I don't deliberately try to avoid any foods ... and I also think moderation is the key.
So often researchers come out with some sort of recommendations saying that this is bad for you and that is bad for you, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon for a while, and then they discover that whatever it was isn't as bad as everyone thought after all.
Take eggs for example. At one time it was recommended to remove eggs from your diet all together because getting anywhere near an egg would triple your cholesterol level and strike you dead within a week. But now they realize that perspective was wrong, and they are saying to eat eggs in moderation - like 2 a day.
Then there's the other side of the coin where researchers tell people to eat something because it will reduce their cholesterol levels and be good for them, but then they discover that maybe it isn't after all. Take oatbran for example. For a while oatbran muffins were all the rage because someone said that oatbran would reduce cholesterol. I was working in a place that sold muffins at the time and suddenly we added oatbran muffins to the menu and they were a hit! But then they discovered that a person would have to eat something like 50 muffins a day to get the required amount of oatbran to reduce their cholesterol ... and if you're consuming 50 fairly high calorie muffins each day ... you will likely end up with a whole lot of other problems!!
You've probably heard that consuming Vit E and Folic acid are good things to do ... well, now they have come out with studies that perhaps we shouldn't be consuming as much of those as what was once recommended.
And don't get me started on all the fad diets out there!!
The thing is, every time you pick up a magazine or newspaper, there's another article saying that this is bad for you and this is good for you ... and 3 months later, that's all changed again.
IMO, we're all going to die eventually anyway. Something is going to kill us. If it isn't our diet, it'll be a semi running us over, or a hereditary heart disease, or cancer from working in a smoke-filled restaurant from our younger days, or genetics, or old age. So I figure the best way to approach diet is to eat as well-balanced a diet as possible (refer to things like the Canada food guide), keeping moderation in mind, and treat yourself to yummy stuff now and then!
That said, there are two foods I find pack on the pounds for me: Costco muffins and a bag of microwave popcorn. Both have about 700 calories in them, and I barely have to glance at them and I start gaining weight. There was one winter, before I knew how high in calories they are, where I was eating one or the other, or sometimes both every day - the muffin was for lunch and the popcorn was for an evening snack. Plus, there was supper, and coffee-break snack and so on. I packed on 25 lbs that winter!! That's something I'm trying very hard to avoid repeating.