#1. High fructose corn syrup

Where you'll find it:

Where do we begin?  HFCS has permeated the marketplace in so many foods and beverages that it's just about impossible to create a list.  For starters, it's in most all sodas, many other beverages such as tea and flavored drinks, and numerous juice drinks made for kids, as well as other sweetened items such as jellies, cookies, and pastries.  It also turns up in some surprising places like bread and condiments, and oddly, even in some diet foods (where it's possible that a super-high fructose version is used.)  All in all, to purge HFCS from your diet, you need to read ingredient labels and reject all products containing this laboratory sweetener.

Why you should avoid it:

• HFCS and high fructose consumption have been implicated in a variety of diseases and health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain.
• The actual fructose percentage of HFCS is variable and unknown (which is why Citizens for Health has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require the true fructose content of HFCS formulas be disclosed on food labels.)  Contrary to industry propaganda, HFCS isn't "corn sugar" or a "natural" ingredient, but a test-tube concoction that's much cheaper than sugar.

#2. Aspartame

Where you'll find it:

Aspartame is apt to turn up in foods labeled as "light" or "low-cal," - diet soft drinks, teas and juice drinks, kid's vitamins, liquid cold drugs and other pharmaceuticals, chewing gum, cereal, and sugar-free candies.  Foods containing this artificial sweetener must also bear a warning that the item contains phenylalanine for those with a disorder called PKU.

Why you should avoid it:

• Aspartame has never been proven to be a safe food additive, and is, in fact, considered by experts to be in a class of ingredients called "excitotoxins" that can literally excite brain cells to death, especially in children and the elderly (as are the three additives that follow);
• Studies have connected it to the development of brain tumors in rodents and grand mal seizures in monkeys.
• Thousands of aspartame-related health complaints, from migraines to memory loss to dizziness to vision problems, have been reported to the FDA.