What continuously accumulates because of ill advised information and gossip are false theories, myths, and misinformation regarding proper nutrition, dieting, and weight loss.
This information is then broadcasted and thought to be true by those who are usually looking for a quick fix or solution to their various issues. Some of this information is completely misguiding, solutions which may be completely bunk.
This misdirection can become damaging especially when it comes to the food that we eat, thinking that it’s completely safe, while it can potentially be causing serious health problems. Most often, the classification of these so called “healthy” foods will gain their reputation because of all the false beliefs which are splattered over the Internet and the media.
So in order to avoid this, your due diligence is required, as you should never believe what you hear or read especially if it appears too good to be true. You should always be verifying the information from multiple sources.
The Truth Regarding False Nutritional Information
• How Much Water Should We Be Drinking – There are various publications and even health advisers who’ll constantly tell you that we need to drink the required 8 glasses of water a day.
This to keep our body hydrated and functional. Although water is obviously vital to our organs, the 8 glasses a day is a complete myth. This since every human body is completely different from one other, so the same amount of water doesn’t apply to everyone.
Our lifestyles are also completely different from each other as well, so it’s ridiculous to state that everyone needs the same amount of water. Some are obese, while others have a desk job, who’ll then go home and sit on the sofa all night.
Then there are others who will go jogging 5 miles a day at 6 AM in the morning, or go to yoga or pilate classes to sweat it out. These individuals obviously need more water to replenish the water that they’ve lost, while those who are sedentary don’t.
So there’s no right answer, similar to how much sleep one should get on a nightly basis. It depends on the individual and their lifestyle. There’s no point forcing down 8 glasses of water when someone weights 95 pounds and are inactive.
• Diet Soda Is Good For You – We know that regular soda is bad, but think that diet pop is okay since it has the word “diet” in it. A single can of soda can average 150 calories, while a diet soda usually has zero.
So no calories in your body means that there’s no weight gain, this is how those who enjoy drinking soda justify their consumption. Just doesn’t work that way however. Regardless of how good it tastes, diet soda is extremely bad for you.
What diet soda does is it messes with your metabolism. What drinking just one can does is it increases what’s known as the metabolic syndrome by close to 35% percent.
There are verifiable studies which prove that diet sodas are directly linked to certain diseases as well. It’s also found to have high acidic pH levels, while causing decay in teeth enamel.
There are numerous other studies and not one of them supports that there’s any benefit of drinking diet soda. So it’s recommended that you replace any type of soda with drinks which are less harmful.
• All Nuts Contain Too Much Fat – This is also a misunderstanding, but partially true as well. Nuts do contain a lot of fat, but most of them are the “good” fats which our bodies need.
These are the healthy fats which offers a lot of benefits to our bodies since they primarily contain the all important Omega-3 Fatty Acids.
Omega 3 is well known and proven to protect us from diseases such as, arthritis, high “bad” cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, along with many other health symptoms.
Nuts also contain a dietary fiber which offers additional health benefits, which includes helping the body to digest food better while controlling blood sugar. The good fats such as Omega 3 are recommended and necessary.
What can be harmful, however, are the peanuts which are covered with sugar, such as the honey roasted variety, which adds unneeded empty calories.
• All Organic Food Is Healthy – So because of that, we can eat as much of it as we want. Some think that since it’s labelled organic, that we can eat away in abundance and at any time of the day.
But once you do so, you may suddenly begin gaining weight. This since foods which are organically labeled on products such as, potato chips, cheese, or even ground beef for burgers, all still contain a lot of fat, salt, and sugar. So eating them is just as bad as eating the non-organic variety.
What “organic” means is that a food was made without the use of fertilizers, pesticides, or other forms of genetic engineered techniques. It doesn’t make unhealthy food any healthier.
So make sure that you read the nutrition labels carefully before buying anything that states it’s organic.
• Never Eat Anything After Dinner – Such as after 6 or 7PM if you’re wanting to lose weight. This according to some people and they claim that it works. The reason for their weight loss, however, is most likely because of something else that they’re doing.
Similar to drinking 8 glasses of water a day, this “dieters” myth also doesn’t apply to everyone. To begin with, it depends what time you’re going to bed, and what time you wake up.
If you don’t eat anything in the evening say after 7PM, and then you begin the next day at 7AM, then you haven’t given any nourishment to your body for 12 hours.
What this does is it causes your body to think that there’s something wrong, and by impulse will naturally go into starvation mode, slowing down your metabolism.
Then what a slower metabolism does is it reduces the fat burning process since it feels it needs to store more of it, which isn’t effective when trying to lose weight.
What you also need to consider is what you ate before 7PM, and how healthy you eat after 7PM. If you happen to eat fatty foods, those calories will remain in your body.
So it’s best that you just balance your eating habits while making healthier and more better nutritional food choices.