Nutrition is a highly contested topic. And everyone seems to have an opinion on what
you should and shouldn’t eat. With all the information at our fingertips today,
you’d think that nutrition myths would have become less pervasive than in our grandparents’ time. But
unfortunately that’s not the case. Hi viewers and welcome back to bestie!
The internet is rife with misinformation these days. Myths that were previously
passed through word-of-mouth have now spread like wildfire through social media, blogs,
and even established media. So it’s become even more important to separate facts from fiction.
And in today’s video, we’ll be busting the biggest myths around food and nutrition.
Are foods labelled as “natural” healthier? Is maple syrup better
than sugar? Do egg yolks raise your cholesterol level?
Is fat free always healthy? Watch till the end to see us bust these myths and more.
Eating Late At Night Will Make You Fat: Calories are calories, no matter what time they’re eaten.
What and how much you eat is far more important than when you eat it.
There is no magic hour in which your body decides that incoming
calories must be stored as fat. If you’re overindulging after dinner,
it’s the overindulging that’s sabotaging your weight control efforts, not the hour on the clock.
The “no calories after 8pm rule” may be an effective diet strategy
because it means you will eat fewer calories and less saturated fats over the course of the day.
What’s your favourite late night snack that you love to eat? Tell
us quickly down below in the comments section!
Sea Salt Is A Healthier Version Of Regular Salt: Everyday table salt comes from a mine and
contains roughly 2,300 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon. Sea salt comes from evaporated seawater,
and it also contains roughly 2,300 milligrams of sodium. That makes them, well, roughly identical.
Sea salt also contains other compounds like magnesium and iron, but only in trace amounts.
To actually benefit you, you'd have to take these in extremely high and potentially dangerous levels
of sodium. What's more, traditional table salt is regularly fortified with iodine,
which plays an important role in regulating the hormones in your body.
Sea salt, on the other hand, gives you virtually zero iodine.
Foods Labelled As Natural Are Healthier: The FDA makes no serious effort to control the use of the
word "natural" on nutrition labels. Case in point: 7UP boasts that it's made with "100% Natural
Flavors" when, in fact, the soda is sweetened with a high dose of high fructose corn syrup.
"Corn" is natural, but "high fructose corn syrup" is produced using a centrifuge
and a series of chemical reactions. Other "natural" abusers include Natural Cheetos,
which are made with maltodextrin and disodium phosphate,
and "natural advantage" Post Raisin Bran, which bathes its raisins in both sugar and corn syrup.
The worst part is, you're likely paying a premium price for common junk food.
Frozen fruits and vegetables don’t contain any nutrients: Modern freezing techniques quickly
freeze the vegetables and keep them ripe. This preserves an optimal amount of the nutrients
they contain. Although this process might destroy some of the food’s vitamins and minerals, it does
preserve a large amount. Freezing is a great way to conserve your fruits and vegetables year-round.
Carbohydrates Make You Fat:
This might be one of the biggest nutrition myths floating out there. And there’s hardly any truth
to it. Contrary to the theories on low-carb and no carb diet, there's nothing inherently
fattening about carbohydrates. It's eating too many calories, that makes you fat, period.
Although loading up on sugary and refined-carbohydrate-rich foods,
such as white bread, pasta and doughnuts,
can raise your risk of developing health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
But if you cut out so-called "good-carb" foods,
such as whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables, you're missing out on
your body's main source of fuel as well as vital nutrients and fiber.
Dairy products are fattening and unhealthy:
Dairy products are an important food group. They contain protein which your body needs
to build muscles and help organs work well. They are also rich in calcium that strengthens bones.
Most dairy products, such as milk and some yogurts, have added vitamin D to help your
body use calcium, since many Americans don’t get enough of these nutrients. Dairy products
made from fat-free or low-fat milk have fewer calories than dairy products made from whole milk.
Eating often Will Boost Your Metabolism:
It’s easy to trace this myth back to its origin. Digestion does raise your metabolism a little,
so many people believe that eating less food more often keeps your metabolism elevated.
However, the size of the meal matters, too. Fewer but larger meals means fewer
but larger spikes in metabolism. Moreover, some studies suggest that eating smaller meals
more often makes it harder to feel full, potentially leading to eating more food.
Given an equal amount of daily calories, the number of meals makes no difference in fat loss.
