We all love a well stocked food pantry and spice rack but not all the ingredients are healthy. While they are renowned for doing wonders in adding flavour to our foods, some may be having other negative effects. Here are some ingredients you might want to avoid:

ALSO READ: Foods that help with constipation

Artificial food colour

Everyone loves bright looking and inviting food. Artificial food colour may be approved for use but has some contaminants that pose health risks. Even when making homemade popsicles, try and use natural alternatives. Beetroot juice will give a great red colour, turmeric an instant yellow and red cabbage will turn your salad into a visually-appealing meal.

Store-bought peanut butter

You might be using it as spread, a stew thickener or for the coveted peanut butter cookies. However you like using peanut butter, you could consider ditching the commercial one for the natural alternative. Store-bought peanut butter contains hydrogenated oils, sugar and too much salt. According to Healthline, this makes the commercial peanut butter unsuitable if you’re trying to eat healthier. Home made peanut butter on the other hand contains peanuts and salt only making it a healthier option.

Canned vegetables

They are easy to prepare as all you need is to simmer for less than two minutes and you are done cooking. However, these vegetables contain alot of salt which is harmful to ones health. As thus, you may have to consider buying your vegetables fresh from the market. On the offchance that you can’t access fresh vegetables, check the labels of the canned ones to ensure they don’t have too much salt.

Bouillon cubes e.g. beef cubes

ALSO READ: Foods that have more proteins than eggs

You could be guilty of using this taste hack but despite their small size and great taste, they have a lot of salt, hydrogenated oils and preservatives. According to fitpeople.com, despite the small quantities of the hydrogenated oils and salt contained in the cubes, they are quite unhealthy. In the place of the cubes, you might want to consider going the fresh aromatic spices way. There's a load of them to choose from.

Condensed milk

Condensed milk is popularly used in desserts. However, it contains an astonishingly high amount of sugar which pose sugar related health risks. You can consider keeping off this ingredient to avoid unnecessary sugar related health problems. Instead, you can opt for whole milk, which gives real vitamins and protein.

Bleached all-purpose flour

White all-purpose flour gives your pastries a great puff, tenderness and good colour. Unfortunately, the chemicals used to bleach this flour are harmful. On the other hand, whole wheat flour offers you the full nutritional value of wheat without any chemical additives such as the ones used to bleach the white all-purpose flour.