Nutrition and dieting; what are the myths? How true are they? The most famous misconceptions about losing weight.
Myths about nutrition are deeply rooted in the minds of those losing weight, although they have no scientific basis. Even though scientists disproved them for a long time, the articles continue with magic diets, fat-burning foods, and miracles. Unfortunately, such advice is useless in principle and harmful to health. We have collected the TOP 15 nutrition myths to help you learn how to lose weight correctly and healthily.
Table of Contents
Harm of GMOs
Nutrition myths include many natural misconceptions about food. One of the most common is the harm of genetically modified organisms. It is widely accepted to demonize genetically modified products because they appear to be artificial.
Genetically modified organisms are nothing more than conventional breeding, that is, the selection of better quality products. Only in the past have people selected successful fruits; in modern times, it is possible to choose improved genes.
Although studies showing the harm of GMOs have long been dismissed as poorly conducted, the myth of the dangers of such products lives on.
Partial nutrition to speed up metabolism
In people’s minds, there are some persistent myths about nutritional deficiencies. The most popular of them is that this way, you can speed up your metabolism. Almost nothing precisely affects the metabolic rate, frequency, and type of food. The best diet for humans is three meals daily, with or without snacks. If you feel hungry – have a snack; if you don’t – great.
Another myth is that eating smaller meals prevents bloating, which means you feel less hungry. There is a partial truth here. The stomach has the property of stretching, but it also has the property of contracting. It’s easier to fill a small stomach, so it’s best not to overeat.
The next myth is that nutritional breakdown normalizes the digestive tract and prevents diseases. In fact, with such a regime, we only worsen the situation. The digestive system takes time for enzymes to form, and frequent meals can stress the liver.
Important! Broken food is medical only and intended for people with health problems.
Proper nutrition for weight loss
Another myth about good nutrition is that it helps you lose weight. Unexpected, right? There is an entirely different idea behind the idea of proper nutrition. A healthy diet is intended to improve the health of the body by providing it with all the nutrients and vitamins it needs.
Of course, calorie counting is also part of the system with proper nutrition – the only guarantee for weight loss. After all, if we eat uncontrollably, it is impossible to understand why we gain weight. By counting calories, you can eat almost anything and still gain weight. Proper nutrition is designed to make the body healthy.
Good to know! Weight loss articles love to demonize bananas. Yes, of course, the banana is high in calories, but it contains a lot of valuable substances. Therefore, you can use it in cooking. Carefully.
Negative calorie foods
This phrase for the ears to lose weight sounds like a fairy tale: you can eat and not get fat, but on the contrary, lose weight!
According to its advocates, the principle of negative calories works like this: certain foods, like spinach, require a lot of energy to digest. You can eat 100 g of spinach, get 23 kcal and burn 2-3 times more!
Unfortunately, this is just another nutrition and dieting myth. No product can demand more energy than it gives itself. So eating a slice of cake and then a spinach salad, hoping that will burn off the calories from the cake, is not going to work.
But there are low-calorie foods: spinach, cucumbers, apples – in general, many vegetables, fruits, and berries. Having a snack with them between main meals when you are hungry is possible. Usually, low-calorie foods are pretty bulky, so they fill your stomach and make you feel full.
The benefits of separate nutrition
The essence of separate meals is that when you eat everything at once, the food in your stomach is processed more slowly. According to the system’s creator, Herbert Shelton, it can cause food to ferment and rot in the body. After the poisoning of the body begins. How accurate is this theory?
According to her, the stomach works in different ways at different times. It creates enzymes for the digestion of proteins, fats, or carbohydrates. But in reality, things are a bit other. There are different parts of the digestive tract to digest different nutrients, which is confirmed by research, which means there are no obstacles to the proper functioning of enzymes. Problems with digestion indicate the presence of a disease.
In addition, the idea of separate processing of nutrients is absurd because there are no pure proteins, pure fats, and pure carbohydrates. For example, meat contains both protein and fat, and grains contain vegetable protein in addition to carbohydrates. So it would help if you did not fall for the beauty of nutrition myths.
Attention! Separate meals can cause depression. The fact is that the hormone of happiness, serotonin, can only be produced by a mixed diet.
