5 Food Myths Sabotaging Your Healthy Dieting Efforts
Hey Angels and Alphas,
Nowadays, everyone and their brother is trying to give you weight loss advice, as well as advice on eating healthy and achieving your fitness goals. But only a fraction of that advice is really true, let alone *good* advice for the situation you’re in right now.
Research in the fitness and nutrition community is constantly developing and improving, always discovering new things.
Yet still, all people seem to care about are sensationalistic headlines that plague the social media world (which haven’t really stayed up to date with the latest research.)
And while a lot of people will give you that same advice and allow you to make bad, misinformed decisions about what to do… I won’t do this to you. Today, I want to zero in on 5 food and healthy eating myths you *have* to stop believing.
Let’s get right into it.
WEIGHT LOSS MYTH #1 – SALAD IS ALWAYS GOOD.
Salad is always healthy for weight loss, right? Wrong. Before you start patting yourself on the back for choosing a salad from that fast-food menu over the burger you wanted, consider this:
The Apple Pecan Chicken Salad from Wendy’s clocks in at about 600 calories, 27 grams of fat and 1600 grams of sodium… while the Jr. Hamburger and fries combo contains about 550 calories with ½ the amount of sodium.
Does this mean the burger is healthier? No. But it does mean that salads have become another mainstream food packed with sugar and sodium. Always make healthier choices whenever possible – opt for the grilled chicken over breaded, skip the high-fat dressings that are creamy and salty, and mix toppings in efforts to save calories.
Stay away from toppings such as bacon, cheese, croutons, and dried fruits. Watch out for avocados (which are fantastic in small portions, but usually get served in massive portions.)
If you want safe, healthy salad ingredients, choose dark, leafy greens, healthy fats, and lean protein. Everything else just creates a calorie bomb salad.
WEIGHT LOSS MYTH #2 – COFFEE DEHYDRATES YOU.
Coffee is a diuretic – everyone knows this. But not everyone knows it’s such a mild one. Pretty much unnoticeable. Plus, it has a ton of water in it. It actually counts toward your daily fluid intake!
You would need to intake a bazillion gallons of coffee if you want to dehydrate yourself from it. But that being said, coffee dehydration is one of the most common nutrition myths you can come across. Let’s put it to rest.
WEIGHT LOSS MYTH #3 – PASTA RUINS YOUR DIET.
Ever heard the myth that you can’t be eating pasta when you’re on a weight loss diet?
Look, if you’re trying to slim down, don’t be so quick to outlaw every carbohydrate in your kitchen (especially pasta.) Pasta is a low G.I. carbohydrate (low glycemic index,) so it breaks down slowly in your body and does not spike your blood sugar levels rapidly and significantly. Not to mention, it’s also a great source of folic acid, a vitamin from the B category.
The key to healthy pasta is in its sauce. Try out tomato-based marinara rather than the creamy alfredo so you can easily cut fat. And remember to pay attention to all your portions. It’s okay to eat 2-4 servings for a whole meal, but don’t exceed the recommended 6-7 servings a day of grain products.
WEIGHT LOSS MYTH #4 – EGGS ARE BAD FOR YOU.
Dietary cholesterol has a pretty bad rap in the mainstream weight loss and fat loss community since it is often accused of boosting our cholesterol levels. Through time, it has become clearer and clearer that saturated fats and trans fats are more influential when it comes to raising blood cholesterol levels. And while eggs are usually high in cholesterol, they’re very low in saturated fats.
For years, nutrition experts have cautioned people that eggs are unhealthy. Mostly because they’re one of the richest sources of cholesterol you can get your hands on. And since cholesterol plugs up the arteries, eggs must naturally raise the risk of heart attacks, right? No!
Only 25 percent of the cholesterol in your blood actually comes from food. The other 75 percent is manufactured by the liver, which products lots of cholesterol when you eat sources of saturated fat… something eggs are very low in.
The bottom line? Eggs are actually healthy and don’t impact cholesterol levels in any significant matter.
WEIGHT LOSS MYTH #5 – FRESH FRUIT IS HEALTHIER THAN FROZEN FRUIT.
You might believe that choosing fresh veggies and fruits from your local market is the only way to go if you want healthy weight loss options. That being said, the foods you find in the produce section will often have had a long journey from the moment they were packed into crates to the point when they reach the farmer’s market. From the time it’s picked to the time it finally lands on your kitchen counter and in your meal, your produce will have lost a massive amount of its nutrient value.
By contrast, food processors flash-freeze their produce, which actually helps preserve a lot of its vitamin and mineral content. A University of Illinois study found, for instance, that frozen beans retained twice as much vitamin C as fresh beans purchased in a grocery store.
THE BOTTOM LINE…
When we’re talking about losing weight and staying healthy, food myths will always be there to haunt us and halt our progress.
And if we don’t put them to rest, they will continue to sabotage our efforts to lose weight and stay healthy. That’s why we have to make an effort to stay up-to-date with the latest information inside the fitness and nutrition community… if not, we are doing a disservice to our health and our bodies. By staying informed and not trusting sensationalistic headlines, we’re getting the right type of education that will push us forward toward the bodies we want… and that’s what I’ve been aiming to do for you all along.
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