People consider junk foods "junk" because they deliver high calories and low nutrition. Processed meats and snack items that contain a lot of fat, sugar and salt have proportionally fewer desirable nutrients and larger calorie counts than healthy foods. The National Institutes of Health says that fat molecules carry twice the calories of beneficial protein, for instance. Eating a lot of caloric, high-fat foods will make you put on weight because your body stores the excess calories from unhealthy snacks and entrees as fat. Avoiding the most extreme diet-busters most of the time will leave space in your diet for occasional indulgences. The FDA sets your limit of daily fat intake at 65g, based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Chocolate
Chocolate candies blend the two culprits of high calorie counts, fat and sugar. A regular-sized chocolate and almond candy bar provides 14g of fat, or over 20 percent of your daily fat value, which is how the FDA defines high-fat foods. A piece of chocolate cake with frosting gets its calories from similar sources, with 21g of fat, or nearly 30 percent of your daily fat allowance. If you're the type to eat chocolate chips by the handful, watch out: 1 cup of semisweet chips contains 50g of fat, and white chocolate chips, with even greater fat content, total 55g.
Meats
Fatty meats make the junk food list because their fat and calorie contents overshadow the rest of their nutritional profiles. According to the USDA Nutrient Database, a breaded corn dog has 19g of fat, a regular hotdog 15g and a chili dog, 13g, in as many as 460 calories. A slice of sausage or pepperoni frozen pizza with veggies isn't a high-fat food on its own, with 11g in one piece -- unless, like many diners, you exceed that serving limit.
Fried Sides
Like corn dogs, other junk foods fried in oil are extremely high-fat foods, with calorie counts tied directly to fat content, as evidenced by USDA figures. For instance, a large order of french fries has 29 g of fat and 539 calories, and a fried fruit pie has 21 g of fat and 404 calories. Fried onion rings, hush puppies and doughnuts have up to 16g of fat and as many as 276 calories per suggested serving.
Snacks
Packaged salty snacks may be the quintessential junk foods, largely for their high-fat contents in small, 1-oz. serving sizes. Manufacturers routinely sell 2-oz. to 20-oz. packages, and many consumers ignore the FDA's portion suggestion. If you typically eat more than 1 oz., multiply the 10g of fat in potato chips, 9g in pork skins and 11g in cheese puffs by your normal serving size.
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