Recently I came across two posts on Facebook. One about food and what it does to your weight and one about food that can cause serious health issues and diseases.
Nutella causes cancer
To be honest at first I was completely terrified by hearing this. I literally thought "NOOOO!!!! NOT THE NUTELLA!!"
I mean, who doesn't like Nutella?? So, I started reading the article and I got sceptical about it very quickly, after just reading the first paragraph. Stating that Nutella uses a lot of palm oil and that this particular ingredient causes cancer. Okay. Let's take a closer look at that. I'm not a doctor, nor a scientist nor did I do the study on this, so I'm not in place to say that they're lying or that they did their research wrong just because I like Nutella. In the contrary, I believe quite easily what science says, but that doesn't mean that I don't have my own thinking about it.
I started thinking about so many food products like artificial sweetener, herbs and spices, refined products, etc. I noticed that these days everything is under the loop and researched to see wether it is harmful or not. Artificial sweetener can't be good as it contains only chemical stuff and it just has to cause cancer or any other disease. What about the use of some herbs and spices, there must be some that is also not that healthy as we think. What people forget is that any product can harm your health if you use it excessively. Too much salt, can cause kidney failure for example. So yes, I do believe that Nutella might include cancer causing ingredients but only if you would be consuming more than 2 Nutella jars per day. How much you put on your bread, a tablespoon or two? Not more than that. Do you eat it every day? I don't think so, unless you're one of those people that indeed consumes 2 jars a day. Otherwise, no. So what is the actual percentage of that cancer causing palm oil that you consume daily, monthly or even yearly. What I'm trying to say is that, don't take everything toooo serious, especially when you are reading it from the internet proper rapports of the study. At the end you end up with drinking water and eating nothing as they will find harmful stuff in EVERYTHING. It wouldn't even surprise me if, at one point in the future, will find harmful stuff in drinking water.
Eating rice in the evening causes weight gain
This one is known very well here in India. The first time that I heard it, I literally laughed at the person telling me this. The person who told me this grew up with this thought as the parents and grandparents always said it was like that. During my study I got to hear something similar (also coming from an older lady), one of my supervisors said that "Mixed food contains less calories". I stared at her like, I think for 5 min, as I was completely stunned by such stupidity. It was like a child choosing 2 pieces of cookies instead of the whole cookie because it thinks the 2 pieces is more in quantity.
The point is that, many of those sayings come from a more ancient time when research wasn't done that much yet regarding food and weight gain/loss. Maybe some people indeed gained weight after every time eating rice in the evening, but, how was their total lifestyle? How was the health of their family members? What else they ate during the day? How much rice they consumed in the evening? Did they work out to stay fit or not? It is not just one factor that says whether it will let you gain or lose weight, it is the totality.
Coming to the information you need to live without the food myths. I did some own research across the internet and came to 16 myths. Many reoccured on different website, some new. I found more than 16 myths, but I have taken out the most common and most surprising ones.
1. Eating ketchup instead of other sauce and pickles is a good replacer if you are feeling hungry
Well, yes ketchup is less fat containing than for example mayonaise, but it contains a lot of sugars. Coming to pickles... Many dietitians say that "If you feel hungry, eat a pickle instead of a biscuit, piece of bread or such."
The first time I found this weird, but okay there is a point, it has less calories and it stills your little hunger; however, a pickle isn't that much healthier. It contains less calories, but that is about it. A pickle contains yet again a lot of sugars, natural and added ones, and it contains a very high acid level. Acid is not good for your stomach when eaten too much. If you'd replace all your snacks with a pickle you will soon start feeling heartburn/acid reflux.
NOTE: I'm not talking about the Indian type of pickle (achaar), but the English type. Though, also the Indian pickle is not good if eaten frequently.
2. Replacing normal foods with diet foods you will lose weight more easily and be more healthy
Sorry to say but, who ever said that is an idiot. Diet foods contain nothing fresh, skip important food groups and are often made out of chemicals. Think about diet Coke, artificial sweeteners, yoghurt sweetened with artificial sweetener... All are chemicals which your body can't digest in a proper way. Yes it all contains less calories, but less calories doesn't mean it is a good product. If you want to have less calories then make cucumber water if you want to drink something else than plain water.
