Sometimes it's easy to believe false health food myths, this is because the marketing claims seem compelling. Often after a little digging though there is scientific evidence that disproves them.
Do you believe that eating a balanced diet is all you need to stay healthy?
Maybe you’ve heard that eating processed foods is bad for your health, or that whole grains are the best way to go. Maybe you think that skipping breakfast is the best way to save calories.
But what about all of those food myths?
9 Most Popular Food Myths That Are Wrong
1. Keto and Paleo are the Healthiest Diets
There are many supporters of the keto and paleo diets, along with other restrictive diets. Having lots of followers don’t necessarily mean that it's the healthiest diet though as I recently found out.
I recently reached out to 61 nutritionists and health bloggers to find out what they think the healthiest diet is.
The result was that 36% (22 votes out of 61) regarded a Non-Restrictive Diet/ Flexitarian diet as the best option.
This is because there is no single “best healthiest diet” to follow as everyone's dietary and nutritional needs vary from person to person (Dr. Kim Peirano).
Lisa Young says that;
eating foods from all the food groups and practicing portion control.” is the key to a healthy diet.
2. Eating 1400 Calories per Day you can Lose Weight
You have reduced your consumption to 1400 daily calories per day but not losing weight?
Reducing calories in the short term can trigger weight loss but there are a number of reasons why this may not be sustainable.
Initial weight loss will likely be water weight as typically you reduce carbohydrate intake and therefore decrease the carbs stored in the body.
For each gram of carbohydrate, you retain approximately 2-3 grams of water.
There is growing research to highlight the effects of your body's set weight point that regulates body weight (Source).
This suggests that changes in calorie intake or exercise change the regulatory systems in the body via hormones to minimize their impact.
This is discussed in “Why we eat too much” by Dr Andrew Jenkinson (well worth the read!).
3. Walnuts are a healthy choice for Omega 3's
True, but the ratio of omega 3’s to omega 6’s make walnuts an unhealthy choice.
A serving of 50 grams of walnuts contains 4500mg of omega 3’s but contains one of the highest amounts of the unhealthy omega 6’s at 19,000mg.
The huge quantity of omega 6 makes the abundant source of Omega 3s useless.
The ratio of omega 3s to omega 6s are important to reduce inflammation in your body. According to experts, a optimal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is closer to 2:1.
Consuming walnuts is closer to a 4:1 ratio of omega 6s to Omega 3s.
4. Drinking Egg whites is better than cooking them
When looking to consume a high-protein diet then drinking egg whites is one option considered, especially amongst body builders.
There are two concerns with drinking egg whites vs cooking them; firstly whether it's safe, and secondly the bioavailability of nutrients.
Considering about one in 20,000 eggs is thought to contain salmonella, drinking raw egg whites is a concern.
If you consume pasteurized eggs though you should be fine because they are heated up enough to kill the Salmonella bacteria that was potentially inside.
The bioavailability of cooked egg whites is about 90% compared to the bioavailability of raw egg whites is about 50%.
5. Greens Powders are a Substitute for Real Vegetables
I am a big advocate for greens supplements as I have developed and own a brand but they are not a replacement for real vegetables.
Powdered greens supplements act as a nutritional insurance for when your diet is poor or when you're particularly stressed.
Consuming greens supplements not only deliver a dose of vitamins and minerals but also can provide other adaptogens and immune ingredients not easily found in everyday foods.
For example, Rhodiola and Ashwagandha are two popular adaptogenic herbs with promising health benefits, not typically found in your local supermarket.
6. Green Juice Is Good for You
Not talking about powdered greens here but the green juice you blend.
Before taking a daily greens powder I got into juicing but soon discovered this wasn't the best way of getting my daily nutrients.
I soon gave up juicing because it's time consuming, expensive, can be messy, and the taste is unreliable.
But this was not the only reason.
Some green juices are high in sugar especially if you have included lots of fruit.
The high sugar concentration can cause unstable blood sugar levels, so you may wish to reduce the amount of fruit and have more vegetables instead.
7. Multivitamins are a healthy way to supplement your nutrients
Although multivitamins are promoted as the solution for healthy living they may not be required for everyone. Also, the type of supplements recommended can vary with age.
Where possible it's best to get your nutrients from real food through a healthy balanced diet.
It can be useful when your diet is inconsistent or finding it difficult to get the nutrients required you use supplementation.
Multivitamins may not be the first choice though and you could benefit from takingpowdered greens instead of multivitamins as they contain more nutrient-dense ingredients, such as Spirulina and Chlorella.
8. Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day
For many years, like most people, I believed that breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
The growing popularity of intermittent fasting (IF), in particular, the 16/8 IF protocol means that you often skip breakfast and eat between 12 pm and 8 pm.
The evidence for going for prolonged fasting periods is growing, with experts highlighting benefits for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and neurological disorders (Source).
I often go without breakfast if I am following either the 16/8 protocol or my monthly 48-hour or 72-hour fast.
The effectiveness of IF can depend on avoiding common fasting mistakes, such as eating “rubbish” calories or simply going too extreme too soon.
9. Calories In, Calories Out Is All That Matters
I believed that losing weight was simply a maths problem of consuming fewer calories than the calories used during the day.
This oversimplified approach has frustrated dieters for years and played into the hands of dieting marketers promoting “easy solutions” for reducing calorie intake or increasing metabolic rate.
The critics of the calories in, calories out approach argue it ignores hormone imbalances, insulin resistance, and other health problems that can affect metabolism.
That's not to say that calorie counting for weight loss doesn't work. It can help, in fact, it has worked for me when I wanted to lose belly fat in 90-days, albeit it wasn't a long-term solution.
The fact is calories are not equal and following a simple CICO approach may not take into account food choices and what is best consumed and what's best avoided (Source).
I hope that debunking these nine healthy food myths was useful. It's a challenge filtering the marketing and incorrect health food advice from the science ( as I have recently discovered ).