13 Nutrition Myths

my biggest problem is the cooking meat too much, at least on the outside.  i love those charred tasty bits...

Looks like it was written by the high protein, low carb folks. I see a few flaws. Just like protein was demonized in the past present fads tend to demonize carbs. But many don't state which carbs. Pretty big difference between broccoli and cheez-its.

Yeah, like those "Eat this, not that" articles they have every other week?

"Instead of going to Chili's and having a delicious 1200 calorie bacon burger, you should stay home and eat 3 raisins."

Agree whole (clogged) heartedly!!!!!!!!!!!

My dad had a quadruple bypass in his early 40's and it scarred me for life as far as eating saturated and trans fats. The doctor advised him to eat under 15 grams of saturated fat a day because it clogs the arteries....

now this article states that there is no proof that saturated fat does that? If you keep yourself in relatively nice shape...then what's the downside to eating an entire pizza if you're good at working off the calories? I was under the impression that all that saturated fat would clog the arteries.

Doctors are rarely nutritionists. Much of the dietary advice they give is akin to someone telling you to change your oil every 3000 miles. It's vague, stock stuff.

Agreed.  There is a little validity to these things, but they run wild with it.  My comments below:

2. A Calorie is a Calorie

It is often said that the only thing that matters for weight loss is “calories in, calories out.”

This is often said because it is actually pretty close to the truth.

The truth is that calories matter… but the types of foods we eat are just as important.  That is because different foods go through different metabolic pathways in the body ( 14 ).

This is true - but it is not "just as important" as they say.  It has a very small effect.  Probably so small that it isn't worth paying attention to.  You would have to be adhering to a diet really, really strictly for this to begin to matter.

Additionally, the foods we eat can directly impact the hormones that regulate when and how much we eat, as well as the amount of calories we burn.

Here are two examples of why a calorie is NOT a calorie:

Protein: Eating protein can boost the metabolic rate and reduce appetite compared to the same amount of calories from fat and carbs . It can also increase your muscle mass, which burns calories around the clock ( 15 , 16 ).

Protein can boost your metabolic rate just a little.  But it isn't going to make you start dropping pounds.  Reduction in appetite is a different discussion - a discussion about how comfortable you are if you become hungry later.  It doesn't change the fact that this calorie will put basically the same amount of weight on you as a fat calorie or a carb calorie.

And muscle mass?  A pound of new muscle is estimated to burn an additional 6-12 calories/day.  People used to think maybe up to 50/day - but it turned out that was over-stated.  If an average guy worked out real hard for a year, he might put on 6 pounds of muscle.  So we're talking about 50 calories a day in a great-case scenario.  If you are older - less.

But the article said nothing about lifting the weights several days/week for a year. So if you don't do that, you aren't going to put on the muscle anyway.  Let's say you do lift the weights for a year.  It isn't like you don't take in any protein and you won't gain any muscle.  You are going to put on a similar amount of muscle as you would have either way.  The weights are the most important factor for muscle gain.

Fructose vs glucose: Fructose can stimulate the appetite compared to the same number of calories from glucose ( 17 , 18 ).

Once again - this just has to do with if you get hungry later.  If you ate 100 fructose calories in a given day vs. 100 glucose calories - they are going to affect your weight the same.  The whole context of the article implies that different types of calories affect your weight differently.  This is about how it affects your appetite.  And once again - I'd bet the effect is kinda small in the grand scheme.

Even though calories are important, saying that they are all that matters when it comes to weight (or health for that matter) is completely wrong.

Completely wrong?  Too strong.  Overall - most of this is absolutely true - but very small in the big picture.  Sure, eat protein and healthy foods.  That is great.  But the tone of the article makes it sound like you can go from a 2500cal/day diet of whatever you are eating now to a 2500cal/day diet of certain foods and you'll start to just shed weight.  Isn't going to happen.  If weight loss is your goal - the easiest thing you can do to drop the weight WITH NO CLOSE SECOND is to eat less calories.  They have written an article that downplays the most effective strategy in favor of a less effective one.

Read the myths - agree with many, disagree with others -- the article is not well balanced, or better, not thorough enough, and conflicts with what my doctors and my reading tells me.

