Common nutrition myths
There’s so much nutrition information available online, it’s often difficult to sort fact from fiction. So what are the some of the most common nutrition myths?
1. You need to detox
You’ll often hear that in order to stay healthy or to kick start a weight loss journey, you need to regularly “detox” by severely restricting your food intake for a number of days. Usually detoxing also involves taking expensive supplements which their makers argue help rid your body of toxins.
The truth is detox diets are totally unnecessary. Your liver and kidneys are designed to remove toxins from your system on their own. There is no medical evidence that any food, drink or supplement can detox your body or that your liver and kidneys need a rest from certain foods in order to be able to work properly.
Worse still, depriving your organs of the nutrients they need can actually hinder their ability to remove toxins. Severely restricting your calorie intake can also slow down your metabolism, meaning you’ll quickly put back on any weight you lost during the detox and perhaps more.
Instead of spending money on expensive detox supplements or juice cleanses, you are much better off eating a healthy diet that includes plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats and wholegrain foods.
Verdict: myth.
2. You should eliminate carbs
Proponents of the keto diet recommend eliminating or dramatically cutting out carbs, replacing the calories with protein or fat.
The truth is there is nothing inherently fattening about carbs and eating carbs of itself won’t lead to weight gain. Carbs get converted into glucose in our bodies during digestion. Glucose is the main source of energy for our bodies and essential for healthy body function. It’s especially important for our brain which cannot easily use other fuel sources such as fat and protein for energy.
Any food can cause weight gain if you eat too much. Whether your diet is high in fat or high in carbohydrates, if you frequently consume more energy than your body uses, you’re likely to gain weight.
Gram for gram, carbohydrates contains fewer calories than fat. This means eating carbohydrates rather than fat is more likely to lead to weight loss. Replacing carbs with a high fat diet, especially a diet high in saturated fat, is also likely to lead to other health issues like heart disease.
Cutting out entire food groups is also going to make the diet harder to stick to, meaning it’s less sustainable in the long term. While you may lose weight initially, it’s likely that you will put it back on again as soon as you go back to a more normal diet. It can also make it more difficult to get all of the nutrients you need.
The quality of the carbs you eat, is however, important. Wholegrain carbohydrates are high in fibre and full of other essential vitamins and minerals. Eating fibre rich foods will help to keep you feeling full, which means you are less likely to overeat and gain weight. These should form the majority of the carbs you eat.
This article has some more information on why you shouldn’t give up carbs and the best type to eat:
Verdict: myth
3. Low fat is always healthy
The supermarket shelves are filled with fat free or low fat options, and we often buy these thinking they are healthy. But does low fat always means it’s healthy?
The truth is that just because something is low fat or is fat free, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy. Think about it this way, gummy bears or snakes have no fat in them, but with around 70-80g of sugar per 100g they are far from healthy.
If you are going to pick a fat free or low fat version of a product, it’s important to look at what else is in it. The reality is that many of these foods have a lot of added sugar or salt to improve the flavour. For example, a 170g tub of Yoplait low fat French Vanilla yoghurt contains only 2g of fat but 28g of sugar which is not much less than icecream. It’s definitely not healthy and won’t help you lose weight. Choose instead other low fat dairy products such as skim milk which don’t have any added sugar.
It’s also important to keep in mind that fat itself is not inherently bad. Of course, like anything if you eat too much of it, you will put on weight. But a certain amount of fat is necessary for our bodies to function properly. You are better off eating something which contains a lot of good fats like nuts, seeds, avocado or oily fish than something low fat which contains added sugar.
This article provides some more information on the difference between good and bad fats:
Verdict: myth
4. Coconut oil is a superfood
For many years, coconut oil was promoted as the holy grail of oils, leading to everything from healthier skin and hair to weight loss. In reality, coconut oil is far from healthy. Coconut oil contains 92% saturated fat.
Saturated fat increases your UDL or “bad cholesterol”, which can lead to heart disease. Nor will coconut oil help you lose weight as it contains just as many calories as other types of oils.
You are much better off using a mono unsaturated oil such as olive oil which helps increase your levels of HDL or “good cholesterol” and lower your levels of UDL. Having high HDL is linked to lower risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. Olive oil also contains anti-oxidants which have other health benefits.
Verdict: myth
5. Vegetarian and vegan diets are healthier
Studies have shown that vegetarians and vegans tend to live longer than their meat eating counterparts. However, the study subjects also had other healthy habits such as not smoking, exercising regularly and limiting alcohol consumption, which decrease the risk of cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. Given this, it’s difficult to determine how much of the longevity is a result of the plant based diet or other lifestyle factors.
The reality is that while a vegetarian or vegan diet can be very healthy, it very much depends on what you are eating. A lot of the vegetarian or vegan options at the supermarket are highly processed, especially those that are designed to mimic the taste or texture of meat. Any diet which includes a lot of processed foods is not healthy.
It can also be hard to ensure that you are getting sufficient vitamins and minerals eating only a plant based diet, particularly iron, zinc and Vitamin B12. Getting sufficient protein can also be difficult.
Verdict: including plenty of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, whole grains, legumes and sources of lean protein in your diet is more important than whether or not you choose to eat meat.
