Millions of Americans are actively seeking to lose excess body weight and improve their overall health, fitness, and well being and the food industry has begun to take notice.

In response to the growing trend towards higher quality, lower calorie foods, hundreds of new products are hitting the shelves of grocery stores and the menus of restaurants, all advertising that they should be included in your new “nutritious and low-fat dietary regime.”

What several food manufacturers and distributors tend to not tell you is that many of these unhealthy dietary foods can actually have negative consequences on your health and wellness, and, in some cases, can even cause you to gain excess body weight faster than you are losing it.

From fast food salads to juice cocktails, here are five of the most prominent “unhealthy dietary foods” to stay away from when you are creating a healthier, more nutritious dietary regimen; whether you are wanting to lose weight or simply eat healthier type foods.

Unhealthy Dietary Foods that Sabotage Your Weight Loss Efforts

1. Fast Food Salad

Although some of the salad entrees sold by fast food restaurants are indeed healthier alternatives to standard fare such as burgers and fries, many contain just as much fat, salt and calories as traditional items. For example, the Premium Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken from McDonald’s includes a whopping 890 mg of sodium, which is over half of the daily sodium limit recommended by the American Heart Association. And that’s only if you eat it dry! By topping your salad with the included Caesar dressing, you’ll add an additional 500 mg of sodium to your meal.

You might think that you could cut the sodium content by switching to a seemingly healthier dressing, such as low-fat Italian. You’d be wrong, since this particular dressing from the same fast food chain contains 650 mg of sodium instead.

According to Lona Sandon, a University of Texas nutrition professor, most of the sodium content in fast food salads is found in the chicken. The chicken is typically injected with a high-sodium solution before being cooked in a similarly salty marinade. As such, your best bet is to remove some or all of the meat from a fast food salad before calling it your lunch.

2. No-Fat Cottage Cheese

Although this list item will certainly come as a surprise to many dieters, the truth can be read right on the label: fat-free cottage cheese is packed with salt. In fact, a 4-ounce serving of the stuff can contain up to 400 mg of sodium, despite only offering 70 calories. This is the sodium equivalent of eating over two snack-sized bags of potato chips. The saltiness comes from the fact that salt is added during production in order to create the unique consistency of cottage cheese, and the fact that the milk used in the cheese itself contains natural salt of its own.

As a healthier alternative, try a low-fat ricotta. Although low-fat ricotta contains about 100 calories per serving instead of 70, it also contains about one-third of the sodium found in fat-free cottage cheese. The fact that the ricotta contains some fat is actually a bonus, since you’re more likely to feel satisfied after only one serving instead of reaching for a second.

3. Traditional Jarred Marinara Sauce

When most people think of jarred marinara sauce, “dieter’s guilt” is not the first thing that comes to mind. After all, the tomato sauce you pour over your pasta is basically just a pureed combination of vegetables and maybe a little heart-friendly olive oil, right?

Actually, it’s important to read the label of any pasta sauce before placing it in your grocery cart. A quick glance at Traditional Italian Sauce from Prego, one of the company’s most basic pasta toppers, reveals that each serving includes 10 grams of sugar, much of which is added to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. The irony here is that the tomatoes themselves contain natural sugars as well. In fact, sugar is listed as the third ingredient on the label for this particular sauce.

Of course, tomato sauce is still a better option than other pasta sauces such as garlic and butter sauce or Alfredo sauce, both of which contain little sugar but make up for it in droves with fat, salt and calories. Your best bet is to carefully read the labels and choose an alternative tomato sauce such as Organic Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce from Muir Glen, or Low Sodium Marinara Sauce from Amy’s Organic. Both products have half the sugar of the Prego offering, and the latter only contains 100 mg of sodium per serving.

4. Juice Cocktails

Astute dieters know that fruit juice, despite offering a number of health benefits and helping to fulfill your daily recommended allowance of fruits and vegetables, also contains plenty of sugar. Unfortunately, products labeled as “fruit juice cocktails” are far worse due to the fact that they contain added refined sugars and water instead of relying on the natural sugars found in the fruit itself for sweetness.

Cranberry Juice Cocktail from Ocean Spray, for example, contains 33 grams of sugar in just an 8-ounce serving. This is more sugar than you’ll find in the same serving size of Mountain Dew (31 grams) and other sugary sodas. As a far healthier alternative, reach for a flavored sparkling water such as Mendota Springs or Vintage Raspberry Seltzer. You can achieve a similar effect for a fraction of the cost simply by adding a wedge of lemon or lime to a glass of fresh ice water.

5. Chicken Sausage

Many dieters look for healthy alternatives to famously fatty links such as bratwurst, Italian sausage, Polish sausage and hot dogs. Although chicken and turkey sausage may seem like the ideal choice (it’s poultry instead of beef and pork, after all!), their nutrition labels often tell a far gloomier story. While the average sweet Italian sausage may seem like a porker at 12 grams of fat per link, the typical chicken sausage doesn’t do much better at 11 grams of fat. That’s on top of the fact that 3.5 of those grams represent saturated fat, and that each link packs 160 calories.

The high fat content of many poultry sausage varieties is due to the fact that they’re often manufactured using the fattiest parts of the bird, such as dark meat and the skin.

If you have access to a high quality grocery store, you’ll have the opportunity to peruse several different poultry sausage brands and choose one that actually represents a healthy alternative to beef and pork offerings. Otherwise, your best bet may be to stick to a traditional grilled chicken breast. A 3-ounce serving contains just 3 grams of fat and 140 calories. Try it on a whole wheat bun with your favorite low-fat sauce and a side of roasted vegetables for a healthy and filling summer meal.

Unhealthy Diet Foods: The Bottom Line

Don’t be fooled into thinking that every food advertised as “low-fat,” “low-sodium,” “diet” or “light” will fit into a healthy and nutritious diet, especially if a primary goal of your personal fitness plan is to lose weight. Look at the nutrition label on the back of the product’s packaging to make a determination for yourself.

Foods such as fat-free cottage cheese and fast food salads are often packed with sodium, while juice cocktails and marinara sauce can include far more sugar than you’d expect. Chicken and turkey alternatives to products commonly made with beef or pork aren’t necessarily a health-positive choice either, and the only solution is to compare product labels.