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I wouldn't mark this one down in pen and ink because these articles change every five minutes, usually based on what the authors of the article prefers. So, not an endorsement, but what the hell...
From I09:
Ten Myths That Mainstream Nutrition Taught Us
When it comes to our food choices, many of us do the best we can to ensure that what we're putting on our plates are the healthiest and most nutritious foods possible. But given so many choices, it's not easy to know exactly what we should be eating — so we put our trust in conventional wisdom, common sense, and what the experts have to say.
But what if the experts are wrong? A lot of the science is now showing that many commonly held beliefs about what a healthy diet should look like are utterly wrong. Here are the top 11 biggest lies, myths, and misconceptions told to us by mainstream nutrition.
Eggs Are Unhealthy
There's one thing that nutrition professionals have had remarkable success with...and that is demonizing incredibly healthy foods.
The worst example of that is eggs, which happen to contain a large amount of cholesterol and were therefore believed to increase the risk of heart disease. But recently it has been proven that the cholesterol in your diet doesn't really raise the cholesterol in blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise the "good" cholesterol and are NOT associated with increased risk of heart disease (1, 2).
What we're left with is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. They're high in all sorts of nutrients along with unique antioxidants that protect our eyes (3).
To top it all of, despite being a "high fat" food, eggs are proven to cause significant weight loss, compared to bagels, as a breakfast food (4, 5).
1: http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539
2: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19369056
3: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/2/247.short
4: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16373948
5: http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n10/abs/ijo2008130a.html
Bottom Line: Eggs do not cause heart disease and are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. Eggs for breakfast can help you lose weight.
Saturated Fat is Bad For You
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Newer studies have proven that saturated fat does not cause heart disease. Natural foods that are high in saturated fat are good for you.
Everybody Should be Eating Grains
The idea that humans should be basing their diets on grains has never made sense. The agricultural revolution happened fairly recently in human evolutionary history and our genes haven't changed that much. ( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Grains are relatively low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. The gluten grains in particular may lead to a variety of health problems.
Eating a Lot of Protein is Bad For Your Bones and Kidneys
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Eating a high protein diet is associated with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture. High protein also lowers blood pressure and improves diabetes symptoms, which should lower the risk of kidney failure.
Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You
Do you know what regular food tastes like when all the fat has been taken out of it? Well, it tastes like cardboard. No one would want to eat it. The food manufacturers know this and therefore they add other things to compensate for the lack of fat.
Usually these are sweeteners… sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Artificially low-fat foods are often highly processed products loaded with sugar, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. They can be extremely unhealthy.
{Me: Ooh! This makes me want to go back and unearth the YouTube video discussing the history of Farm Subsidies. Interesting stuff. Maybe another day.}
You Should Eat Many Small Meals Throughout The Day
The idea that you should eat many small meals throughout the day in order to "keep metabolism high" is a persistent myth that doesn't make any sense. It is true that eating raises your metabolism slightly while you're digesting the meal, but it's the total amount of food that determines the energy used, NOT the number of meals.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: There is no evidence that eating many small meals throughout the day is better than fewer, bigger meals. Not eating from time to time is good for you. Increased meal frequency is associated with colon cancer.
Carbs Should Be Your Biggest Source of Calories
The mainstream view is that everyone should eat a low-fat diet, with carbs being around 60% of total calories. This sort of diet contains a lot of grains and sugars, with very small amounts of fatty foods like meat and eggs.
This type of diet may work well for some people, especially those who are naturally lean. But for those who are obese, have metabolic syndrome or diabetes, this amount of carbohydrates is downright dangerous.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: The low-fat, high-carb diet has been repeatedly proven to be inferior to lower-carb, higher-fat diets.
High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils Are Good For You
{Me: People thought Omega-6 was particularly good for you?}
Polyunsaturated fats are considered healthy because some studies show that they lower your risk of heart disease. But there are many types of polyunsaturated fats and they are not all the same. There are both Omega-3 fatty acids and Omega-6 fatty acids.
Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and lower your risk of many diseases related to inflammation (37). Humans actually need to get Omega-6s and Omega-3s in a certain ratio. If the ratio is too high in favor of Omega-6, it can cause problems (38).( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Humans need to get Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in a certain ratio. Eating excess Omega-6 from seed oils raises your risk of disease.
Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous
I personally believe low-carb diets to be a potential cure for many of the most common health problems in western nations. The low-fat diet peddled all around the world is fairly useless against many of these diseases.
{Me: So we know the author's personal biases...}( Read more... )
Sugar is Unhealthy Because it Contains "Empty" Calories
It is commonly believed that sugar is bad for you because it contains empty calories. It's true, sugar has a lot of calories with no essential nutrients. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sugar, primarily because of its high fructose content, affects metabolism in a way that sets us up for rapid fat gain and metabolic disease.
Fructose gets metabolized by the liver and turned into fat which is secreted into the blood as VLDL particles. This leads to elevated triglycerides and cholesterol (58, 59).
It also causes resistance to the hormones insulin and leptin, which is a stepping stone towards obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes (60, 61).
This is just to name a few. Sugar causes a relentless biochemical drive for humans to eat more.
Bottom Line: The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. Sugar wreaks havoc on our metabolism and sets us up for weight gain and many serious diseases.
High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: As with anything, this depends on the context. A diet that is high in fat AND high in carbs will make you fat, but it's NOT because of the fat.
