With so much focus on food news lately, from horsemeat in meatballs to pink slime in hamburgers, it's enough to make you swear off fast food. But fast food isn't the only convenience food you should eat less of. Let's start in your pantry. 

Most prepared and packaged foods that make mealtimes a cinch are highly-processed. And many of them are lacking in nutrition, says Melanie Warner, author of Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal (Scribner 2013).

While you don't have to completely avoid all processed foods, says Warner, it makes sense to limit their consumption. Here are four "healthy" foods to be wary of—and what to eat instead. 

Veggie Burgers

What could possibly be wrong with a vegetable patty? Try texturized vegetable protein (TVP). It's often used to replace or extend ground meats, but it's a highly-processed product made by extracting soy protein from beans—no easy feat. Hexane, a toxic chemical, is used as a solvent to separate soy fat from soy protein. The soy protein is then treated to a high-heat process called extrusion cooking.

The other issues with TVP include possible traces of contaminants from the processing, and the fact that most soybeans today are genetically modified. Check labels for TVP, or soy protein isolates and textured soy protein, as it's also called. To avoid genetically modified soy, look for the USDA Organic Seal.

Breakfast Cereals

The process of manufacturing cereal often destroys the nutrition in the grain. Cereal is subjected to a variety of high temperature processes to ensure less moisture, and a longer shelf life. The process removes vitamins, minerals, and fiber from the grains (all those vitamins and minerals are added back in—that's why many cereals are fortified). Warner says it's not much different than taking a multi-vitamin.

You don't have to give up your favorite morning meal, though. It's not that it's the worst thing you can eat for breakfast, says Warner, but it's also not the healthiest. If you eat cereal, look for one that is low in sugar, and high in (naturally occurring) fiber.

Soybean Oil

There's a difference between whole soy foods (edamame, or soy beans; tofu; and fermented soy foods such as tempeh and miso) and highly-processed soy products, including soybean oil.

Soybean oil is high in omega-6 fatty acids. While omega-6 oils are essential, we consume way too much in our diets, and that's not a good thing. In addition to increasing inflammation, excessive omega-6 fatty acids blocks the absorption of crucial omega-3 fatty acids (the essential fatty acid found in fish)—a fatty acid many Americans don't get enough of.

Soybean oil is found in salad dressings, but it's also prevalent in packaged foods and fryers at fast food restaurants. Vegetable oils can be processed without chemicals, but it's not as economical for the manufacturer. So until food companies find an option that is healthy as well as cost-effective, replace soybean oil with olive oil, or a canola oil that uses hydraulic expeller pressing, a mechanical extraction method. (Organic oil producers employ this method, as do some producers of non-organic oils).  

Single Cheese Slices

Sure, low-fat cheese can be a good source of calcium. Just make sure what you are buying is, in fact, cheese. Those cheese slice singles are convenient and less costly than buying a chunk of cheese. But take a look at the label: does it say "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Food" or "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product"? The difference is "milk protein products," which are found in pasteurized prepared cheese products. These are not actually considered milk or cheese by the FDA. In order to keep the product on the market, the manufacturers had to re-label the product as, well, a product. You may not have even noticed. 

Manufacturers use milk protein concentrate (MPC) to reduce costs and yield a more consistent product. The problem, says Warner, is that it's created through a process of ultrafiltration and microfiltration, which essentially disassembles milk.

With careful reading of labels, you can help find information about all the foods in the news these days.

Melanie Warner reviewed this article.