FAT EQUIVALENT: 14 McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets

Eat This Instead!

Amy’s Light in Sodium Organic Family Marinara (125 g, ½ cup)

80 calories

4.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated)

290 mg sodium

WORST WRAP

17. Mission Wraps Garden Spinach Herb (70 g, 1 tortilla)

210 calories

4.5 g fat (2 g saturated)

510 mg sodium

A basic tortilla takes about four ingredients to construct—flour, water, oil, salt—but Mission uses no fewer than 30 ingredients to construct these wraps, and spinach falls under the “2% or less” portion of the ingredients statement. So what is this wrap made of? A lot of enriched flour and vegetable shortening, neither of which makes for a healthy wrap.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 4 Pizza Hut Traditional Buffalo Wings

Eat This Instead!

Flatout Flatbread Light Garden Spinach (53 g, 1 flatbread)

90 calories

2.5 g fat (0 g saturated)

9 g fiber

WORST YOGURT

16. Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk Chocolate Underground (6 oz, 1 container)

220 calories

5 g fat (3 g saturated)

36 g sugars

What’s your favorite candy-bar indulgence? Butterfinger? Reese’s? Snickers? This yogurt has more sugar than all of them. The 9 teaspoons of sweetness in each container is enough to hijack your blood sugar and push your body into fat-storage mode. You’d be better off eating a modest scoop of ice cream.

SUGAR EQUIVALENT: 2 scoops of Breyers Original Rocky Road Ice Cream

Eat This Instead!

Yoplait Delights Parfait Chocolate Éclair (4 oz, 113 g, 1 container)

100 calories

1.5 g fat (1 g saturated)

13 g sugars

WORST DRINK

15. SoBe Pina Colada (20 fl oz, 1 bottle)

310 calories

1 g fat (0.5 g saturated)

77 g sugars

A 20-ounce Coke has less sugar, yet watchdog groups would have Coca-Cola in court if the company tried to plaster any health claims on its bottle. So how does SoBe get away with touting the hibiscus and zinc in this drink? Simple: Without carbonation, SoBe’s product is not a traditional “soft drink,” so it’s not on the radar of most health critics. This drink has nearly as much sugar as half a dozen Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Triple Chocolate Chip ice cream bars, and no mineral or herb can protect you from that.

SUGAR EQUIVALENT: 2 cans of Coca-Cola

Drink This Instead!

AriZona Arnold Palmer Zero Half & Half Iced Tea Lemonade (24 oz, 1 can)

0 calories

0 g fat

<1 g sugars

WORST ICE CREAM

14. Häagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter (½ cup)

360 calories

24 g fat (11 g saturated)

24 g sugars

Do you know what the standard ½-cup serving of ice cream looks like? It’s about the size of a hacky sack. So choosing poorly in the frozen section has caloric consequences beyond what the label suggests. Häagen Dazs is a perfect example of poor choices—the company is consistently among the worst on the shelf, and this carton packs more than half your day’s saturated fat into each scoop.

SATURATED FAT EQUIVALENT: 3 small orders of Burger King french fries

Eat This Instead!

Edy’s Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup (½ cup)

130 calories

5 g fat (2.5 g saturated)

13 g sugars

WORST CANNED GOOD

13. Dennison’s Original Chili con Carne with Beans (256 g, 1 cup)

360 calories

14 g fat (6 g saturated)

1,030 mg sodium

Eat both servings in this can and you’ve just spooned down 38 percent more than the maximum amount of sodium most people should consume in a day. And thanks to the use of gristly beef cuts, you’ve also taken in more than half your day’s saturated fat and 720 calories.

SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 112 Rold Gold Pretzel Sticks

Eat This Instead!

Campbell’s Chunky Chili Roadhouse Beef & Bean (1 cup)

230 calories

5 g fat (2 g saturated)

870 mg sodium

WORST CEREAL

12. Quaker Natural Granola Oats & Honey & Raisins (102 g, 1 cup)

420 calories

10 g fat (1 g saturated)

26 g sugars

Granola must have a heck of a PR guy. After all, someone managed to convince an entire nation of eaters that clumps of oats and raisins glued together with sugar is somehow healthy. Five years as America’s Worst Cereal, we hope, cuts through the spin.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 3 servings of Cookie Crisp cereal

Eat This Instead!

