100 Unhealthiest Foods of 2018

You love things that are new. We all do. The hot new phone. The cool new TV shows. That new car smell. But not everything newer is better. In fact, in the grocery store and at popular chain restaurants, “new” usually means the same old ingredients, packaged differently, and often they’re just as unhealthy as the originals.

Manufacturers have been doing this for years. You might say it’s…nothing new.

To help you make the right food choice every time, our researchers at Eat This, Not That! scoured the aisles and analyzed the menus to collect the definitive list of the 100 Unhealthiest Foods of 2018. Within, you’ll find new foods that debuted this year, but also familiar classics that you might have purchased—and all 100 hand-picked products met at least one of our nutritional criteria. Discover which are in your house, and also don’t miss our other essential report: 70 Most Popular Sodas Ranked by How Toxic They Are.

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We used this list of nutritional criteria to select the products on this list.

Calories: Any restaurant meal with over 1,000 calories (50% of a standard 2,000-calorie diet) qualified for the list.

Fat: Equal to or more than 13 grams of fat, which is 20% of your daily recommended value (DRV) of fat. Fat from nuts did not qualify.

Saturated Fat: Equal to or more than 4 grams, which is 20% of your DRV of saturated fat.

Trans Fat: Any value over 0 grams of trans fat in a food qualified a food item for this list.

Sodium: Equal to or more than 560 mg sodium per serving, which is 20% of your DRV of sodium.

Fiber: Anything with less than 1 gram of fiber. (The FDA recommends consuming at least 28 grams of fiber a day on a 2,000 calorie diet.)

Sugar: More than 10 grams of sugar, which is 20% of your DRV of added sugars.

Sugar Alcohols: Equal to or more than 10 grams of sugar alcohols. Consuming too much sugar alcohol in one sitting can have a laxative-like effect; additionally, sugar alcohols might not be as safe as the industry initially assumed. Once thought to bypass the body’s metabolic process, a sugar alcohol found in your favorite foods—erythritol—can be metabolized by, and even produced in, the human body, according to groundbreaking research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Translation: sugar alcohols probably do have calories after all.) Even worse? The Cornell University researchers also identified erythritol as a biomarker for increasing fat mass.

Ingredients: We believe that the food we eat should be made with ingredients we can find in our own pantries at home. Foods that contained any of the following ingredients (ingredients which research has shown to confer negative health effects) qualified for a spot on our list: ultra-processed fats such as monoglycerides, diglycerides, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, interesterified vegetable oil, DATEM; unhealthy, inflammatory fats such as soybean and palm oil; any artificial ingredient like a sweetener, color (including caramel coloring), or flavor; preservatives such as TBHQ or potassium sorbate; bone-health-draining additives like disodium phosphate and disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate; hunger-revving ingredients like monosodium glutamate, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate.

Don’t take home the Gold. This chocolate bar is disqualified for blending fatty chocolate with salty pretzels, a saturated-fat-and-sodium knockout.

When your sandwich is a pun on a robot killing machine, maybe don’t eat your sandwich.

Bought the Farm? Return it. It says “thin” on the package. But they’re still cookies.

We love that there are “no artificial flavors” but you’re getting nearly 20% of your day’s sodium in just one serving, and there’s four servings per box.

The year’s trend of salty chocolate confections strikes again. Put this mugshot alongisde Nick Nolte’s.

Courtesy of Trader Joe's

“Vegan” doesn’t mean healthy. You’d have to be bananas to eat a slice of bread with 17 grams of sugar.

This isn’t a breakfast food. The key word here is “cake.” As in, “it’s so caloric, it takes the…”

While the yogurt industry increasingly lowers their sugar count, noosa does the opposite. Noosa? No sir.

Wonder why it’s on this list? Blame the marshmallows, which add even more sugar.

Someone thought a Snickers-Nestle-Crunch mashup was a good idea. That person wasn’t a dietician.

Lean in…and read the ingredients. The sodium’s way too high.

Your salad shouldn’t have as much sugar as a candy bar. This one does. Shake it off.

“Abadee abadee abadee that’s all folks.”

They wedged a cookie into a Reese’s cup. E.T., phone your nutritionist.

This bar has an alcohol problem—too many sugar alcohols.

If it looks like cake, it’s probably as bad as cake—in this case, points off for the sugar alcohols. Instead, grab a bar from the “best” side of our guide: 25 Best & Worst Low-Sugar Protein Bars.

Don’t be fooled into thinking all gluten-free products are automatically healthy. In this case, Ronzoni uses a trans fat alternative—mono and diglycerides—to bind the gluten-free flours. Your better option can be found on our list of 30 Best & Worst Dry Pastas in America.

