Over the course of human history, we've cooked up some serious culinary misconceptions that
were accepted as truth until as recently as a few years ago.
Seems unthinkable, right?
It's not, so let's talk about some incorrect things we believed about food just 25 years
ago.
Meander down the health food aisles of any grocery store in the '90s, and you'd find
a barrage of fat-free products.
The roots of America's war on fat can actually be traced back to the '70s, when the government
first began advising the nation to nix fat in order to stave off heart attacks and weight
gain.
But our fat-free frenzy went into full swing during the 1990s, when the whole country seemed
to be convinced that fat was evil and carbs were good.
Seizing the opportunity, the food industry starting churning out products like fat-free
SnackWell's cookies.
To make these low-fat concoctions without sacrificing taste, food manufacturers packed
in sugar, salt, and refined grains.
But while the low-fat craze raged on, Americans were, curiously, growing fatter.
Turns out, a low-fat diet brought about minimal benefits, and did little to minimize our risk
of obesity, heart disease, and cancer.
What have we learned since then?
In moderation, foods with "good" fats are key to giving the body energy, supporting
cell growth, absorbing important nutrients, and are essential to our health.
The U.S. government introduced the first Food Guide Pyramid in 1992, and used it to highlight
nutritional advice, including suggestions for variety, moderation, and proportion.
But there was one major problem with the original Food Guide Pyramid: it was wrong.
The guide placed fats at the very top and carbs at the base of the pyramid, promoting
the kind of low-fat diet that can actually lead to weight gain and high cholesterol.
The pyramid villainized all kinds of fats and neglected the benefits of the healthy
fats found in olive oil, fish, and nuts.
The Food Guide Pyramid treated carbs and proteins with similar clumsiness, grouping all grains
together and placing healthy proteins like fish and beans in the same group as less healthy
proteins like processed and red meats.
Today, the USDA encourages the MyPlate model, which stresses the importance of fruits, veggies,
and whole grains, while cautioning consumers against excessive sodium, sugar, and saturated
fat consumption.
If you were alive in the 1990s, you probably remember the ads that bombarded consumers
with images of celebrities with milk mustaches captioned by the catchy tagline, "Got milk?"
These ubiquitous ads touted milk as the ultimate source of calcium and an elixir for building
strong bones.
Some 25 years later, the health halo over milk has faded considerably.
Milk consumption in the U.S. has been steadily on the decline for the last couple of decades,
while the sale of plant-based milk is on the rise.
Less than 50 percent of Americans report drinking milk on a daily basis.
Behind the decline is recent research disproving many of the purported health benefits of milk.
Most studies found no significant connection between milk consumption and reduction in
broken bones and fractures, while others suggested greater dairy intake at a young age could
be linked to a higher incidence of bone fractures.
Now, nutritionists recommend seeking calcium from non-dairy sources like leafy green vegetables,
beans, and tofu, foods that have not been linked to problems like heart disease and
diabetes.
The idea of chocolate as an aphrodisiac has been around since the ancient Aztecs, but
was perpetuated through the American mainstream in the 1980s.
That was when doctors at the New York State Psychiatric Institute theorized chocolate
triggers the feeling of being in love because it contains phenylethylamine, or P-E-A, which
acts similar to amphetamines to create the sensation of euphoria.
But subsequent research found that the amount of P-E-A in chocolate is negligible and too
minor to have effect on arousal even after copious consumption.
Any desire that accompanies chocolate consumption is likely due to the placebo effect, most
modern researchers agree.
This busted myth might help explain why romantics go scrambling to the chocolate aisle every
Valentine's Day.
They still tend to think it'll help them get lucky, just maybe not for scientific reasons.
After watching an ad overemphasizing the bone-fortifying benefits of milk, consumers in the '80s and
'90s were likely to be hit with a commercial crowning cereal as...
"Cocoa Puffs are part of this complete breakfast."
During this magical time, American audiences were taught that processed, refined, carb-heavy,
sugar-laden cereals like Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops were nutritious foods to eat first
thing in the morning.
Technically, cereal does qualify as part of a "complete" breakfast, because to demystify
the somewhat vague concept, nutritionists have since defined a "complete breakfast"
as one that includes both carbohydrates and protein.
Since refined sugars technically qualify as carbohydrates, even sugary breakfast cereals
are indeed "part" of a complete breakfast.
It turns out, though, that healthy and complete can be two different things.
The refined sugars in many cereals cause a spike in the bloodstream, resulting in a sugar
rush followed by a crash and cravings soon after.
An excess of sugar in your bloodstream causes your body to store it as fat rather than using
it as energy.
So what constitutes a breakfast that is both complete and healthy?
Modern nutritionists recommend steering clear of processed cereals and going for complex
carbs like whole wheat toast or oatmeal and healthy proteins like eggs or Greek yogurt.
Speaking of cereal, did you know the idea that "breakfast is the most important meal
of the day" was perpetuated as a 1944 marketing campaign to sell cereal?
For generations, eating a meal in the morning wasn't essential.
The Romans believed it healthier to stick to one meal per day, while medieval Europeans
saw breakfast as either a luxury for the wealthy or a necessity for laborers.
