While one source tells me that to be “healthy” I need to cut out meat, another tells me that carbs are the real culprit. Unfortunately, nutrition has become an avenue for marketing. With the rise of artificial ingredients, GMOs, and other aspects of our food industry came the rise of nutrition “myths” that are, in fact, mere marketing schemes. When it comes to what we put into our bodies, we should not be ignorant.
Learn the facts by debunking these nutrition myths:
10. Diet/sugar free products are healthy alternatives to sugar.
While sugar should be consumed sparingly, it is far better to consume natural sugars than artificial sweeteners, syrups, and chemicals. These substitutes are an enemy of their own. Not only are they hard on your body to digest, but could actually lead to weight gain, not weight loss. They are also associated with diagnoses of Type II Diabetes, cancer, and even depression. Finally, they have absolutely no nutritional value.
Rather than debating whether to have a Coke Zero or classic Coca-Cola, why not make the choice to cut out soda altogether? Soda is easily one of the worst, if not the worst, things you can ingest.
9. Vitamins, vitamins, vitamins!
Decades of research have failed to find any evidence that taking vitamins is actually beneficial. Most of them, even multivitamins, are completely useless. You shouldn’t get your essential nutrients from a pill, you should get them with a balanced diet.
However, there are a few supplements that may be worth your while. Vitamin D helps keep bones strong, improve mood, and you can’t easily get it from food. Zinc may actually be more beneficial than Vitamin C when battling a cold (if you’re still unconvinced, pair your zinc with an orange instead Emergen-C). Finally, probiotics help replace bacteria colonies in your gut, which would be especially beneficial during and after antibiotic treatment for an infection.
8. Gluten (and carbs in general) are bad for you.
It’s one thing if you’re allergic to it, it’s another if you avoid it as an excuse to eat more simple carbohydrates. Gluten itself doesn’t offer much nutritional value, but many foods that contain gluten do. Going gluten-free can mean cutting out many healthy and nutritious foods from your diet, especially grains high in fiber.
If you think you have an intolerance to gluten, get tested. Otherwise, you aren’t really doing yourself much good by avoiding it.
Healthy carbohydrates contain vital nutrients for your health. There are different kinds of carbs, some you don’t need, but many you do. Starches such as potatoes, oats and whole grains, brown rice, vegetables and legumes are very healthy options for carbs.
Carbs energize both the brain and the body. They help keep you fueled and focused. For this reason, carbs are especially beneficial to eat earlier in the day as well as before and after a workout.
7. Meat is bad for you.
You don’t necessarily need to eat meat, it just so happens to be a very dense source of protein. Protein is a nutrient we need for muscle growth, muscle repair, and other functions. Protein provides us with maintainable energy that fuels us longer than carbohydrates. Protein contains vital hormones, enzymes, and amino acids. While there are correlations between red meat and heart disease, lean meats such as fish, white-meat chicken, and turkey all are very healthy sources of fat and protein.
However, for all products (but especially meat), always choose organic, grass-fed, free range, etc. It's not the meat that's bad for you -- it's the steroids and hormones they feed to the animals. They aren't good for the animals, so why would they be good for us?
Lately there has been a spike in the vegan or meat-free lifestyle. If you make the choice to be vegan, remember that just because you don’t get your protein from meat doesn’t mean you can skip out on it altogether.
Veganism can be a perfectly healthy lifestyle as long as you get enough protein. However, for the purpose of weight loss or dieting, a vegan diet won’t necessarily help achieve that goal. Just because you don’t eat meat doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want otherwise. Eating balanced and filling meals that are dense in healthy macros is still a must.
6. Don’t eat after 7 p.m.
This seems like it makes sense, as we obviously aren’t getting much physical activity in the evening and as we sleep. So, giving ourselves food for energy we don’t need will make our bodies store it as fat, right? Not necessarily.
Your resting metabolic rate isn’t actually far off from your active metabolic rate during the day. Hence, the value of increasing your metabolism through diet and exercise.
A 2011 study examined the effects of carb timing and found that participants who ate 80% of their total carb intake at night actually lost more weight than participants who ate their carbs earlier and throughout the day. Additionally, those participants reported less hunger.
While eating your weight in carbs before going to bed probably isn't the best idea, having a light and nutritious meal in the evening can help you go to bed satisfied (and don’t we all love late-night snacking?).
5. If you exercise, then you can eat whatever you want.
You can’t out-work a bad diet. In fact, if you regularly eat like crap, especially surrounding your workouts, you’ll actually sabotage your efforts at the gym. To be your healthiest and feel your best, you have to pair exercise with a nutritious and balanced diet. It’s not one or the other.
4. It’s all about calories!
Actually, when looking at the nutrition label, you should probably aim your eyes toward the ingredients list rather than the calories. Eating foods with fewer and more natural ingredients should be your priority. Chances are, if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it.
Just because a food is high in calories doesn’t make it unhealthy! For example, nuts, lean meat, and healthy grains can be high in calories, but they’re all very good for you and contain essential nutrients your body needs.
Yes, over-consumption of calories does mean weight gain. However, brands take advantage of this knowledge by marketing low or zero-calorie products as if they’ll make you lose weight. It’s not about eating as little calories as possible, it’s about portion control. The most important thing is to make sure your body gets what it needs to stay healthy and energized.
3. Eating fat makes you fat.
Seems like it would make sense, right? But, just because the fat we consume has the same name as the fat on our body doesn’t mean they’re correlated. In fact, sugar is the main culprit. Not just sugar from candy and soda, but sugar from refined and simple carbohydrates.
However, it is true that over-consumption of calories in general is what makes us fat. If you’re avoiding fats but eating an excess of carbs and protein instead, this will still contribute to fat on your body.
In fact, eating healthy unsaturated fats are important for our mental and physical health. Some examples of foods with healthy fats include avocados, nuts and seeds, fish, and olive oil.
2. “Natural” = Organic.
1. To be healthy means to be skinny.
There are tons of skinny people out there who may appear healthy, but inside their bodies are begging for nourishment and exercise. It doesn't matter how little you eat, or how little you are, if you aren't getting enough nutrients and exercising regularly.
To be healthy is to get variety in your food, eat nutritious food, eat enough of it, and eat food you like. Above all else, eat real food and eat the proper amount of it. If putting zero-calorie crap into your body so you can be a size zero is your definition of health, then you need to re-evaluate your priorities.
Healthy people come in all shapes and sizes. The myth that only skinny people are healthy is a complete marketing scheme. Not only is it untrue, but it's incredibly damaging. Skinny shouldn't be the goal; health and strength should be.
