[surferjoe2007]

As long as it doesn’t displace nutritious foods and it’s spread out then a little bit of sugar is fine.  I’d worry more about your teeth than anything.

Keep in mind each can of soda is equal to an entire candy bar.  Multiple cans can displace nutritious food and is a big problem.  A little candy is nothing.

In general make sure you’re getting enough nutritious foods rather than worrying about what to avoid.  Unless the “bad” food is enough to replace good foods.  The worst foods are over processed nutrition destroyed foods like canned foods that might replace a whole meal.  Refined or dehydrated too (unless naturally dry).  Frozen is fine though.

One soda beeing equal to a candybar gets me to think I should really stop drinking soda. But it is part of my habits. Most of the times I drink juice...is that just as bad in your opinion? I know juice qualty varies, I do buy the better ones with real fruit in it and no added sugar.

And what about canned vegetables like lentils etc? Are they bad too?

Canned vegetables, beans and grains are the worst because their most important nutrients are heat sensitive.  You can look at the usda nutrient database and compare canned to fresh; almost nothing left of water soluble vitamins and so forth.  Including nutrients essential for development, including breast development, and for metabolism.  I’d say large amounts of nutritionally barren foods displacing nutritious foods are the real danger, not a small piece of candy now and then.  Like canned foods, sham powders like vitamin-less protein powders or even vitamin fortified foods and powders that lack the hundreds of known and unknown beneficial molecules in real food and then add a handful of them to look good.

Keep that in mind when looking at the nutrient database: the list is a helpful small snapshot of a foods benefits but you can’t just replace what they measure and get everything.  You’re missing what they don’t measure, including many molecules we’ve already studied and know to be essential.  For example alpha tocopherol vitamin E is often completely useless in studies except for a specific deficiency, while real foods contain other tocopherols, tocotrienols and other fat soluble antioxidants.  Vitamin E rich foods otoh are super beneficial for heart function and other body functions.  At least a handful of almonds or sunflower seeds, as almost all other sources have way less.

For beans try dry ones instead.  Simply cook for a couple hours in water.  Follow a recipe, adding after soft, or just salt and pepper or any seasoning. Or better yet soak for a few hours and drain to improve nutrition a little, improve digestibility and reduce farts.  In the case of lentils they cook up in only 20 minutes from dry, unlike most other beans.  Perhaps because they’re so thin.  Use 3 parts water to 1 part lentils, by volume.

I used to love lentils with onion, salt and pepper.  Sometimes I’d crack an egg right into the cooking water.  Way more delicious than canned and a quick cheap college staple. I still have them now and then, but in a more complicated recipe I find online.