You know what food is bad for your health and you prevent eating it.  Similarly, there are some foods that are unhealthy for our planet though it can’t do anything about it.  But we can. Below are the twelve unhealthy food listed by Megan, a writer at Mother Nature Network.  Learn how you can eat earth-friendly and save your planet from danger.

1) Rice

Everyone loves to eat this.  But did you know that rice is the major calorie source for half of the world’s population?  Growing rice requires one-third of the planet’s annual freshwater use, according to Oxfam. Fortunately, a new farming method known as System of Rice Intensification has been discovered that enables farmers to produce up to 50 percent more rice with less water. Oxfam is developing to get rice-producing countries to convert 25 percent of their rice cultivation to SRI by 2025.

2) Sugar

According to World Wildlife Fund, more than 145 millions tons of sugar are produced in 121 countries each year.  Sugar may be responsible for biodiversity loss that any other crop because of its excessive and intensive use of water, habitat destruction and toxic wastewater released during sugar production.  The details are mentioned in this 2004 report “Sugar and the Environment” published by the WWF.

Honey, maple syrup, rice syrup, fructose and stevia are some of the sugar alternatives you can use.  See this list at Care 2 for more options.

3) Meat

Yes, meat.  The Environmental Defense Fund states that if every American substituted one meal of chicken with vegetarian food, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off U.S. roads. Here are some of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s findings on meat and the environment:

. The world’s largest source of water pollution is not humans-it’s livestock.

. 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock that is more than what comes from transportation.

. Livestock is responsible for a third of the nitrogen and phosphorus in U.S. freshwater resources.

It’s just one meal you have to sacrifice-just one.  You get the same amount of nutritions from beans.  Check out this list of 10 Delicious Vegetarian Recipes.

4) Fast Food

Who could disagree with the fact that fast food is harmful for our health.  Yet we still devour it.

Fast foods are not only dangerous for your waistline but they also cause harm to our environment.  How?  Fast foods come in packages.  Megan writes that a typical fast-food meal often comes with overly packaged food, straws and plasticware, and an assortment of individually wrapped condiments. According to Californians Against Waste, less than 35 percent of fast-food waste is diverted from landfills even though most of it is recyclable paper and cardboard. So it’s no surprise that litter characterization studies have identified fast-food restaurants as the primary source of urban litter.

Did you know that a fast-food restaurant making four hamburgers emits the same amount of volatile organic compounds as driving a car 1,000 miles?

Guess not.

Read up more on the list and find out the rest of the nine foods that are harmful for our planet.  Please try to save the Earth on your behalf and tell others as well.  These tiny steps that we don’t consider important matter the most.

Image Source: Fitness Buff