Man, there are some crazy ideas about food out there. Google defines a myth as a "widely held but false belief or idea", and if you ask me there are too many food myths to count these days. I have to wonder when and how these all started. Surely the cavemen weren't sitting around wondering if the berries they were about to eat would make them "fat", or if their raw food diet would "cleanse" their bodies. No, the cavemen were just eating to survive.
For some, food has become confusing, eating has become less enjoyable, and cooking has become too difficult. It does not have to be this way. I am here to tell you that food is not complicated. The basics of nutrition are just that...basic. Your body requires basic nutrition to operate, or carbohydrates, protein, fat, water, vitamins and minerals. That's it. I love science and appreciate all we have discovered about the human body and food since the caveman was out hunting and gathering. We know more now about how our bodies absorb and use nutrients and about how certain foods can increase or decrease risks of some diseases. However, with science and realizations often comes more questions and confusion.
Back to the topic at hand: food myths. I've delved into seven below with the hope that I can provide the facts for you, the reader, so you can make your own decisions about what you eat or drink. After all, it's your body so you get to decide what you put in it!
Myth #1: Whole Eggs Raise Your Cholesterol: Eggs are pretty neat. These little babies contain 7 grams of quality protein per egg, plus several essential vitamins and minerals. Eggs are considered a complete protein because they contain all of the essential amino acids, which are the ones your body cannot produce on its own. The egg yolk is the part that gets the bad rep. The yolk actually has almost half of the egg's protein as well as the majority of those lovely vitamins and minerals including vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron, selenium, calcium, zinc, and vitamins A, D, E, and K. Where the yolk gets in trouble is its fat and cholesterol content. Old research told us that the cholesterol in eggs was causing a person's cholesterol levels to increase. However, what has more influence on a person's cholesterol levels is saturated fat and trans fat intake. Yes, foods high in cholesterol can lead to higher levels of cholesterol in a person's blood, but the majority of your body's cholesterol is actually produced in your liver and not due to how much cholesterol you eat. Your liver uses saturated and trans fats you eat to create the cholesterol your body needs for important functions like building cell walls, producing hormones, and producing vitamin D. If you already have high cholesterol or are concerned about developing high cholesterol, then there are more beneficial diet changes you could make instead of eliminating eggs. These changes would include limiting saturated fat intake, limiting trans fat intake, being physically active and increasing fiber intake. To summarize, there are lots of factors that could cause you to have high cholesterol. The amount of cholesterol in eggs and the fact that you probably aren't eating eggs with every meal means you can safely enjoy eggs.
Myth #2: Eating at Night Is Bad for You: I've been asked more than once if it is okay to eat after 6:00 PM. First, there is no rule that states you must eat at certain times of the day in order to be healthy. Some people eat dinner at 4:00 PM and others eat at 9:00 PM, which was my dinner time growing up in a house of 6 busy kids. I was not less healthy than my peers that ate dinner hours earlier than I did. If your schedule does not allow you to eat your last meal until well into the PM hours, that's okay. However, snacking after dinner and just before bed can sometimes cause some issues. Eating additional snacks after dinner and a day of regular eating can lead to excess calories that could potentially lead to weight gain over time. So, it's not really about the time you eat but about how much you eat. I don't know about you but if I want food after dinner, I want sugar. Do I NEED that sugar? No, but I want it and sometimes I have it! It's okay to indulge in those cravings once in a while. Having ice cream after dinner here and there is not going to cause major health issues, so go ahead and dig in. Again, it's the continuous habit of adding excessive calories after dinner that can lead to less desirable outcomes for your health.
Myth #3: Bread Makes You Gain Weight: This one makes me angry, mostly because I love carbs and bread. Like whole eggs, carbs get a bad rep and many people try to completely eliminate this macronutrient in order to lose weight. In fact, there is no food that will solely cause weight gain if eaten. Weight gain occurs with an excess of food intake and a lack of physical activity. The thing about bread in particular is that it is delicious and easy to eat tons of it in one sitting. On top of that, we often add things like saturated fat in the form of butter or sugar in the form of jelly to bread, which are two things that tend to be high in calories in small amounts. Another misconception about bread is its gluten content. Gluten is a protein, not a carbohydrate, and it does not add extra calories to bread. Unless you have celiac disease or a gluten allergy/sensitivity then there is not a well-researched reason to eliminate gluten from your diet. As with all of our myths so far, only over-eating bread would potentially cause weight gain, not the bread alone.
Myth #4: Natural Foods are Better: I can see why this one is confusing. I learned quickly in school that words like "natural" are added to food labels mostly for marketing reasons. You see, the FDA does not really regulate the use of the term "natural" on labels, which means food companies can sort of go rogue and start labeling their product as "natural" even if it contains some ingredients you may not associate with naturalness, like high fructose corn syrup. All the FDA says about using "natural" on a label is that the food cannot contain artificial flavors, added colors, or synthetic materials. By the way, the reason foods with high fructose corn syrup can be labeled as "natural" is because the synthetic material used make to high fructose corn syrup is not added to the final food product (I learned this here). When I think of the word "natural", I think of something straight from the earth that is still whole and unprocessed. I don't think of Cheetos (there are now Natural Cheetos). So, the term "natural" on a food label does not really mean what you may think it means. You can rest assured that foods in your pantry labeled as "natural" do not contain artificial ingredients or colors and you can know that the food was only minimally processed. Just know that these foods can still be processed and contain ingredients that are not straight from the earth. As a reminder, I am not telling you all of this information to deter you from eating "natural" foods. There is nothing wrong with consuming foods that have been processed a bit. I just want to make sure you know that "natural" foods are not exactly what they seem! Side note: the above information pertains to non-meat products, as meat products are regulated by the USDA and there are slightly different standards for meat.
