A Nutritionist Reveals the Everyday Foods They Secretly Avoid

Nutritionists spend their careers telling other people what to eat, which makes the foods they personally skip genuinely interesting by comparison. Several experts have gone on record with surprisingly specific answers, some practical, some just plain unappetizing.

None of them are talking about giving up entire food groups or living on kale alone. The reasons behind each avoidance tend to be far more specific and far weirder than a generic health warning.

None of it requires eliminating a favorite food out of guilt. Here is what nutritionists actually avoid in their own lives, and the real reasons behind each one.

Shrimp Comes With A Genuinely Gross Caveat

Nutritionist Amy Shapiro’s colleague Maggie Ely has said she still loves shrimp, just not the ones sold without being deveined first. “That’s not a vein, that’s their intestinal tract,” Ely explained of the dark line running along a shrimp’s back, adding it is essentially waste rather than any part worth eating.

Ely also avoids artificial vanilla entirely, preferring the real extract instead despite the higher price tag. None of her picks involve a serious health risk, they simply come down to a line she personally will not cross.

Sodium Heavy Convenience Foods Top Several Lists

Registered dietitian Angel Planells has said he steers clear of cured meats, smoked fish, canned soups and frozen dinners specifically because of how much sodium they quietly pack in. He describes the real problem as frequency rather than the food itself, since eating these items occasionally is very different from making them a daily habit.

The American Heart Association generally recommends staying under 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, with 1,500 milligrams as the ideal target for most adults. Several of these convenience foods can eat up more than half that limit in a single serving.

Even Oysters And On The Go Coffee Get Skipped

Nutritionist Xuxa Milrose has said oysters are completely off her personal menu, one of several specific foods a panel of experts named as their own permanent no from a Guardian survey. Nutrition therapy practitioner Olivia Hedlund has separately said she avoids grabbing coffee from convenience chains, citing mold risk and pesticide residue on the beans as her specific concern.

Hedlund also generally skips plant based meat substitutes, arguing they rarely replicate the nutrient density of the real thing and often lean on hydrogenated oils and filler ingredients instead. Like most of the other picks on this list, none of it amounts to a hard scientific rule, just a personal line each expert has drawn for themselves.

None of these avoidances mean the foods themselves are secretly dangerous for everyone else. They are simply the small, specific lines nutritionists have drawn in their own kitchens, proof that even the experts pick their battles rather than fighting every single one.