The Foods that May Cause the Most Weight Gain

In today's world, our diet is very superficial and not very nutritive. Read this article to discover the foods that may cause the most weight gain.

Written and verified by the pedagogue in physical education and nutritionist Elisa Morales Lupayante.

Last update: 11 June, 2022

Nowadays, we eat a lot of canned foods, sodas, concentrated juices, and instant soups. Nothing is natural. This pushes vegetables, fruits, and fiber to the side, and replaces them with fast food and fatty foods.

Eating homemade foods with healthy ingredients is difficult, as t he best food becomes the fastest and is the most appetizing. This also happens with kids, who eat more and more sweets, soft drinks, hamburgers, and French fries. And the consequence? Obesity that affects more people in the world every day.

We need to learn to eat healthily and not to slowly poison our bodies. We have to invest in our health today to avoid complications tomorrow. The food we eat affects our bodies.

Of course, there are foods that may cause more weight gain than others, and they’re usually the most tempting.

The foods that may cause the most weight gain

Below, we will mention the foods that may cause the most weight gain in the least amount of time:

• Fast food, hamburgers, French fries, pastries, and pizza.
• Pasta: On its own, it doesn’t cause a lot of problems, but if we eat it with a lot of sauce, condiments, or cheeses, they do. What truly causes weight gain is what we eat our pasta with.
• Processed meats, deli meats, and sausages, as these contain saturated fats, sodium, and calories.
• Salads: They’re good but without too much dressing. You can eat a salad that appears healthy, but adding condiments or other additions considerably increases their calories.
• Fried foods: It’s best to eat foods that are steamed, cooked on the griddle, baked, grilled, or sautéed. Fried foods absorb a lot of oil. Frying foods increases their calories.
• Sugar-sweetened drinks are also included in this list.
• Products made with refined flour and sugar. White chocolate contains the most sugar, and therefore, can cause the most weight gain.

Monosodium glutamate

Have you ever eaten something, and wanted to eat more and more, without being able to stop? Well, this has an explanation. A certain component is added in large amounts to salty, processed, canned, frozen, packaged foods, and fast foods.

It’s found naturally in some foods, like those that contain proteins, dairy product, meat, and various vegetables. It’s called monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer that’s very addictive. That’s why, for example, we can’t stop until we’ve finished all our French fries.

This ingredient makes food taste simply delicious. They’ve even created a new taste called “umami”, which means tasty in Japanese, as a result of adding this component to foods.

This additive could provoke an obsession for foods that contain it. It may even lead to conditions such as hypertension and heart disease, among others.

Monosodium glutamate defenders affirm that these charged negative effects lack scientific evidence.

Since we can’t get away from this component because it’s found naturally in certain foods, the doubt is whether it’s good to add this to prepared foods and in what amounts.

In life we must fight for a lot of things, and this doesn’t exclude our weight. Enjoyment isn’t totally prohibited, but we need to be conscious that giving ourselves this pleasure today means we have to burn those residual fats tomorrow if we want to keep a healthy weight.

Remember that in order to lose 2 pounds of fat, you need to burn about 7,800 calories. If you’re ever in doubt, it’s always best to choose the most natural foods.