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Over time, eating lots of foods high in saturated fats — like cheeseburgers — can increase your risk of heart disease.
Nutrition experts hesitate to call any food “forbidden,” reasoning that it’s okay to eat all foods in moderation, with an occasional “treat” of less-than-healthy fare. Still, some foods do merit a spot on the “worst foods for your health” list for men over 50.
Why that age 50 cutoff? Because, as the Cleveland Clinic explains, one way to cut the risk of medical conditions that are more common in older men, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, is to cut back on foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars.
We asked experts to tell us about those “worst foods” that men should avoid and explain what to eat instead. Here are their answers:
Breakfast Toaster Pastries Are Calorie Bombs
Forget having dessert for breakfast, says Leslie Bonci, RDN, dietitian and owner of Active Eating Advice, a nutrition consulting company based in Pittsburgh. She’s talking about pop-up toaster pastries, which she calls “calorie bombs.”
A typical toaster pastry can have 190 calories or more, lots of added sugar, and not much protein or fiber, Bonci says, an assessment the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms. “It’s important to have protein at breakfast,” adds Bonci, which is something that most toaster pastries are short on.
One review suggested that those over 65 should ideally consume as much as 100 grams (g) of protein a day, or about 25 to 30 g per meal, while noting that target is well above current guidelines.
Protein plays a key role in preventing the slow, progressive loss of lean muscle mass that commonly occurs with aging, plus it helps stop weight gain by triggering the release of satiety hormones that increase the feeling of fullness and decrease appetite. In addition, research has found that a high-protein breakfast may improve blood sugar control and insulin levels after eating carbohydrates, such as white bread, potentially reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes over time.
Bottom Line For a better breakfast, the National Institute on Aging recommends selecting foods high in nutrients yet relatively low in calories, and including several food groups. For example, good choices would be an egg or two for protein, plus a slice of whole-grain bread and some berries.
Fatty Lunch Meats Are Bad for Your Heart
Avoid salami, pepperoni, and bologna, Bonci advises, as they all have a lot of saturated fat.
A 1-ounce (oz) serving of hard salami, for example, can have about 106 calories, and almost 9 g of fat, much of which is saturated fat, per the USDA. The biggest problem with saturated fat is that it’s proven to raise “bad” cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
What’s more, the World Health Organization has recommended limiting consumption of salami and other processed meats because they’ve been linked to another big killer, colorectal cancer. The reason for the link is not clear, but it may be due to the meats’ high fat content, to preservatives added during processing, or to a combination of factors.
Bottom Line Fill your sandwich instead with chicken deli meat. In comparison to hard salami, a much larger serving — 3.5 oz cooked — has about 98 calories and about 1.9 g of fat, most of which is not saturated, per the USDA.
White Chocolate Is Just a Lot of Empty Calories
Compared with its confectionary cousin dark chocolate, white chocolate can claim little to no health benefits, says Jim White, RDN, a dietitian, personal trainer, and owner of Jim White Nutrition and Fitness Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In fact, white chocolate isn’t even chocolate. “It’s mostly vegetable fat and added sugar,” White says, which explains why a 3-oz bar of white chocolate contains about 458 calories, 27 g of fat, and 50 g of sugar, per the USDA.
Dark chocolate, on the other hand, contains cocoa solids, which boast lots of beneficial antioxidants called flavanols, which are linked to a lower risk for heart disease, according to the AHA. Flavanols also help lower blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels and improving blood flow, notes the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They also are associated with a lower risk of insulin resistance.
So even though dark chocolate’s calorie and fat content is similar to that of white chocolate, dark chocolate can actually be good for you.
Bottom Line Go ahead and indulge in dark chocolate, but choose 70 percent or higher cacao dark chocolate to obtain the most flavanols. And know that a little bit will suffice: about 1 to 2 oz. For reference, 1 oz is about three thin squares from a bar of chocolate, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Rib-Eye Steak Is Loaded With Unhealthy Fat
Chew on this: Depending on how it’s cooked, “rib-eye is one of the fattiest meats,” says Deepak Talreja, MD, a cardiologist at Sentara Cardiology Specialists in Norfolk, Virginia. “It’s marbled with fat and gristle.” In fact, a 4-oz boneless rib-eye steak can provide 19 g of fat, much of it saturated, notes the USDA.
Bottom Line If you need a beef fix, choose leaner cuts of meat, such as top round steak or New York strip steak. Per the USDA, a 4-oz New York top loin has approximately 10 g of fat — quite a bit less than the rib eye.
Protein Bars Are Often Candy Bars in Disguise
Affixing the word “protein” can make any bar sound like a healthy snack, but don’t be fooled: Too often that protein bar is really just an incognito candy bar loaded with calories and too much added sugar, Bonci explains.
Bottom Line If you love protein bars for the convenience and want to ensure you get a good-for-you snack, choose one that’s high in protein and low in sugar (less than 7 g of sugar), Bonci advises. Two that fit the bill: Orgain Organic Peanut Butter Protein Bar (10 g protein, 4 g sugar, and 150 calories) and No Cow Lemon Meringue Pie Protein Bar (22 g protein, 1 g sugar, and 190 calories).
Or you can skip the bar and eat a 100-calorie snack pack of nuts or a handful of homemade trail mix made by mixing together unsalted nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, and some whole grain cereal, like Cheerios, Unfrosted Mini Wheats, or Puffed Wheat.
American Cheese Is Not Actually Cheese
Surprise: That orange stuff so ubiquitous atop burgers and in grilled cheese sandwiches isn’t actually cheese. It’s a food that contains cheese, plus a host of noncheese ingredients, which can include oils, milk fat, starch, salt, and preservatives, plus emulsifiers — molecules used to give it a glossy, smooth texture and help everything bind together.
To know how much cheese is in a particular brand of American cheese, check the label. If it contains at least 51 percent cheese, the Code of Federal Regulations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows it to legally be called a “cheese food.” If it contains even a little less cheese it must be labeled a “cheese product.”
“The truth is that these are highly processed foods,” says Michelle Grader, RN, RDN, a dietitian and nurse in New York City. “They contain a ton of fat and salt, plus lots of additives to give them color and flavor and extend their shelf life. There’s really not much nutritional value.”
Bottom Line Expand your cheese horizons to foods that can legally be called cheese and thus are a good source of calcium, a mineral that’s critical for healthy bones and teeth and several essential body processes.
One of the healthiest cheese choices of all, Grader says, is goat cheese. “It has different fatty acids than cheese from cow’s milk so it’s easier to digest, especially for people with sensitivities to dairy,” she explains. Goat cheese also contains fewer calories: about 75 calories per oz — less than popular cow cheeses like provolone (100 calories), brie (95 calories), Swiss (111 calories), and cheddar (116 calories), per the USDA.
And although real cheese is high in saturated fat, it’s dairy fat, which one study suggested may not increase the risk of heart disease, thanks to its unique fatty acids. In fact, the study, which involved nearly 3,000 adults ages 65 and older, found that having high levels of the fatty acids in whole-dairy foods significantly reduced a person’s risk of stroke.
That said, it’s best to follow the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and limit your intake of saturated fat to no more than 10 percent of your daily calories. In other words, try not to eat more than 200 calories worth of cheese (for example, 2 oz of brie) if you are consuming 2,000 calories a day.