If you’re all about getting the most bang for your buck, Costco is the place to grocery shop. The warehouse offers bulk products at competitive prices, making it more affordable to replenish your fridge and stock up on pantry (and general household) essentials. But unfortunately, bargain prices don’t always equate to a healthy diet. In a new Instagram video, urologist and surgeon Tarek Pacha, DO, of My SuperHero Foods, shares four common foods from Costco he would never buy. Keep reading to learn why these unhealthy items don’t deserve a spot on your grocery list—even if they are cheap and convenient.
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1 | Rotisserie chicken
Health experts are boycotting Costco’s rotisserie chicken over its shady ingredient label. Added herbs, spices, and sea salt aren’t of concern, however, doctors, like Pacha, are raising awareness about the many other modifiers and additives found in these juicy, cooked birds.
“Why does chicken need modified food starch, which is a hidden source of gluten, carrageenan, which is a known gut disruptor, and extra sugar? Why add extra moisture?” asked Pacha.
Notably, rotisserie chicken also contains sodium phosphate. It can cause damage to your kidneys and heart.
Another ding against rotisserie chicken? It sits for hours in plastic packaging under a hot lamp. “This will leech microplastics into our body, causing hormone disruption and inflammation,” expressed Pacha.
Instead, look for raw chicken that is pasture raised.
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2 | Powdered coffee creamer
Although convenient, Nestle’s Coffee Mate powdered creamers are “a diabetes bomb sprinkled with heart disease,” said Pacha. That’s because they’re riddled with cheap sugars, lousy fats, and unhealthy seed oils.
“Ditching them [seed oils] is the single best thing you can do for your health,” according to Pacha.
A GoodRx dietician noted that “most coffee creamers don’t actually contain any cream at all.” In addition to the aforementioned ingredients, you’re likely to find artificial flavors, thickeners, chemical additives, artificial sweeteners, and corn syrup.
3 | Store-bought salad dressings
Similarly, you’re better off making homemade salad dressing. In his video, Pacha used bottled Olive Garden Italian Dressing as an example, but mentioned the same could be said for “99 percent of dressings found throughout any [grocery] store.”
“Although it may appear to be ‘Italian dressing,’ and one might think it’s olive oil, the actual second ingredient is soybean oil, which is another inflammatory seed oil,” he said.
“Seed oils are actually a fat that is not used as energy. It actually gets stored in our cells, leading not only to obesity but heart disease, metabolic dysfunction, dementia, and many more chronic illnesses,” Pacha further explained.
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4 | Kirkland Signature Protein Bars
Protein bars can be a healthy snack alternative, especially if you get the munchies after working out. However, not all protein bars are created equal. Take Kirkland’s Signature Protein Bar, for example.
“[They’re] made with cheap GMO corn fiber and sugar substitutes, like Stevia and Erythritol, which are known gut disruptors,” said Pacha. “Most protein bars are marketed to appear healthy, but they’re really not.”
Depending on their ingredient label, protein bars can also be “an inflammation bomb.”