Then all the diet foods and meal-replacers. They don't add up to your daily required nutrition intake as they consist out of 1, max 2 food groups. As you most likely read in my previous posts, I have tried every type of diet. The last one I did was one of those meal-replacing diets where you can't eat normal food, not even veggies. One of those meals contained rice. Guess what, even the rice was not rice but rice specially made and containing only protein. Yes, protein are good for building muscle and keeping your "engine" going throughout the day, but your diet should not consist out of protein alone.
Diet foods don't give you your calorie intake and nutrition you need on a daily base, so your body will start taking everything that it gets to keep going. In the beginning you might lose weight, but this is water weight not fat. After a few weeks, if you are "lucky", after a month or two you won't see any weight loss anymore plus you will start feeling weak and without energy.
Conclusion: diet foods won't help you losing weight fast nor in a healthy way
3. Be sure to take your daily required dairy intake because it is good for your bones
WRONG!! As a child having your dairy intake is good for your bone development; however, the older you get the less profitable it gets. Not to mention that for example milk is very difficult to digest. Here in India I hear people, of the previous generation which is carried further to the present generation, saying that "You have to drink 2 glass of milk daily to keep healthy". Some parents even force their children (no matter which age they are) to drink their 2 cups of milk daily. Most of those people also drink milk just like 5-10 minutes before going to sleep. Yet again a wrong thing to do, as milk digests slowly and during your sleep your system is in rest thus it will take even much longer. Milk is good, but is not needed daily after you have fully grown. After that milk won't bring any profit to your bones anymore, instead it might cause fragile bones. If at an elderly age, having fragile bones it can be very dangerous. Bones get fragile when you get older, breaking bones is done quickly with elderly people. Imagine that milk will make that process quicker. You don't have to be a mathematician to make the conclusion.
4. Drinking tea/coffee is a good replacer for water
Depending on the quantity you drink and what you put in the drink it can be okay or bad. Coffee contains caffeine and tea contains theine. Both ingredients cause water storage and (hyper) activity. Water storage will result in weight gain but more inconvenient it will put pressure on your bones, veins, muscles and skin which can result in a lot of pain and malfunctioning of the part where you have the water storage. The (hyper) activity can be nice in the morning when you have a long day ahead, but it will get a lot more inconvenient by the time you want to get some proper rest. Your nights should be long enough and uninterrupted to maintain good health in general. If you didn't get enough sleep, you will start feeling without energy and will become sick as well as your immune system won't be able to cope up with everything anymore.
Don't drink more than 8 cups coffee/tea per day and especially don't drink it after 2h before going to bed.
NOTE: 8 cups doesn't mean 8 cups of tea and 8 cups of coffee. It is a total amount of cups you can't exceed.
5. Dal/pulses/lentils are easy to digest so you can eat them during dinner without issue
I wasn't used to eat pulses until I came to India. The first thing that I mentioned after eating a normal dal (no fancy or fried one), "Wow! This is heavy food!".
I think I already busted this myth. Nevertheless a little bit more information. Pulses or lentils or dal or whatever you want to call them, are the vegetarian substitute of protein intake. Not as much, but yes they deliver an okay amount in protein if you are a vegetarian. One of the reasons why protein make you feel full for a long time is because it digests slowly and keeps you going for a longer time. Yet again, I think there you have another reason that dal isn't as light as people claim it to be. Like with every other food, depending on the quantity you eat and the time you eat it, it will be 'good' or 'bad'. Heavy foods are suggested not to be eaten later than 2h before going to sleep and dal is one of those. The protein level will digest even slower during your sleep resulting in a uncomfortable sleep or even stomach cramps. So no, pulses are not easy to digest. Yes you can eat them during dinner if you want, but don't eat them later than 2h before going to sleep.
6. All calories are equal
Wait... so, this means that if my tomato soup is eg. 150kcal and my chocolate is also 150kcal, then I can easily eat the chocolate bar of course! Why would I choose the soup if I can eat the chocolate for the same amount of calories!
NO!! Not all calories are the same. Yes the calories might have the same amount, but it is the total of the food that counts. How much sugar is in it? How much fat is in it? How many trans-fats? How many proteins? How many of the other nutrition? All these count as that will make your calorie total. So no, all calories are not equal and you are not on "schedule' if you replace all the healthy foods with the unhealthy foods just because it both says "150Kcal".
7. Supplements can help you lose weight
Since this an ongoing topic on my blog I will keep it short. No, supplements don't help you lose weight and if it does it means that they are working on your digestive system which includes faster process of food and thus it is not good as important nutritions will not be taken by your body. They also might let you lose water loss which you will gain in no time. You can refer to my previous blogs and upcoming blogs what kind of damage weight loss supplements can bring to you.
