The Biggest Nutritional Myths Uncovered. Some statements can be immediately unmasked as nutritional myths, while others are more difficult. Find out more!
Food: Apparently The Most Complicated Thing In The World
At least that’s the impression you might get when you read the tips and tricks we receive every day on the subject of “healthy eating”. Some things can be unmasked immediately as one of the typical nutritional myths. Or why should fresh cookie dough be unhealthy? Other things, on the other hand, stick stubbornly in people’s minds.
Here are the most widespread nutritional myths about the second most beautiful thing in the world:
Diet Myths - What's the deal?
Skinny People Are Healthy
This assertion is not only similarly discriminatory as accusing fat people of being lazy. It’s just not true. Numerous diseases and health impairments also lie dormant in a slim body. Even the health risks associated with being overweight are only minimized for a slim body, but cannot be completely ruled out.
Two Liters Of Water A Day Are A Must
The feeling of thirst and the fluid balance are as individual as people are. Of course, a water balance keeps our mind alert and our metabolism running better. However, if you have to force yourself to drink, you certainly don’t have a real need right now.
Fatty Foods Are Unhealthy
What may be true of animal fats from meat and processed sausages and the notorious trans fats is certainly not true as a commonplace. Oily fish contains valuable omega 3 fatty acids, which can even be useful for weight loss. Although avocados, nuts, and seeds contain a relatively large amount of fat, this is essential for our body. Our brain in particular benefits from these foods.
Diet Myths Put To The Test
Honey And Natural Sugars Are Not Sugar
It makes no difference to our metabolism whether we eat a tablespoon of honey, maple syrup, or coconut blossom sugar. All are metabolized in the same way. After all, honey comes with a few healthy extras. It strengthens our immune system and prevents inflammation in the body.
In Order To Lose Weight, You Have To Cut Out Carbohydrates Completely
Unfortunately, this myth persists. Diet trends like keto and low-carb are partly to blame. The fact is, that our bodies need complex carbohydrates to function properly. Whole grain products, vegetables, and low-sugar types of fruit should continue to be on the menu here, as should legumes. Chocolate, white bread, and soft drinks, on the other hand, are (unfortunately) not needed by our bodies.
Light Products Are Slimmers
Every day the food industry works on how to produce more products more cheaply and sell them more expensively. The designation “light” indicates a lower fat content. However, fat is a cheap flavor carrier, so it has to be replaced by another, equally cheap, flavor carrier. Sugar is used instead of fat. Therefore, “light products” are unfortunately neither healthy nor do they contribute to weight loss.
The Biggest Nutrition Myths
Vegetarians And Vegans Suffer From Protein Deficiency
Honestly, then mankind would have died out long ago. Our ancestors, who still had to laboriously hunt down every piece of meat, were involuntarily vegetarian. Before the Neolithic Age and the “invention” of agriculture, our diet was mostly plant-based with a little fish or meat now and then. Numerous foods that are of non-animal origin provide plenty of protein: legumes, green vegetables, seeds, and nuts provide us with this in the best possible way.
Smoothies Replace Fruits And Vegetables
Unfortunately, that is only partly true. Of course, when we make smoothies ourselves, we can control what goes into them. Ready-made juices are mainly cheaply produced fruit juices with additives and flavorings. A look at the list of ingredients makes sure!
Superfoods Harm The Climate And Are Expensive
Here you have to distinguish which superfoods are meant. Chia seeds, cranberries, avocados, and goji berries can indeed make a bad impression on our carbon footprint and at the supermarket checkout. But they can all be easily replaced. Because there are also local superfoods: Instead of chia seeds, for example, you can use flaxseed.
These even score with more healthy ingredients and cost only a fraction of their exotic counterparts. We also have blueberries and raspberries. It is therefore not necessary to rely on the expensive variants from South America and Co. Our homeland also has nuts to offer. Instead of cashews, macadamia, and pecan nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts are just as good.
Diet Myths: True or False?
Schnapps Is Good For Digestion
This myth persists and is unfortunately passed on from the older generation to the younger. In truth, a high percentage is quite a challenge for our digestive organs. They would have enough to do after a meal, even without schnapps for dessert. But it gets even worse: alcohol inhibits fat burning in the body. It relaxes the muscles in our stomach walls. This slows down the transport of our stomach contents towards the digestive tract. A cup of tea or coffee and a glass of water after a meal would be more effective.
Superfoods Make You Fit And Healthy
Unfortunately, apart from medicinal plants, there are no foods that can cure diseases. Superfoods contain many valuable micronutrients and trace elements such as magnesium, zinc, selenium, and potassium, which are actually good for our bodies. But don’t expect miracles from it. In principle, all of the nutrients mentioned are also contained in most types of fruit and vegetables.
Carbohydrates And Protein Should Not Be Eaten Together
This myth is also due to a former trend diet that still casts its shadow. The food combining diet, which was so hip in the 1990s, made this “commandment”. We should not underestimate our body: it can easily digest a fish fillet with brown rice without us gaining weight or suffering any other disadvantages.
Diet Myths In Check
Soy Products Contain Hormones
This statement falls into the category of “blatant nonsense” and urgently needs clarification. Soy naturally contains secondary plant substances called phytoestrogens. These are not hormones, but they work in our body in a similar way to the female sex hormone estrogen. Average consumption of tofu or soy milk will not affect most people at all. However, scientific studies have shown that phytoestrogens can be used to control our hormone balance.
Fruit Juices Are Much Better Than Soft Drinks
Here, unfortunately, the myth of healthy fructose enters the stage again. Both juice creations contain sugar in some form and therefore calories. Freshly squeezed fruit juice can be healthier with regard to a few more vitamins, but not otherwise.