In an era of empowerment, we love the message. We just don’t love the ingredients.

It wouldn’t be kosher to call them “pigs.” But the high sodium count leaves us verklempt.

When you’re in the zone, you probably don’t want to be powered by a cheap protein like isolated protein or inflammatory oils like fractionated palm kernel.

Don’t say cheese. These have more salt than your average macaroni.

@OliveGarden/Twitter

If you lost your poor meatball, it’d be for the best: This dish has over the FDA-recommended day’s worth of sodium.

Courtesy of Chili's

According to The Center for Science in the Public Interest, ordering this combo of jalapeno-cheddar smoked sausage, dry rub ribs, and smoked brisket is worse than chowing down on three of the chain’s sirloin steak dinners.

One salad, one thousand calories. The chicken is crazy, indeed.

Silly rabbit! Sundaes shouldn’t have a quarter day’s worth of calories and over a day’s worth of added sugars!

“Hearty” sounds healthy. But this is Wonder Bread in fancy packaging. Pick a loaf that got our approval from our report: 20 Best & Worst Store-Bought Breads.

Send this one back to nature and find a protein bar with 5 grams of sugar or less, like KIND’s Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt.

White bread is white bread, in any language.

With “50% more cake” and “50% more creme,” this is 100% worse for you.

Courtesy of Wendy's

Bacon + maple syrup + fried chicken = sandwich of our dreams. But a nightmare in reality, with more than a half-day’s worth of sodium.

Oh, honey—Cold Brew is strong enough as it is. Why add sweetener?

Nothing like starting the day off with five servings of Frito’s worth of sodium.

If it looks like dessert, tastes like dessert and is named after a dessert, it’s dessert. Not a cereal.

This classic is playing up the frosting in its marketing. Like that’s a good thing.

If you’re hungry, man, you should probably pick up a dish that’s less caloric than three Egg McMuffins.

Mamma mia! That’s a lotta sodium.

Fly away from this pie as quickly as you can. Add another slice—who eats just one?—and you’ll surpass half your day’s allotment of sodium. Want a frozen pizza that meets our standards? Take a look at our guide: 25 Best and Worst Frozen Pizzas.

No matter how hungry you are, you shouldn’t pick a frozen meal that meets half your day’s worth of fat and saturated fat.

Who knew you could pack so much fat in such a small bowl? This Stouffer’s is stuffed.

Courtesy of Starbucks

Starbuck this trend. There are far better ways to start your day than by consuming the same amount of sodium as what’s in three bags of Rold Gold pretzels.

Grab a chocolate chip cookie and save yourself 20 grams of sugar.

Dontcha want-a Fanta? No thanks. This is liquid sugar.

Have it your way and order something else. This sandwich is king of sodium.

This soup is pretty sipping salty!

Have a bowl of this cereal and you’ll be smacked with the equivalent sugar count of two Krispy Kreme Cinnamon Sugar Donuts. It’s one of The Unhealthiest Cereals on the Planet.

Mmm, nothing is as satisfying as the crunch of a vegetable oil-soaked potato chip that’s been seasoned and dyed with artificial ingredients. Oh wait…

Gee-whiz, we’ll pass on dipping into this salty slurry of “cheese.”

It’s time to grow up and toss this jar of peanuts, sugar, and hydrogenated vegetable oils out of your pantry.

Courtesy of Denny's

This breakfast checks all the (wrong) boxes: more calories than a 120-pound woman should eat in an entire day, more sodium than anyone should eat in a day, and three days worth of sugar.

Courtesy of Red Lobster

There’s nothing shrimpy about the salt in this dish: There’s a whole day’s worth.

It’s not a Twix Pie; it’s a pie made with Twix. In fact, it has more than three times the amount of fat, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar as a Twix.

Three times the flavor, you get what feels like three-times the sugar grams.

We’re quaking in our boots. Buy the brand’s many other and equally delicious varieties that have less than 23 grams of sugar. You can find the best in our ranking of All 25 Quaker Instant Oatmeal Packets—Ranked!

Courtesy of White Castle

The salt and sugar counts here has our legs waffling.

Ahoy, matey—these have more sugar than a store-bought cookie needs, plus vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial flavor.

Mr. Fields must have a sweet tooth. His wife over-sugars his dessert.

Crunch the numbers, and you’ll see there’s about 10 grams more sugar than we’d like.

This is the daddy mac of high sodium counts—not healthy for you or your kids.

Go for Breyer’s Natural Vanilla and save calories and sugar.

You’ve heard the expression “spill some tea”? Now do it. And then pick up a copy of The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse to see how choosing the right tea can actually help you blast fat.