Kashi GoLean Crunch! (53 g, 1 cup)

190 calories

3 g fat (0 g saturated)

13 g sugars

WORST “HEALTHY” FROZEN ENTRÉE

11. Healthy Choice Roasted Sesame Chicken (335 g, 1 meal)

440 calories

9 g fat (1.5 g saturated)

470 mg sodium

27 g sugars

Reality check: The name says roasted chicken, but read the fine print and you see the meat is coated in flour and then cooked in vegetable oil. Sounds an awful lot like fried chicken, doesn’t it? Then Healthy Choice soaks the pasta in pineapple juice and coats the fruit side dish in a sweetened syrup to deliver a candy bar’s worth of sugar. Healthy? Hardly.

SUGAR EQUIVALENT: 3 Krispy Kreme Traditional Cake Doughnuts

Eat This Instead!

Kashi Southwest Style Chicken (283 g, 1 entrée)

240 calories

5 g fat (1 g saturated)

680 mg sodium

3 g sugars

WORST PACKAGED SIDE

10. Pasta Roni Fettuccine Alfredo (1 cup prepared with 2% milk and margarine)

450 calories

24 g fat

(7 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)

1,050 mg sodium

Alfredo is bad enough as it is, but Pasta Roni’s version compounds the nutritional negligence with partially hydrogenated oil, monosodium glutamate, and a smattering of artificial colors. Each serving of this side dish has a meal’s worth of calories, two-thirds of your day’s sodium allotment, and 2 days’ worth of trans fats. Safe yourself by boiling your own pasta and tossing it with olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan.

SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 97 Cheez-Its

Eat This Instead!

Pasta Roni Butter & Herb Italiano (1 cup prepared)

300 g fat

11 g fat (3 g saturated)

780 mg sodium

WORST FROZEN TREAT

9. Mrs. Fields Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich (129 g, 1 sandwich)

450 calories

19 g fat (11 g saturated)

41 g sugars

The classic ice cream sandwich of yesteryear represented an ideal balance of decadence and restraint, a compact package of vanilla and chocolatey goodness for less than 200 calories. Unfortunately, food manufacturers have ushered into the freezer section a new era for these treats, one defined by gargantuan portions and sky-high sugar counts. Sandwiched between Mrs. Fields’ two giant cookie bookends are nearly a quarter of your day’s calories and more than half of your day’s saturated fat limit.

FAT EQUIVALENT: 19 tablespoons of Extra Creamy Cool Whip

Eat This Instead!

Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches (62 g, 1 sandwich)

160 calories

4 g fat (2 g saturated)

15 g sugars

WORST PIE

8. Marie Callender’s Southern Pecan Pie (113 g, ⅛ pie)

450 calories

23 g fat (4 g saturated, 3 g trans)

44 g sugars

With three separate uses of partially hydrogenated oil and shortening, Marie Callender creates a slice of pie with more trans fats than you should eat in 36 hours and as much sugar as 97 M&M’s. Regardless of brand, remember these two pie rules: Pecan pie is almost always the worst choice, and pumpkin nearly without fail is your best.

FAT EQUIVALENT: 71 Chili Cheese Fritos

Eat This Instead!

Sara Lee Oven Fresh Pumpkin Pie (131 g)

260 calories

10 g fat (4 g saturated)

20 g sugars

WORST KIDS’ MEAL

7. Lunchables with Juice Nachos, Cheese Dip + Salsa

490 calories

21 g fat (4.5 g saturated)

890 mg sodium

25 g sugars

For all the heat school lunch programs have been taking lately, it’s hard to imagine cafeteria slop being any worse than what’s inside this box. The ingredients list reads like a college organic chemistry final, littered as it is with bizarre preservatives, fillers, sweeteners, and partially hydrogenated oil. The hardest part is deciding which part of the Lunchable is the worst: the sugary Capri Sun, the Nestlé Crunch bar, or the neon-orange cheese goo. Isn’t it worth an extra few minutes to make sure your children go off to school with the best possible food in their bags?

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 6 Applegate Farms Natural Beef Hot Dogs

Eat This Instead!

Lunchables with Fruit Ham + American Cracker Stackers

290 calories

9 g fat (3 g saturated)

530 mg sodium

22 g sugars

WORST INDIVIDUAL SNACK

6. Hostess Pudding Pie Chocolate (128 g, 1 pie)

520 calories

24 g fat (12 g saturated)

40 g sugars

Skip past the enriched flour and water on the ingredients list and here’s what you get: shortening, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, butter, chocolate liqueur, and on and on. Any one of these ingredients alone might prompt you to raise an eyebrow, but taken together they should invoke a gag reflex and a sprint for a new snack fix.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 5 Good Humor Cookie & Cream Bars

Eat This Instead!