This article originally appeared at Authority Nutrition.
http://authoritynutrition.com/11-biggest-lies-of-mainstream-nutrition/
{And take with a healthy dose of scientific caution}
From I09:
Ten Myths That Mainstream Nutrition Taught Us
When it comes to our food choices, many of us do the best we can to ensure that what we're putting on our plates are the healthiest and most nutritious foods possible. But given so many choices, it's not easy to know exactly what we should be eating — so we put our trust in conventional wisdom, common sense, and what the experts have to say.
But what if the experts are wrong? A lot of the science is now showing that many commonly held beliefs about what a healthy diet should look like are utterly wrong. Here are the top 11 biggest lies, myths, and misconceptions told to us by mainstream nutrition.
Eggs Are Unhealthy
There's one thing that nutrition professionals have had remarkable success with...and that is demonizing incredibly healthy foods.
The worst example of that is eggs, which happen to contain a large amount of cholesterol and were therefore believed to increase the risk of heart disease. But recently it has been proven that the cholesterol in your diet doesn't really raise the cholesterol in blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise the "good" cholesterol and are NOT associated with increased risk of heart disease (1, 2).
What we're left with is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. They're high in all sorts of nutrients along with unique antioxidants that protect our eyes (3).
To top it all of, despite being a "high fat" food, eggs are proven to cause significant weight loss, compared to bagels, as a breakfast food (4, 5).
1: http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539
2: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19369056
3: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/2/247.short
4: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16373948
5: http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n10/abs/ijo2008130a.html
Bottom Line: Eggs do not cause heart disease and are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. Eggs for breakfast can help you lose weight.
Saturated Fat is Bad For You
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Newer studies have proven that saturated fat does not cause heart disease. Natural foods that are high in saturated fat are good for you.
Everybody Should be Eating Grains
The idea that humans should be basing their diets on grains has never made sense. The agricultural revolution happened fairly recently in human evolutionary history and our genes haven't changed that much. ( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Grains are relatively low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. The gluten grains in particular may lead to a variety of health problems.
Eating a Lot of Protein is Bad For Your Bones and Kidneys
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Eating a high protein diet is associated with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture. High protein also lowers blood pressure and improves diabetes symptoms, which should lower the risk of kidney failure.
Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You
Do you know what regular food tastes like when all the fat has been taken out of it? Well, it tastes like cardboard. No one would want to eat it. The food manufacturers know this and therefore they add other things to compensate for the lack of fat.
Usually these are sweeteners… sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Artificially low-fat foods are often highly processed products loaded with sugar, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. They can be extremely unhealthy.
{Me: Ooh! This makes me want to go back and unearth the YouTube video discussing the history of Farm Subsidies. Interesting stuff. Maybe another day.}
You Should Eat Many Small Meals Throughout The Day
The idea that you should eat many small meals throughout the day in order to "keep metabolism high" is a persistent myth that doesn't make any sense. It is true that eating raises your metabolism slightly while you're digesting the meal, but it's the total amount of food that determines the energy used, NOT the number of meals.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: There is no evidence that eating many small meals throughout the day is better than fewer, bigger meals. Not eating from time to time is good for you. Increased meal frequency is associated with colon cancer.
Carbs Should Be Your Biggest Source of Calories
The mainstream view is that everyone should eat a low-fat diet, with carbs being around 60% of total calories. This sort of diet contains a lot of grains and sugars, with very small amounts of fatty foods like meat and eggs.
This type of diet may work well for some people, especially those who are naturally lean. But for those who are obese, have metabolic syndrome or diabetes, this amount of carbohydrates is downright dangerous.( Read more... )
Bottom Line: The low-fat, high-carb diet has been repeatedly proven to be inferior to lower-carb, higher-fat diets.
High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils Are Good For You
{Me: People thought Omega-6 was particularly good for you?}
Polyunsaturated fats are considered healthy because some studies show that they lower your risk of heart disease. But there are many types of polyunsaturated fats and they are not all the same. There are both Omega-3 fatty acids and Omega-6 fatty acids.
Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and lower your risk of many diseases related to inflammation (37). Humans actually need to get Omega-6s and Omega-3s in a certain ratio. If the ratio is too high in favor of Omega-6, it can cause problems (38).( Read more... )
Bottom Line: Humans need to get Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in a certain ratio. Eating excess Omega-6 from seed oils raises your risk of disease.
Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous
I personally believe low-carb diets to be a potential cure for many of the most common health problems in western nations. The low-fat diet peddled all around the world is fairly useless against many of these diseases.
{Me: So we know the author's personal biases...}( Read more... )
Sugar is Unhealthy Because it Contains "Empty" Calories
It is commonly believed that sugar is bad for you because it contains empty calories. It's true, sugar has a lot of calories with no essential nutrients. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sugar, primarily because of its high fructose content, affects metabolism in a way that sets us up for rapid fat gain and metabolic disease.
Fructose gets metabolized by the liver and turned into fat which is secreted into the blood as VLDL particles. This leads to elevated triglycerides and cholesterol (58, 59).
It also causes resistance to the hormones insulin and leptin, which is a stepping stone towards obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes (60, 61).
This is just to name a few. Sugar causes a relentless biochemical drive for humans to eat more.
Bottom Line: The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. Sugar wreaks havoc on our metabolism and sets us up for weight gain and many serious diseases.
High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat
( Read more... )
Bottom Line: As with anything, this depends on the context. A diet that is high in fat AND high in carbs will make you fat, but it's NOT because of the fat.
This article originally appeared at Authority Nutrition.
http://authoritynutrition.com/11-biggest-lies-of-mainstream-nutrition/
{And take with a healthy dose of scientific caution}