Wilmmmmmma! This is candy for breakfast and absolutely zero fiber!

Smoothies should be nutrition at the press of a button. That’s why there’s Zero Belly Smoothies. Zero Belly Smoothies are plant-based protein drinks that have been shown to make a dramatic impact on your life in as little as 72 hours. They will flatten your belly, heal your digestive system, and strip away unwanted fat in just days.

Good thing they’re handmade. That means you can hand them back to the chef—there’s a half day’s worth of fat here.

Courtesy of Jamba Juice

We pitaya the fool who orders this calorie bomb, which is full of added sugars.

“Kerfuffle is a humorous-sounding word for a mostly non-humorous situation: some kind of disturbance, scandal or mess.”—Vocabulary.com

Courtesy of California Pizza Kitchen

Waldorf and Statler would jeer the day’s worth of sodium!

When it’s crunch time, avoid candy with “crunch” in the name. You’re crunching sugar and starchy rice.

Courtesy of TGI Fridays

Two comfort food classics team up to deliver more salt than an entire bag of Lay’s potato chips. Discomforting.

Courtesy of Olive Garden

Chicken out and order one of these go-to meals nutritionists order at Olive Garden.

There’s 57 reasons not to eat this classic, and they’re all named sugar.

The ingredients are real, to be sure: real fatty.

Courtesy of Olive Garden

They’re also loaded with too many calories, a staggering amount of fat and a day’s worth of salt.

While there is some cheddar cheese in this slice, about half of it is protein concentrate, sodium citrate, milk, modified starches, and preservatives. If only Kraft would make American great again.

Call him the Pillsbury Doh’boy. No biscuit needs that much sodium.

Courtesy of Olive Garden

It takes less than a day to fly to Italy. So why does this have more than a day’s worth of sodium?

Cheerio, as in, “goodbye.” The first ingredient might be whole grain oats, but don’t be fooled into pouring this cereal into a bowl. The brand adds highly process fats such as monoglycerides to keep that peanut butter smooth.

Will Wonder never cease putting sugar into white bread?

Your mug will experience some serious tooth decay if you continue sipping on a drink this sugary daily. It’s among the worst of the worst when it comes to sodas ranked by toxicity.

This Diamond is rough: There’s 13 grams of sugar in almond milk!!! Instead, find the best dairy-free blend with our guide: The Best and Worst Milks & Milk Alternatives.

Deep fried corn chips are bad enough—these have MSG and caramel coloring.

It’s not milk. It’s not cream. It’s: Water, Sugar, Vegetable Oil (High Oleic Soybean and/or High Oleic Canola), and Less than 2% of Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative)**, Mono- and Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Natural and Artificial Flavors.

It may have more veggies than the original cuppa, but there’s still about half a day’s worth of sodium here.

Sweet merciful Maude—who neds 16 grams of sugar in their BBQ sauce?

These are cookies just like Mom used to make, if Mom cooked with sugar, palm or interesterified and hydrogenated soybean and/or hydrogenated cottonseed oils.

What some coffee with your sugar?

Don’t come to the dark side. This has more sugar than a candy bar should.

It ain’t easy being cheese when you have this many calories and and this much sodium.

Courtesy of Red Lobster

Another mac and cheese, another spot on the Unhealthiest list, this one because of the calories.

We like the protein, but not the artificial sweeteners. Find a replacement via our 26 Best and Worst Grab-And-Go Protein Shakes.

Imagine salting a corn chip that’s already salted—that’s this.

It’s better to eat your calories than drink them. Here, you get all the sugar from fruit without the fiber.

Courtesy of Chili's

At nearly two days’ worth of sodium, you can count this quesadilla among the 20 Saltiest Restaurant Meals On The Planet.

The naked truth: There’s too many calories in this “healthy” juice.

Courtesy of Applebee's

When it comes to fried seafood, abandon ship and opt for grilled instead. And while we’re on the subject, you should also avoid these other 46 Most Caloric Dishes in America.

Courtesy of Ruby Tuesday

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday / who could hang and eat with you? / So much salt, two times a full day / girl, I’ll never miss you.

Magnum means large, right? Like, large amount of sugar and fat?

It’s the most famous and they’ll never change the recipe, even though you know high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, and natural flavors aren’t classic; they’re played out.

Mr. Big Stuf, who do you think you are? Twice as bad as a regular Oreo.

Courtesy of Friendly's

With friends like these, who needs a day’s worth of sodium?

Skip it. Your peanut butter should be two ingredients: peanuts and salt. Skippy beefs their “natural” PB with sugar and palm oil. You’ll find our Eat This!-approved picks in our exclusive report: The 36 Top Peanut Butters—Ranked!