The benefits of fasting for the body
The theory of fasting is also included in the myths of weight loss and dieting. You often hear that hunger in specific doses is good for the body. With intermittent fasting, for example, the diet is as follows: you can eat one day but not another.
But no studies have confirmed the benefits of such a system, but on the contrary, harm. A person needs a particular group of nutrients and energy every day; fasting only interferes with his work.
Useful and unhealthy food
One of the most famous myths about food is that it is divided into healthy and unhealthy. This definition is fundamentally wrong. Those foods that do not provide benefits are called harmful. They cause damage to the body when consumed in excess when there are no plates in the diet, where the body receives daily nutrition of nutrients and vitamins.
Enemy #1 is considered by many to be palm oil, which becomes trans fat during processing. Trans fats are harmful, but again, in large amounts. Avoid overeating margarine and other solid palm oil products; you should be fine.
It is also recommended to avoid fried food. Why is she so scary? The roast itself isn’t terrible. For example, you can cook food in burnt oil, and there will be no benefit. Still, the carcinogens and fat will remain, and the oil is very, very high in calories. Additional calories are added to the dish with sauces and spices, so you must also consider them in the daily calorie intake.
What about carcinogens? There are dozens of them around us. You can get typhoid by controlling your diet and defining every time a new product is carcinogenic. It would help if you only considered those that are particularly dangerous. For example, burnt food is hazardous for weight loss because it contains more calories.
Detox for unloading and weight loss
Detoxification of the body has been a trendy topic for several decades. But is there any grain of truth in this concept?
Here are some weight loss detox myths:
- Weight loss … Detoxifying the body cannot burn body fat. Various detox diets are usually designed to get rid of water, which comes right back with using carbohydrates.
- Benefits … It is said that the consumption of freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices brings significant benefits to the body. When you squeeze juice, a lot of valuable substances are lost, and in fact, sugar remains.
- Release … The most popular myth is to remove toxins and toxins from the body. Often this refers to some mythical poison because not one smoothie will remove the real one. In general, intoxication is difficult not to notice – it will be wrong. And, of course, fasting days will harm the body more than restore it because this is practically starvation.
- A burst of energy … Yes, on Fridays, there is a feeling of lightness, but when fasting, this is a common practice. Soon it disappears, and there is significant discomfort due to the lack of energy and nutrients.
A gluten-free diet to improve the gut
A gluten-free diet is one of the most popular options for weight loss. It is generally accepted that gluten inhibits intestinal pain and generally increases the likelihood of weight gain. It is worth figuring out what is true in this diet and what is a myth.
A gluten-free diet is healthy, but only for those allergic to gluten. There are only 1% of such people on the whole planet – is it worth bothering unnecessarily?
In addition, weight on a gluten-free diet can ultimately harm the body. Wanting to lose weight quickly, a person begins to refuse all products with gluten, follows a strict diet, and avoids the dishes he needs. In this case, we cannot avoid the consequences.
Low carb diet for fast weight loss
It is believed that reducing carbohydrates in the diet leads to rapid weight loss within a few days. It is true, but there is little power – a harmful myth of low-carb diets.
The kilos that go from the first days to losing weight are not a layer of fat; they are water. Yes, the water retained in the body makes us fuller, but carbohydrates are not at all to blame for its delay. As soon as they return to the diet because without carbohydrate food, one cannot survive, the water will return with them.
What affects water retention in the body? Salt Too much of it can create edema on the body, which we mistake for fat. You can remove them simply by reducing the amount of salt in the dishes.
Where are the myths and reality in nutrition? It would help if you didn’t hate carbs: the human body needs them. The main thing is to choose the “right” one. For example, simple carbohydrates – baked goods, starchy foods – do not create a feeling of satiety; instead, they make healthy body fat. So the buns in the diet are the best cut.
Even those who are losing weight often suffer from a low glycemic index. They say that carbs increase blood sugar and, therefore, body fat. But in reality, it is not sugar that affects fat deposits but insulin. Consequently, it is better for those who want to gain weight to pay attention to the insulin index of the product and leave the glycemic index for people with diabetes.
No meals after 18.00
Now it’s time to figure out where the truth is, where the myth is, and it is possible to lose weight if you eat after 18.00. Everyone who loses weight knows: you need to eat more in the morning and in the evening it is better to cook smaller dishes. And food for the night is strictly prohibited!