It wasn't until the 1940s that government nutritionists started backing cereal companies
in their insistence that everyone ought to start their day with a breakfast, and the
meal rose to a revered status.
Since then, breakfast has continued to build its reputation as the most important meal
of the day with the help of flawed and financially conflicted research.
Parents everywhere used the phrase for decades to convince still-sleepy kids to choke down
their morning meals, but recently, we've learned it's not as true as we thought.
Health professionals are now calling the glorification of breakfast into question.
Medical research has since demonstrated that skipping breakfast does not sabotage our health,
performance, or weight loss goals.
When it comes to overall health, cognitive ability, and dieting, studies haven't shown
any conclusive evidence that breakfast is any more important than any other meal.
Soda consumption was on the rise in the 1990s, and popularity of carbonated beverages in
the U.S. peaked in 1998 at 53 gallons per capita.
Since then, there has been a plethora of research linking soda to obesity, diabetes, heart disease,
and other health conditions.
Now, the average American consumes less than 40 gallons per year.
It was in the past decade alone that public scrutiny turned to diet soda.
Up until then, diet sodas were seen as harmless or even healthy alternatives to their sugar-rich
regular versions.
Nowadays, the verdict is still out on the healthiness of diet sodas, with recent research
suggesting that artificial sweeteners may result in unwanted side effects.
A review of studies on diet soda warn that artificial sweeteners could thwart dietary
goals by offsetting a spike in insulin and triggering cravings for sugar and calorie-laden
foods.
The same report links diet soda with diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Over the last decade, studies have suggested that artificial sweeteners can alter the gut
microbiome.
This, in turn, can translate to a higher risk of diabetes.
More research is needed to understand the true effects of diet soda, but in the meantime,
many experts recommend limiting or eliminating diet soda consumption whenever possible.
If soda saw high rates of consumption 25 years ago, fruit juice enjoyed a elevated status
as a health drink throughout the '90s.
For years, the juice industry relied on their healthy image, marketing products with catch-phrases
like "100 percent juice" and "fresh-squeezed."
Even as schools got rid of sodas, they continued to serve children plenty of fruit juice.
"That's apple juice."
"I can read."
Recent studies have since shown that fruit juice definitely never earned its healthy
image.
In fact, some juices are actually higher in sugars than soda.
The high levels of fructose sugar found in fruit juice aren't easily consumed by the
human body, which converts fructose into fat and, in turn, increases risk of obesity, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, and other problems.
Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents not serve fruit juice
to children under the age of 1 and severely limit fruit juice consumption for older children.
For us grownups, the World Health Organization recommends limiting sugar intake to five percent
of your total daily calories.
For most adults, that's around 25 grams, which is less sugar than contained in one eight-ounce
serving of popular fruit juices like Ocean Spray 100% Cranberry Juice/
After gobbling down a hearty Thanksgiving meal, you may inevitably find yourself dozing
off on the couch during the post-meal football game.
Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving, we attribute our post-meal sleepiness to the tryptophan
found in turkey.
This amino acid is a part of the brain chemical serotonin, which can cause feelings of calmness,
relaxation, and sleepiness, but only in the right context.
As myth-busters have since explained, turkey contains about the same amount of tryptophan
as chicken, lamb, and beef.
But strangely, turkey also contains amino acids that prevent tryptophan from reaching
the brain and increasing serotonin levels.
So what's behind the sleepy feelings?
Science attributes much of the post-Thanksgiving meal drowsiness to carbohydrates, which trigger
the release of insulin and allows tryptophan to enter the brain to form serotonin more
easily.
This means that chowing down on carbohydrates with any tryptophan-rich foods can spur sleepy
feelings.
Research has also found that eating larger-than-normal amounts of food can tire out the brain, as
can consuming the large amounts of booze most of us end up drinking when seated at the table
with certain family members.
It was the word on the playground during many of our childhoods: Don't swallow chewing gum
because it stays in your system for seven years.
Though its origins are unclear, the time-honored tale has managed to wedge itself into our
subconscious, sounding a warning bell every time we accidentally swallow gum.
In the last couple of decades, medical journals and academics have challenged the claim and
agree that the body may pass chewing gum through the digestive system at a slower rate, but
eventually pushes it out within a manner of days.
Health professionals do concede that in rare cases, swallowing a large quantity of gum
over a short time period could create a large, indigestible mass made when foreign objects
like hair and seeds clump together with sticky substances.
So maybe don't go around swallowing big wads of gum constantly, but don't freak out if
you accidentally swallow a piece.
Here's another medical myth you might remember from your childhood: you should wait 30 minutes
to swim after eating.
According to the legend, blood would be redirected to your digestive system after you were done
eating, you would become more easily fatigued and at a higher risk for drowning.
Within the last couple decades, the rumor has been discredited by medical professionals,
who generally agree that the claim has little basis in science.
Although the body may divert blood flow from arm and leg muscles to aid in digestion, enough
typically remains in the entire body to keep everything running during the process.
As with any strenuous exercise on a full stomach, you might experience heartburn and minor muscle
cramping while swimming.
But beyond minor discomfort, there is no real danger attributed to swimming right after
eating.
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