Alright. (Insert heavy sigh here.)

You may already have read my earlier post that detailed an array of foods that do a football player’s body good.

Now we’re venturing over to the dark side, and you might want to make sure you’re sitting down before I tell you about this next batch.

Because while many of the foods on this list are likely coveted by many, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts – pun wholeheartedly intended – that you don’t know just how bad these foods really are.

Here we go:

• Diet soda. You may already have heard from various health articles that you’re better off consuming the real stuff in moderation. And guess what? It’s true. I may as well just call diet soda evil to save time, but that wouldn’t be doing this post justice. You need to know why diet soda is evil. For starters, it offers zero health benefits, and one can of diet soda per day could significantly increase your risk for health problems and weight gain, according to a study from Purdue University. Artificial sweeteners trick the body into thinking it is consuming real food, and because they are more than a hundred times sweeter than the real thing, your body starts producing insulin – the fat storage hormone. Not good at all.
• Granola. I like to think of granola as somewhat of a chameleon because, on the surface, it seems quite healthy. It’s got fibrous oats as the base, after all. But looks can be deceiving. Most versions of cereal that contain granola also possess high amounts of sugar, unnecessary fat and an excess amount of calories. And all of the above are doubly bad considering virtually no one stops at the quarter-cup serving. While football players undoubtedly need the calories and fiber, the disadvantages of granola outweigh the benefits.
• A meal without protein. Athletes need protein. Plain and simple. Protein is a no-brainer for the simple fact that it repairs and strengthens muscle tissue. Some nutritionists actually advise adding protein to every meal because doing so can help lower blood sugar levels and increase the likelihood that you’ll feel satisfied after a meal.
• Anything with high fructose corn syrup. Why, pray tell, can something taste so good yet be so dangerous? It just isn’t fair. Gummy worms and other candies may seem to provide a quick pick-me-up, but they're really just loaded with sugar and empty calories and offer zero nutritional value (Hmmmm, doesn’t that sound familiar?). According to Jordan D. Metzl, a sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery, “If you eat really sugary foods before your workout, you can get ‘rebound hypoglycemia,’ otherwise known as a sugar crash, during your workout.” Need another reason to take a pass on this stuff? High fructose corn syrup also can make you “skinny fat,” which is a way of describing what happens when fat builds up around your organs. Now doesn’t that sound appealing? Not.
• Mayonnaise. Do you enjoy a little – or a lot – of mayo on your burger, BLT or goodness knows what else? You’re certainly not alone. I fancy mayo on my fries and liken the lumpy stuff to the Condiment of the Gods. But much like its sidekicks, soda and high fructose corn syrup, mayo is just plain wicked. Let me count the ways: One tablespoon contains about 90 calories, which is roughly 4.5 percent of your daily recommended caloric intake. And, like granola, who stops at one serving? In other words, if you consume mayonnaise regularly, you may find yourself dramatically overshooting your daily caloric recommendation without even realizing it. Each tablespoon of mayonnaise also contains 10 grams of total fat, which is 15.4 percent of your daily recommended intake, and 1.5 g of saturated fat, which is 7.5 percent of your daily recommended intake. Don’t get me wrong: limited fat consumption is totally acceptable for active people. But, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, eating too much saturated fat can dramatically increase your risk of developing heart disease. And then there’s the cholesterol count: One tablespoon of mayonnaise contains 5 mg, which is about 1.7 percent of your daily recommended cholesterol intake. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, excess cholesterol intake can lead to buildups in your arteries.

So there you have it.

Five foods you should totally avoid.

Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news, and if you should see me on the street, hopefully you won’t pelt me with tomatoes.

You really should eat them instead – they’re full of lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant that helps fight disease.

In other words, they’re definitely not a food you should loathe.

Courtney Conover is a mom of two and the wife of former Detroit Lions offensive lineman and current Heads Up Football Ambassador Scott Conover. She is also a certified yoga instructor (RYT-200) and a contributing writer to the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. She blogs at The Brown Girl with Long Hair (http://www.thebrowngirlwithlonghair.com), over-shares on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/thebrowngirlwithlonghair), and is probably the last person on earth to acquire an Instagram (https://instagram.com/mrscourtneyconover/).