Having gone through some pain in regards to the heart, I would say a balance of fresh foods is a wise choice - general rules:

Avoid processed foods and limit saturated fats

Cut down on wheat (it's an inflammatory)

Stay on the outside ring of a store as a general rule of thumb - this is where fresh foods are generally found - veggies, fruits, meats, fish.

Watch your portions - limit meat to typically a cupped palm.

Wild salmon and tuna - good

Limit your saturated fats (i.e. meats) and sodium intake

Avoid processed meats (bacon, sausage, pepperoni, salami, etc)

Eat oatmeal with fruits

Eat some fruit during the day (juice is not fruit).

Avoid dairy, including cheese.

Eat your share of decent veggies

Don't eat meat at every meal - try beans, or have a salad

A handful of walnuts, almonds, etc.

Eggs? I generally avoid the yolks but may put 1/2 a yolk if I use 3 eggs.

___

For some of us, we're more susceptible to heart disease and accumulating plaque than others. Some of us are blessed, but may have other issues.

When you're 30, start with blood tests every 6 months to check cholesterol - you want low LDL and Higher HDL. Exercise 3 hrs per week - walk, run, jog, yard work, etc.

At 40, get a stress test. Some of you may need statins if you're genetically disposed to high cholesterol.

Good luck. Knowledge will help you avoid issues. Remember, all the exercise in the world still won't help your heart if you eat poorly are or disposed to heart disease.

If you're one day like me, then you've got to go more veggie than meaty - low in saturated fats, lots of veggies, fish and fresh fruits, some nuts, less alcohol, educed stress, and lots of exercise. Of course, like any diet, it's good to allow yourself a steak or desert once in a while.

Oh wow. This whole area is a can of worms. Some of that article is OK and @Meltdwhiskey is pretty much spot on. However, there's too much in that article that's dodgy or badly presented and just because they quote some science, it doesn't make their case well.

Hey. Get this. Eat a balanced diet and, if you can, do some exercise. End of story. Eat burgers, pizza etc and drink beer. Just don't make it all you do. For most of us it really is that simple. Don't take supplements (unless you're pregnant or in some other group that specifically needs certain vitamins etc) as they're a waste of space.

Nah, that doesn't work as what would the nutrition and supplement industry do????? One big elephant in the room is the decreasing abilities of people to cook their own meals from raw ingredients these days - if you do that, you have a much better chance of actually understanding foods and therefore less chance of being hoodwinked by the nutrition/supplement/food industry.

As an aside re. calories themselves, I'm not sure what it is in the U.S. but in the U.K. the recommended daily calorific intake for an adult man is 2500 calories and that's generous - many citations suggest 2000. By way of illustration, I had a burger (a 1955 burger they're doing as a special here just now), medium shake and regular fries at a MacDonalds the other night - those three things together were ~1400 calories and that was just one meal in the evening.

One more thing and I really am not trying to stir a hornets nest with this. Spent a fortnight in Florida (doing Disney etc which was surprisingly good) a few years ago and was gobsmacked at how difficult (when eating out) it was to get any vegetables as part of a meal....at all. In the end, we went to an Italian as we couldn't find anything anywhere else. We ate some great meat and some decent seafood while there, even got to try some reptilian delights as well, but it was almost all meat and processed carbohydrate in HUGE helpings. That's a problem. Is it just where we were or is that typical??

By way of balance, there's plenty of eateries here in the U.K. that're similar and, Lord knows, there's a Type II diabetes/coronary timebomb winding up over here.

For a start, who said that? You're misrepresenting what was said. Secondly, if you eat only those meats, then you have a problem. If you're eating them as part of a balanced diet, they don't do any significant damage. Meat is not harmful, per se , as can be seen from what evolution has done for our teeth.

Nay, nay and thrice nay. Certainly not unless you have a proven intolerance. Again, we've evolved to eat grains, including wheat, as part of our diet. A better question would certainly be: why are we (apparently) seeing increasing allergies against things such as gluten in the 'West'? Why are we seeing (apparently) increasing allergies against peanuts when, in countries such as Thailand that use peanut in so much of their cuisine, there doesn't appear to be the same issue?