It is worth saying that there is undoubtedly a difference between morning and evening meals. Still, it is so insignificant that it is unnecessary to complicate your life with a strict meal plan. This myth arose based on a person’s biological clock; they say that the body works actively from morning to evening. During the night, its activity slows down, which means that much more fat is stored.
But let’s look at it rationally: what should people who work the night shift be like? So they are meant to be fat? And those who live in the North lay fat all night long?
Of course not. Human biorhythms have nothing to do with nutrition. But he tends to gain weight if he eats at night. Why is that? Because usually, such late-night snacks are high in calories. In the evening, we don’t eat vegetable salad or yogurt; we prefer our favorite delicacies and sweets because they contain many calories and make us feel better. So if you don’t want to gain weight, avoid calories with treats.
Good to know! Nutritionists recommend that you eat your last meal 2 hours before bed. It is not due to fat storage but to better sleep quality. The energy obtained from the food will make the body feel more alive, and it will be harder to fall asleep.
Water to speed up metabolism.
One of the most popular myths about healthy eating involves drinking lots of water. Various sources recommend drinking 2 liters of water a day or more.
It is real masochism. Water enters our bodies in large quantities from various products, and it is unnecessary to drink additional pure water. The body will tell you when it needs water and thirst arises.
At this point, it is better to drink plain water rather than tea or coffee. And gagging with a glass of water every hour without a desire to drink is unnecessary.
There is also a misconception that drinking water speeds up metabolism, but no evidence has been found.
Food metabolism booster
Let’s continue to debunk the myths about metabolism. We have already established that neither water nor nutritional fragments can affect metabolism. What other legends are there about this process in the body?
We often read about different diets and see the phrase “accelerates metabolism.” It would help if you didn’t believe it so quickly. No product can speed up metabolism. Yes, coffee or hot peppers can diffuse it, but this period is so short and has no effect on the overall process.
They say that at different times of the day and night, the metabolism works at different rates. It is indeed the case. Lack of sleep worsens, so people with insomnia can gain weight. In addition, with a lack of sleep, you want more energy and refresh, and you tend to eat more caloric food saturated with carbohydrates.
In addition, metabolism slows down with age, as the body needs less energy. That’s why you need to increase your exercise.
Important! In pharmacies, you can sell various natural food supplements that are supposed to speed up the metabolism. We recommend avoiding such purchases since they will certainly not affect them. Still, you can cause very actual harm to the body.
Sports nutrition and exercise for weight loss
Myths about sports nutrition and exercise are also common among those who lose weight. It is believed that exercise helps you burn a lot of calories and you can eat anything and lose weight. It is only partially true.
Sports help with weight loss, cardio training burns a few hundred calories, but exercise alone won’t work. Weight is mainly lost by cutting calories. Sports activities can be useless if you do not control the energy entering the body.
By the way, only cardio and running help to lose weight. Strength training, abdominal exercises, hips, and so on aim to pump muscles and not to lose weight. Although we feel like we have spent a lot of energy, calories are not burned as much as, for example, jumping. So if you only want to lose weight through sports and not build muscle, run around the park or buy a rope.
As for sports nutrition, it is only necessary for athletes. Building muscle requires a slight increase in protein in the diet, but for a person who does not exercise much, this can threaten excess protein.
Sugar is the main enemy of weight loss.
Well, last on the list of famous weight loss myths is the demonization of sugar. It is a pleasure to blame him for all the sins of those who lose weight.
Sugar is pretty tricky. It acts on our body like a drug: the more we eat it, the more we want it. In addition, sweets are high in calories, which is the real reason for weight gain – excess calories. You can’t give up sweets, but it’s difficult to control yourself while eating them. You can try to eliminate them gradually by reducing the amount of sugar – then you will get rid of it and eat very little.
You can also see honey instead of sugar on many menus. For some reason, it is believed to be less caloric, but this is not the case. The bee product contains even more calories; it just has some valuable substances. However, even for this reason, you should not replace sugar with honey because the same vitamins, amino acids, and minerals are found in much larger quantities in other products. The best sugar substitute is a no-calorie sweetener.