6. Eating at night will lead to weight gain
A lot of diet advice tells you to limit the amount you eat at night, the implication being that food eaten later in the day somehow has more calories than if you eat it earlier.
The practical reality is food contains the same amount of calories irrespective of when you eat it. Therefore, whether you eat early in the day or late at night won’t of itself make you more likely to put on weight.
The other reason cited why you shouldn’t eat at night is that your body will have less time to process the calories and therefore they will be stored as fat. The truth is that because of the complex processes your body undertakes while you are sleeping, your resting metabolic rate is not that much lower than what it is during the day. Also, if you have exercised during the day, your metabolism is likely to remain elevated throughout the night.
However, eating at night can make you gain weight, if it means that you are eating more overall throughout the day. If the snack you are eating at night means you are actually consuming more calories in total than you otherwise would, then it will impact your weight. The other reason is that if you are tired, you are probably more likely to eat not out of hunger but to fight off sleepiness. Resisting high calorie snacks can also be hard when you are tired.
Verdict: what is more important is the amount of calories you consume, not when you do it.
7. Fresh food is better than frozen
We are often told to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But is fresh food really more nutritious and better for us than frozen?
If you’re buying your produce direct from a local farmer’s market and it’s been picked within a few days before you buy it, or you are growing it yourself, then fresh is probably better.
But the practical reality is that a lot of the “fresh” fruits and vegetables that we buy at the supermarket were picked well before they were ripe and then kept in cold storage for up to a year before hitting the shelves. Or they may have had to be transported long distances to get to the supermarket.
Frozen fruits and vegetables are usually vine ripened, picked at peak ripeness and then frozen within a few hours of picking. This can mean they have more nutrients than those you buy in the supermarket.
But there are also things to consider other than the amount of nutrients. Frozen fruits and vegetables tend to more convenient than fresh as they’re ready to cook and don’t require chopping or peeling. This can mean you are more likely to eat them. Because they last much longer they are less likely to end up being thrown away. Frozen fruits and vegetables are readily available, whereas not everyone has access to a farmer’s market
Verdict: what’s more important is that you eat at least 2 serves of fruit and 7 serves of vegetables a day, not whether they are fresh or frozen.
8. You shouldn’t skip breakfast
We’ve been told for years that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but is it really true?
The truth is that there is nothing special about breakfast. Having breakfast won’t “kick start” your metabolism or cause you to burn more calories during the day. And skipping breakfast won’t automatically make you put on weight.
What is more important than whether or not you have breakfast is that you eat healthily and don’t overdo it on the calories.
Assuming you aren’t diabetic or have issues with your blood sugar levels, whether or not you should have breakfast really comes down to personal preference and what your body tells you. If you don’t feel hungry first thing in the morning, forcing yourself to eat breakfast may mean you consume more calories over the course of the day. So you are probably better off skipping breakfast.
Conversely, if you feel hungry in the morning and don’t eat breakfast, you may end up overcompensating at other meals meaning you consume more calories overall. If you feel hungry in the morning go ahead and eat a healthy breakfast. A protein-rich breakfast will keep you feeling full longer and make you less likely to overeat later in the day.
Verdict: whether or not you should eat or skip breakfast should be based on what your body tells you. If you’re hungry first thing, eat breakfast, but if not, there is no harm in skipping it.
9. Following a gluten free diet is best
If you are one of the 1 in 70 Australians who have coeliac disease, or if you have a medically diagnosed intolerance / sensitivity to gluten then a gluten free diet is definitely healthier for you. If not, there is no reason to give up gluten.
In fact if you don’t have a medical reason to avoid gluten, eating gluten free foods may be doing you more harm than good. Many gluten free foods are far from healthy as they are often high in sugar and salt to make them more palatable and are often highly processed. A gluten free diet can also be very restrictive, meaning it is more difficult to obtain all of the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy.
You are much better off eating wholegrain / whole wheat foods. These are naturally high in fibre which is good for your digestion and can help keep you full longer making it easier to maintain a healthy weight.
Verdict: myth unless there is a medical reason for you not to eat gluten.
10. You shouldn’t cook with olive oil
We’ve been told that you shouldn’t cook with olive oil because it has a relatively low smoke point and can therefore break down when heated. But is this true? Recent research indicates this is not the case that good quality extra virgin olive oil actually has a smoke point equivalent to that of canola oil. We’ve also been told that heating olive oil eliminates the health benefits. Turns out this isn’t true either. Extra virgin olive oil actually has an extremely high antioxidant content that helps to protect it from molecular damage when it is heated.
Verdict: myth. You can safely use extra virgin olive oil for baking and roasting and it will still have all the same health benefits.
11. Eggs are bad for you
Eggs are a cheap source of protein compared to meat and packed full of nutrients. But for many years they got a pretty bad wrap because they were said to increase “bad” cholesterol levels. While it’s true that eggs are naturally high in cholesterol, more recent research has shown that the cholesterol in eggs doesn’t seem to raise blood cholesterol levels. A recent study by Harvard Health involving 215,000 participants whose health was monitored over a 34 year period found eating up to 7 eggs a week did not result in any increase in the risk of developing heart disease.
Verdict: myth