Maple syrup and honey are better than white sugar: Even though they contain traces of nutrients,
maple syrup and honey are similar to white sugar. They are high in calories and can increase your
glucose levels without making you feel full. You should use them for their exquisite taste
and as a way to support local producers, not for their purported health benefits.
If a food is fat-free, it must be healthy: You’re grocery shopping and a bag of gummy candy hangs
at the checkout counter. It’s an impulse buy – but why not indulge? It’s fat free, after all!
The trouble is, those gummies are loaded with sugar, which is bad for your heart.
Foods labeled “fat-free” can still be high in calories, salt, sugar or other undesirable
nutrients. Plus, fat is not the enemy it was once thought to be. Fat from foods like nuts,
oil and fish is essential in the diet. Don’t be fooled by fat-free claims. Learn how to
read the ingredient list and use the Nutrition Facts panel so you can get the whole story.
Drinking fruit juice is a good way to increase fruit in your diet:
Fruit juice is high in added sugars. In fact,
a cup of fruit juice can have as much as 40 grams of sugar, equivalent to 10 teaspoons. Eating too
much sugar increases your risk of many chronic diseases including heart disease and stroke.
The best way to increase your fruit consumption is to eat whole fruit,
which gives you the added benefit of fibre. When you’re thirsty reach for water or lower fat milk.
Egg Yolks Raise Your Cholesterol: Egg yolks contain dietary cholesterol; this much is true.
But research has proven that dietary cholesterol has almost nothing to do with serum cholesterol,
the stuff in your blood. They’ve found no link between eating egg and heart disease.
In fact, eating eggs for breakfast can decrease your calorie intake for the remainder of the day.
Increased cholesterol levels are never good for your health. And
there are certain foods that can help you lower its levels.
To know what they are, watch this video titled “ 8 Foods That Can Lower Your Cholesterol Level”
Now, back to popular nutrition myths busted.
You can eat as much as you want, as long as it’s healthy: Avocados, oatmeal, nuts and their creamy,
delicious butters are indeed healthy, but low in calories they are not. Sure, you're better off
eating 200 calories of oatmeal than 200 calories of sugar-spiked cookies made with the grain,
but that doesn't give you free rein to eat as much of the stuff as you want.
The bottom line: Nutritious or not, portion size counts with every food. If you find that you have
trouble sticking to reasonable portion sizes for some of the more caloric healthy foods in your
diet, look for portion-controlled packages. You can buy mini sizes in lieu of bigger tubs of food.
This will help keep calories in check and teach you what a proper serving looks like.
Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day:
There’s nothing special about breakfast. The first food you eat during the day is
technically breakfast. But it doesn’t need to be eaten early or include certain types of foods.
If you’re not hungry in the morning, you can skip this meal and move right into lunch.
Multi-grain and Wheat Breads Are Better Than White Bread:
Wait a minute—isn't "multi-grain" one of the biggest buzzwords in nutrition?
And haven't we been trained to pick the wheat bread over the white at every turn? Yes, but,
unfortunately, those labels are about as credible as your local congressman's campaign promises.
"Wheat bread" is generally white bread with caramel or molasses added to make it look dark and
healthy. "Multi-grain" just means that different kinds of junky refined grains may have been used.
Always look for the words "100% whole wheat" or "100% whole grain" on the package.
Eating Extra Protein Automatically Builds Muscle: To build muscle, you must have
three key components: Adequate calories, a good intake of protein and a good strength program.
Without enough calories, some of the dietary protein will be used as an energy source.
Likewise eating protein beyond your needs will either be stored as fat or burned for energy.
The timing of your protein is important. After resistance training, eating protein such as whey,
along with carbohydrates has been shown to build muscle.
There Is One Perfect Diet Plan for Everyone: Every diet wants its followers to believe
it is the tops. But there is no such thing as a perfect diet.
The best diet is the one that promotes variety in nutrients, adds enjoyment,
and can easily be sustained without a sense of deprivation.
While these may be some common myths around nutrition, there are even
more misconceptions around weight loss and dieting. You can clear some of them up by:
Watching: Diet Mistakes To Avoid When You’re Trying To Lose Weight
Or
Learning about Weight Loss Tips That Were Tested and What Worked
These 2 videos will help you avoid misconceptions around weight loss
and fast track your journey towards losing weight.
What’s the most common myth about nutrition that you’ve
heard and believed for a long time? Let us know in the comments section below!