No matter how much nutrition research and science advances, many people will still find one reason or another to be holding on to ideas and notions that have been defied and proven wrong by new researches.
Don’t you want to be one with better knowledge about all that is related to food and your health? We bring to you some of the commonly believed myth and debunk them one by one for you.
- Fat will make you fat:
Although, this might seem somewhat logical, in reality, it’s not the fat that is the enemy. It’s the consumption of calories in excess that is going to cause trouble by weight gain. Eating a wide range of fat laden, deep fried options like junk foods, too much of bakery products (as most of them are lined with Trans fat) will definitely cause you to grow by the girth. But so will anything that has a lot of starch or simple (fast digesting) carbs like refined flour based products.
Instead of calling fat the enemy and avoiding it altogether, best way to lose weight is to give more attention to the use of mono and polyunsaturated fats like olive, vegetable (sunflower, soya, etc.) oil, avocados, nuts, fish. Saturated fats, found in some dairy products, eggs and other animal protein, aren’t bad for you if you practice moderation.
- Any carb is a carb:
While you may know the widely accepted fact that all carbs contain 4 calories per single gram that is the only similarity among different types of carbohydrates. What separates one carb form another is how the body breaks and digests them.
High-glycemic carbs are mostly simple carbohydrates that digest rapidly and create a quick hike in the blood glucose levels, followed by a hike of insulin to pack those glucose molecules into the fat cells. While simple carbs (white bread, maida products, juice, candy, etc.) are good after a workout as you need a quick supply of nutrients and these do the work; The low-glycemic carbs (whole fruits, vegetables, whole grains and their products), digest really slow allowing a slow release of blood glucose into the blood. Therefore, as a thumb rule, these foods should make the most of your diet as they keep you full for longer and often contain more nutrients as compared to the simple carbs.
- Eating carbs late night will give you the bulge:
While this is justifiable to a certain extent, with the reasoning that most of our evenings are less active and not filled with as much physical activity as throughout the day. Hence, any carb that you eat post 7 pm will get stored as fats.
In all honesty, your metabolism does not slow down as you near your sleep time. Though, having done exercise in the day definitely may increase your metabolic rate as you sleep, leading to more fat burn. But, research has proven that eating carbs at night time does not cause you to put on more weight. However, it still means that you need to balance out all the main macronutrients (carbs, protein and fat) equally at all your meals.
- More proteins are going to stress your kidneys out!
If only you knew how efficient the kidneys are at filtering out the waste from the body! As far as the studies go, consuming a protein rich diet (or including a protein shake in your routine, for that matter!) is not going to put unnecessary strain on the kidneys. The kidneys filter out at least 1/5th of the total body’s blood, every minute. Adding in a bit more of protein sure might increase the workload for the kidneys but is definitely not going to cause much difference in the kind of work they already do. However, the one thing you need to be mindful about is increasing your overall water intake.
When you consume more protein, you need to even that out with more water intake- since the body produces more urine to remove the byproducts of protein breakdown. Extra fluid comes in to replace all the fluid lost through urine.
Read about healthy fats: Four Interesting Ways to Use Flaxseed In Your Diet
- You need to have protein immediately after your workout:
Ever heard of the horrors of not being able to tone up and see nice muscle growth if you don’t have your protein in less than 30 minutes of finishing your workout? Probably. Is it true? Not really.
While this “anabolic” window is supposed to be the phase after your workout session when your body is most open to accepting nutrients, especially carbs and protein to have them delivered to the right tissues to help with better recovery and repair. While it was once believed to be limited to only so much time, this window of opportunity has been known to exist for a longer period of time, if you go by research studies. Protein timing isn’t as important when it comes to building lean muscles. However, what is important is the quantity (at least 30 gm. of protein regularly) and quality of protein to support the muscle growth and recovery. While post workout nutrition is important, you should focus more on the protein intake throughout the day with a balanced diet and not just limited to 30 mins. Post workout.
- Egg yolk will put your heart into trouble
Suggested Read: Top Easy Five High-Fiber Recipes to Keep You Full
While egg whites are an excellent low-cal source of protein and a most favourite one among gym goers who like to have eggs in bulk. But letting go of the yolk means you are also letting other essential nutrients get away too! One whole egg gives you around 6.6 gm. of protein and including the yolk makes it a better source of heart-healthy nutrients like B-vitamins, choline and omega-3. Although yolk does have cholesterol, research has shown that eating whole eggs does not increase the risk of heart diseases. In truth, whole egg consumption was found to increase the HDL levels (good cholesterol).
Rest assured, eggs are certainly not going to be the one to break your heart and can very much be a part of your diet plans on a regular basis.
Last modified: June 23, 2017