Myth #5: You Need to Detox: I've never done a detox because it sounds brutal to me. Drinking only juice or supplements or whatever for a number of days would make me sad, weak, and probably really mean. The claim is that if you do a detox cleanse, then at the end you will be, well, cleansed. Of what, I do not know. Your liver and kidneys are pretty phenomenal at cleansing your body of anything that should not be in it. I never realized how amazing the human body was until I went back to school to become an RD, and let me tell you, your body is amazing. Your body knows exactly what it wants and needs in order to operate and then it gets rid of the rest. One juice cleanse will not remove fat that has been stored over the years due to excessive intake. Do you NEED to do a juice cleanse every once in a while to "re-set"? No. Is it potentially beneficial? Maybe - you could fuel up on vitamins and minerals found in many of the juices. Is a juice cleanse dangerous? No - so if you want to do one to see what it is like or see if you have any benefits then go for it. I just won't be joining you because I love food way too much!
Myth #6: Organic or Non-GMO Foods are Better for You: This is going to be a long one...lots of science to get through. Organic foods are regulated by the USDA and products must meet certain guidelines to be labeled as such. According to the USDA, in order to be considered organic, a food must be 1) produced without excluded methods (genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, sewage sludge), 2) produced using allowed substances (here is the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances), and 3) overseen by a USDA National Organic Program. If you check out the links, you will see that some pesticides are still allowed to be used to produce organic foods. However, most (but not all) of these pesticides are derived from natural substances. There are no genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, allowed in organic foods. I found a simple definition of a GMO from Purdue University and it says a GMO is "a living being that has had its genetic code changed in some way". It seems that quite a bit of confusion has developed in recent years around GMOs. While GMOs may be beneficial to the economy because they allow us, the consumer, to be able to buy these foods at a more affordable price than organic foods, there is still quite a bit unknown about the safety of GMOs since there have not been long-term studies done yet. While the GMOs themselves have been tested for safety, the final food products containing GMOs have not. Basically, we assume that GMO foods are safe, but we do not know this for sure. It's important to note that we do not know that any food is 100% safe, but then again, we can't say with 100% certainty that ANYTHING is safe, right? Think about it.
Now that the science is out of the way, let's get down to the real question at hand: are organic and non-GMO foods better for you? Choosing organic foods means you can rest assured that there are not synthetic materials in your food. Just know that there could be "organic" pesticides or chemicals in the food, so these foods are not completely always chemical-free. The question of whether organic foods offer more nutrition in the form of additional nutrients is still on the table as researchers have not yet been able to agree one way or the other. Here is my take on organic and non-GMO foods and what I share with my patients: a person may feel better about eating organic foods because he or she is concerned about ingesting certain pesticides or GMOs, but we do not know that organic foods offer significantly more nutrition than non-organic foods. Also, organic foods are more expensive, and many find these products to be unaffordable. If you can afford organic foods and feel better about choosing organic foods, then go for it! If you cannot afford organic foods or you are not worried about eating GMOs, then go for those foods! Again, there is no steady research that says organic foods are more beneficial, but there is nothing wrong with choosing to eat organic, just like there is nothing wrong with choosing to eat non-organic.
Myth #7: Frozen and Canned Vegetables are Less Nutritious Than Fresh: I got this question from a patient just last week: is it okay to eat canned vegetables? My answer: of course! The thought that only fresh vegetables are good for you is out there and I'm not exactly sure where it came from. Perhaps there is a misconception about how frozen and canned vegetables are made. Frozen vegetables are basically picked, frozen, then packaged. This means these vegetables have the same nutritional content as fresh because the freezing process does not remove any nutrients. If anything, it could be argued that frozen vegetables have more nutrition than fresh vegetables because frozen vegetables are frozen at the peak of their ripeness. On the other hand, the heating process that is used when vegetables are being canned may cause some water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and the B vitamins) to leak out a bit, but not completely. However, once vegetables are canned, they are well preserved and the nutrients remain. The most important thing to watch out for when choosing frozen or canned vegetables is additional ingredients that are sometimes added, like salt, sugar, fat, and other flavors. Obviously, cheese covered frozen broccoli is going to have a different nutrition profile than plain, fresh broccoli. If you are looking to consume frozen or canned vegetables in place of fresh vegetables in order to save money, then I would recommend choosing the products that contain the vegetables only and no other ingredients. It can be difficult to find sodium-free canned vegetables sometimes. If you are concerned, you can reduce the amount of sodium by rinsing and straining these canned vegetables before consuming. Fresh, frozen and canned vegetables all have the same basic nutrition so choosing which one you will buy usually comes down to your budget.
There you have it. I hope this post answered some of your questions about what you may or may not have heard regarding these common food myths. As with everything, the answer is not always yes or no, or right or wrong. It's always important to make sure you know where your information is coming from and if the person who is sharing the information has anything to gain or not. Like I said at the beginning, nutrition is much simpler than we have made it appear to be in recent years. There aren't really big secrets in the nutrition world - food is food and your body needs it simply to operate. Variety is the spice of life, so try to enjoy all sorts of food...organic, non-organic, full of fat, fat free, low carb, high carb, frozen, fresh, canned...whatever! Food is the best! Now, time for lunch.
-Brittany
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