Are you watching your diet to lose weight?
Are you dieting correctly? Do you really understand nutrition?
Here are some nutritional myths – busted! Don’t fall pray to nutritional ignorance.
Myth 1: I must avoid carbs entirely, if possible, when dieting.
Truth: This is wrong on several levels. Firstly, you shouldn’t be avoiding carbs entirely – you should be avoiding the wrong types of carbs entirely.
This means that you still need to consume carbs, but be sure to consume the right types. For instance, you should be taking vegetables (yes, vegetables are carbs!).
You should also have low glycemic index (GI) carbs like oats in the morning, and high GI carbs for a post work out meal. An example of a high GI carbs is waxy maize. Carbs are important because they give you energy and aid in muscle recovery.
Myth 2: I can eat a limitless amount of healthy food!
Truth: Healthy food like oats, nuts, beans and fruits contain calories. Eating too much of these will therefore have the reverse effect of making you fat! When eating, remember, everything in moderation - Stick with low calorie food like vegetables and don’t overeat on anything!
Myth 3: Drinking diet drinks is better than drinking regular sweetened drinks.
Truth: While regular sweetened drinks contain lots of sugar, diet drinks contain lots of chemicals that harm your body in ways worse than sugar can harm your body. For instance, diet drinks contain “mold inhibitors” which have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mirochondria (cells), to the point of total deactivation.
Research has also found that the more diet drinks a person consumes, the higher their risk of becoming overweight! This is because artificial sweetenders disrupt the body’s natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of food and when you consume a diet product, you are likely to eat more because your brain thinks you are eating sugar and will crave for more.
Myth 4: Fat is bad for me.
Truth: Certain types of fat are actually food for you. Therefore, it is important to eat fat, and to eat the right type of fat. Good sources of fat include oil from nuts and fatty fish for omega 3 fatty acids which exists in the form of supplement pills. Extra virgin olive oil is good too.
Myth 5: Soy milk is better for me.
Truth: Well the truth is, fermented soy is good for you because fermentation is a naturally occurring process. Processed soy such as soy milk however, is very likely bad for you.
There is a lot of research that promotes and discourages the consumption of soy. Common accusations of soy milk are;
1) Soy contains isoflavones such as Genistein and Daidzein, which are substances that have a similar effect in the body as estrogen. When the body is estrogenic, it contributes to problems such as cancer, fat gain, fibrocystic breast disease, and more.
2) High soy consumption in men increases their chances of estrogen dominance. This leads to hair loss, swollen prostates and more.
3) In order to make soy milk, soybeans are processed by acid washing in aluminum tanks. They are pumped full of additives, heat blasted, crushed into flakes before being mixed with water to become soymilk. This means the process adds chemicals into the ingredient without properly removing all of soy’s naturally high levels of toxins.
So here’s your first set of nutritional myths, busted! Go forth and be a smarter eater but remember, weight loss is not just about eating right, it’s about exercising right too.