Nutrition Myths

Eating Sugar Causes Diabetes

A common nutrition myth is the misconception that sugar causes diabetes. If you have diabetes, you do need to watch your sugar and carbohydrate intake and properly manage your blood sugar level. However, if you do not have diabetes, sugar intake will not cause diabetes. Being overweight, a diet high in calories, and an inactive lifestyle are some of the main risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

All Fats in the diet are bad.

Everyone needs fat in their dietary intake. Important functions of fats include helping nutrient absorption, nerve transmission, and maintaining cell membrane. Fat may cause many problems when consumed in excessive amounts including weight gain, heart disease, and certain types of cancers. The good news is that some fats promote our health positively by reducing total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) while raising HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).The key is to replace bad fats (saturated fats and trans fats) with good fats (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats) in our diet.

White Sugar isn't as good for you as Brown Sugar

Many people have the idea that brown sugar is better for you than white sugar. Brown sugar sold in grocery stores is actually white granulated sugar with added molasses. Brown sugar does contain small traces of minerals. But unless you eat a humongous portion of brown sugar with every meal, the mineral content difference between brown sugar and white sugar is absolutely insignificant . . . and eating huge portions of anything, especially sugar, can lead to weight gain.

Eating seafood may raise blood cholesterol

A new nutrition myth out there is the idea that eating seafood will cause high blood cholesterol. The actual truth is that cholesterol found in seafood, as well as other meats, has little effect on blood cholesterol. A person's intake of saturated fat and trans fatty acids are the two most important diet factors that raise blood cholesterol. Saturated fats are found in many packaged foods and in a variety of meat products. Trans fatty acids are also found in packaged snack foods, deep-fried foods, and margarines which contain hydrogenated oil.

Avoid carbohydrate intake to help lose weight

Carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy. Without carbohydrates in the diet, your brain cannot function properly. Many low-carb diets actually do not provide sufficient carbohydrates to your body for daily maintenance. Therefore your body will begin to burn stored carbohydrates, known as glycogen, for energy. When glycogen is burned, water is released which causes a drastic initial drop of weight at the beginning at the diet. In addition to losing water drastically at the beginning, most low-carb diets are often calorie-restricted and only account for an average of of 1000 - 1400 calories daily. Most individuals need at least an intake of 1800 - 2200 calories. Rather than choosing low-carb diets to lose weight, focus on eating 500 less calories per day in your normal diet. Seven days of this will allow you to lose 1 lb of body fat, which is equal to 3,500 total calories. Thus, it doesn't matter if you consume a high or low amount of carbohydrates in the diet, what matters is if your getting the adequate amount of calories per day to maintain your ideal body weight.

Nuts should be avoided, because they are fattening

Nuts are a very calorically dense food and can easily be overeaten if not careful. Actually, only one handful, or about 24 nuts, is one serving size. Nuts are indeed high in fat but are a very healthy part of the diet. Nuts contain the good monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which have shown to lower LDL cholesterol. Instead of simply adding nuts to your diet, the best approach is to eat them in replacement of foods high in saturated fats. You can also add nuts to your salad, stir fry, or other prepared dishes.

Skipping meals helps with weight loss

Another very common nutrition myth is the idea of skipping meals in order to lose weight. People think if they eat less food eventually they will lose weight. This is only true if you eat less junk food. Skipping meals to lose weight causes the body to go into starvation mode, which in turn slows down the body's metabolism to compensate. Your body actually burns fewer calories when this happens. Skipping meals also leads to overeating during the next meal. Often times skipping a meal results in an increase in total caloric intake. This problem can be simply solved by eating smaller meals more frequently during the day. The small frequent meal approach helps keep your blood sugar balanced and keeps you from eating everything in sight during your next meal.

 

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