Skipping Meals Makes You Slim
This truism also comes from diet history and should stay there and gather dust. Our body works like a machine: it needs nourishment in order to be able to perform. If you keep skipping meals, you run the risk of going overboard at the next one. The result is food cravings and a craving for food. However, the situation is different with specifically planned fasting intervals, such as intermittent fasting, which is currently very popular. Here you can do something good for yourself in the short term – once the tough start has been completed. However, fasting cures should take place under professional guidance.
Nutrition Myths: Researched or Invented?
Salad Is Healthy
Here, too, a commonplace has crept into our nutritional wisdom as accepted truth. It’s a bit like superfoods: green lettuce itself has some beneficial nutrients to offer with practically no calories. As a sole meal, however, we lack essential components such as proteins and fats. A colorful salad bowl or Buddha bowl can – intelligently put together – become the perfect meal. A potato salad with mayonnaise or a chef’s salad with processed sausage strips and white bread croutons will be in the same league in terms of nutritional value and nutrients as schnitzel with fries or a pizza slice.
Margarine Is Bad, Butter Is Good
Here, too, a distinction must be made: Why would I prefer margarine? Anyone who lives vegan has a large number of attractive products to choose from, which no longer have much to do with the once cheap cooking margarine. However, in the case of margarine, it must always be clear that it is a heavily processed industrial product.
During their production, the so-called trans fats are formed during the hardening process. These are not harmless to our health, on the contrary. Butter, on the other hand, is an organic product. Unless the milk used to make it comes from hormone-treated cows, all is well. After all, today it is one of those staple foods that are least processed industrially. Both products are 80 percent fat.
Citrus Fruits Are Rich In Vitamin C
This theory is not entirely wrong, but it is not entirely correct either. Lemons and co. do indeed contain a lot of vitamin C. They provide around 52 milligrams of it per 100 grams of fruit. Broccoli, however, scores with over 115 milligrams per 100 grams, followed by kiwi with 71 milligrams per 100 grams.
Nutritional Myths Debunked
Dinner Makes You Fat
This fairy tale also persists. Why should a calorie in the evening be more than a calorie in the morning? Our body certainly needs less power in the evening when we are just lying on the sofa or when we are about to go to bed. On average, however, it doesn’t matter when we eat. The sum at the end of the day is decisive.
Vitamin Supplements Replace Fruits And Vegetables
Dietary supplements and supplements have – if they have not been prescribed by a doctor – exactly one function: They enrich their manufacturers. The only beneficiaries are the pharmaceutical companies, but certainly not the people who take these drugs. A reasonably balanced and modern diet, where convenience products and fast food are the exceptions, provides our body with everything it needs.
Eggs Contain A Lot Of Cholesterol
This myth has now been successfully disproved. Saturated fatty acids from meat, sausage, and fried foods are the real bad guys when it comes to cholesterol. Eggs themselves are very healthy. A single chicken egg contains almost all the important nutrients. These include 15 different minerals such as iron and zinc, 12 different vitamins, and eleven amino acids including all eight essential amino acids that our body does not produce itself but has to absorb through food. The protein contained in the egg has the highest biological value of all known foods.
The Worst Nutritional Myths
One Hot Meal A Day Is A Must
Our digestion is happier about warm meals than about cold ones, that’s true. After all, the body has to exert less effort to bring the food supplied to “operating temperature”. Apart from the fact that some foods are also inedible when uncooked, heating can even kill important nutrients and vitamins that are retained when eaten cold. You certainly won’t suffer any damage if you don’t cook warmly every day. The what is much more important than the how.
Man Needs Meat
This myth can safely be left to the meat industry lobby. Our teeth alone distinguish us significantly from those of the typical predators and carnivores in the animal kingdom. We’re missing the terrifying fangs that tigers, wolves, and co. got from nature to kill and eat their prey. We humans have a characteristic set of teeth for omnivores.
Proteins and other nutrients that might be “missing” by not eating meat are easily compensated for by dairy products, legumes, and vegetables, as well as eggs and fish. But also for those who are strictly vegan according to the latest scientific findings, there are no health disadvantages to fear, on the contrary. Only the supply of vitamin B12 has to be considered.
A Glass Of Red Wine A Day Is Good For The Heart
Red wine may have beneficial ingredients. However, its main component is and remains alcohol. It is not for nothing that this stimulant has an intoxicating effect on us. It can quickly lead to habituation effects and dependencies, which in itself clearly shows that our heart certainly does not benefit from it.
The healthy super substance in red wine, resveratrol, is extracted from the skin of red grapes. The substance is said to prevent the hardening of the arteries and thus subsequently reduce the risk of heart attacks. So far, however, this assumption has only been confirmed in animal experiments. Well-founded results from human studies are not yet available.
Diet Myths: What's True, What's False?
Coffee Draws Water Out Of The Body
In fact, the exact opposite is the case here. According to the latest studies, coffee can definitely be included in our daily fluid balance. The caffeine in coffee has a diuretic effect. But its actual influence on our water balance is negligible.
Fruit Can Be Eaten In Abundance
Unfortunately no, the dose makes the poison here too. The fruit consists largely of fructose, which our body metabolizes like any other sugar and, if there is an oversupply, immediately converts it into fat cells for bad times. If you want to watch your weight, you can also keep an eye on the calories in fruit.
Carrots Sharpen Our Eyesight
This story also persists. The fact is: that carrots contain beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body. This affects our eyesight, but only if there is a glaring deficiency over a longer period of time. But the reverse conclusion is simply wrong. Incidentally, other foods provide significantly more vitamin A than carrots. This includes all types of cabbage, spinach, and pumpkin.