Little Debbie Pecan Spinwheels (30 g, 1 wheel)

100 calories

3.5 g fat (1 g saturated)

7 g sugars

WORST BREAKFAST

5. Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowls Pancakes & Sausage Links (244 g, 1 bowl)

710 calories

34 g fat (12 g saturated)

1,000 mg sodium

35 g sugars

Fat and sodium are the usual villains in Southern-style breakfasts, and both are in full force in JD’s Pancakes & Sausage Links bowl. But here’s the kicker: It also contains more syrupy sugar than a liquefied Snickers bar. You’d be better off eating two McDonald’s Sausage Burritos soaked in syrup than you would be heating this container up.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 13 Little Debbie Powdered Mini Donuts

Eat This Instead!

Jimmy Dean D-Lights Turkey Sausage Muffin (145 g, 1 sandwich)

260 calories

8 g fat (3.5 g saturated)

760 mg sodium

3 g sugars

WORST STIR-FRY/SKILLET

4. Stouffer’s Sautés for Two Steak Gorgonzola (340 g, ½ package)

730 calories

26 g fat (14 g saturated)

950 mg sodium

Perfect for when you’re dining with a mortal enemy. But if your table partner is someone you care about, spare him or her the nutritional assault. In total, this bag contains 1,460 calories and nearly one and a half times the saturated fat you should eat in an entire day. The reason: prime rib (among the fattiest cuts of beef) and four different cheeses.

SATURATED FAT EQUIVALENT: 5 Taco Bell Fresco Bean Burritos

Eat This Instead!

Bertolli Tuscan-Style Braised Beef with Gold Potatoes (340 g, ½ bag)

310 calories

11 g fat (2.5 g saturated)

920 mg sodium

WORST FROZEN PIZZA

3. DiGiorno Traditional Crust Supreme Pizza (262 g, 1 pizza)

790 calories

37 g fat

(13 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)

1,410 mg sodium

DiGiorno’s line of Traditional Crust individual pizzas tops this category year after year, and for good reason. It has far more calories, sodium, and fat (including dangerous trans fats) than any other pie in the freezer. Not even the company’s newer stuffed crust individual pizzas are worse. The company’s slogan may be “It’s not delivery. It’s DiGiorno,” but you’re definitely better off ordering Domino’s than you are tussling with this pie.

SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 1 pound of oil-roasted peanuts

Eat This Instead!

DiGiorno 200 Calorie Portions Pepperoni Pizza (170 g, 1 pizza)

400 calories

18 g fat (8 g saturated)

1,040 mg sodium

WORST FROZEN ENTRÉE

2. Hungry-Man Select Classic Fried Chicken (406 g, 1 package)

1,030 calories

62 g fat (14 g saturated)

1,610 mg sodium

It should come as no surprise that Hungry-Man continues to find its way down to the bottom of our Worst Foods lists. But what is surprising is that these atrocious numbers don’t tell the whole story of just how bad this brand can be. Sure, the calories, fat, and sodium are outrageous, but what concerns us most is that Hungry-Man fails to list trans fats on its nutrition label, despite federal regulations requiring it. And the thing is, every component of this plate—aside from the corn—contains a dose of partially hydrogenated oil, the source of trans fats.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: 8.5 KFC Original Recipe Drumsticks

Eat This Instead!

Stouffer’s Homestyle Classics Fried Chicken

(251 g, 1 package)

360 calories

18 g fat (4.5 g saturated)

880 mg sodium

WORST PACKAGED FOOD

1. Marie Callender’s Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie (568 g, 1 pie)

1,140 calories

72 g fat (28 g saturated)

1,760 mg sodium

Don’t fall for the nutritional sleight of hand: The company lists a serving as ½ pie, but few people are going to split what is essentially a single-person dish. Equally egregious is what’s inside. Chicken fat is one of the first ingredients, followed by a bevy of oils, cream, cheese, and finally a string of unpronounceable chemicals that you might confuse with hazardous wastes. And the thing is, you wouldn’t be far off.

CALORIE EQUIVALENT: Nine 12-ounce bottles of Guinness Draught

Eat This Instead!

Banquet Chicken Pot Pie (198 g, 1 pie)

370 calories

21 g fat (8 g saturated)

1,040 mg sodium