8. Eat less, move more
Though this is not completely wrong, it is also not completely correct. It is a fact that with only dieting you won't achieve your goal but with starving yourself and then just working-out like a mad person is also not a solution. You can read more about it in the documents I made regarding weight loss and the other blogs. To make it short, if you keep eating the same amount but work-out you will most likely remain your weight, if you over-eat because "I'm working out so I can treat myself with the most sugar rich treat", will let you gain weight and if you starve yourself and workout you will end up exhausted with a malfunctioning immune-system.
9. Carbs make you fat
I started repeating myself. Depending on how much you eat and what you do with it it will let you gain weight or not.
Don't say no to any food group, as you need all of them (some more than other) to keep healthy and going. Carbs can make you gain weight if you misuse it, thus carbs aren't the enemy. What many people do wrong is that they combine carbs with carbs or prepare it in such a way that it becomes "fat making".
What I noticed here in India is that for example a potato is seen as a vegetable, which is not correct. Yes it comes out of the ground and it grown with water and sun, but that doesn't mean it is a vegetable. A potato consists mostly out of carbs, just like rice, bread and pasta do. One of the famous dishes here is pulao, main ingredients: potato and rice. BAM! two carbs in one dish.
Oh no, don't start thinking "see Western people only know how to combine". What about your lovely pasta you eat with a pieces of French bread (baguette)? BAM! two carbs in one dish.
Most people love food and love to experiment with tastes and ingredients, but that doesn't always mean that it is a healthy combination.
How do you eat your carbs? In the morning 6-8 slices of bread with a 2inch layer of jam/chocolate spread/cheese/...? And what about your pasta, which sauce you put on it? An all meat-lovers fest or a rich cheesy white sauce? Tell me your rice recipe... Fried? In combination with other carbs? With a nice creamy curry sauce? The point is that people don't think about that. Yes it is true that carbs become sugars and if you don't workout and don't keep track of your total diet, then yes it will be a FACTOR of your weight gain. BUT! You need carbs to keep your engine running.
10. Fat makes you fat
You would think so but that is not completely true. Yet again, the quantity counts. You need some "fat" to keep you going and to maintain a good health. The choice of which kind of fat you use and the quantity is very important. Prefer to use natural fats like vegetable oils. If you want to have a butter spread for your bread choose one that is refined or has a natural basis. Animal fat is literally just fat and is not healthy when eaten a lot. A slice of bacon is fine as long as you don't overdo it. Try to avoid eating pure fat. Meat that still has its rind is okay for baking, but don't eat it when it is cooked. Use it only for the taste but not for consumption.
I like to have my bread spread with a thick layer of real unrefined butter adding some chocolate sprinkles on it, that doesn't mean that I will gain a lot of weight after eating such 1 or 2 slices. It will start adding up when you overdo it and eat like 5-6 slices like that every day for breakfast or as a snack. It will harm if you overdo it.
I used to cook oilless, really I didn't even use 1 drop of oil/butter during my cooking. After some time it left me without energy and craving for something greasy. For some reason our body starts craving for that one thing that you are skipping and you'll end up binge eating that one thing you are trying to avoid. Better is to add a little bit and the craving won't occur.
11. Weight loss diets really work!
Well, I don't think I have to elaborate about this much more as you can find detailed info in the rest of my blogs. So in short: Yes it works but only for a short period, when you stop you will gain all the weight you lost in no time plus most likely some extra weight and they are absolutely not healthy.
12. Only thin people are healthy
Let me explain the difference between healthy and what the health views of people this time are. Being healthy is not only being thin or fat. Your state of mind, activity level, nutrition intake, etc. are all important in the factor whether you are healthy or not. A, so called, thin person might have matched the standards of what many people call "perfect"; however, to my opinion a skeleton with some skin is not perfect at all. That same thin person might have difficulties with sleep, not having enough nutritions, a low activity level (or a to high activity level). That is not at all healthy.
Where a, so called, fat person who has a proper amount of sleep, enough nutritions but just not enough activity, will be healthier than the thin person.
It all depends on your nutritions, state of mind, activity level, age, gender and vitals. Yes, a person with obesity is not healthy as his vital organs are at risk due to his/her weight. On the other hand a person with an underweight is also not healthy as that person is underfed.
The whole "healthy" and "unhealthy, is a balance between the factors I've mentioned above and if one is out of balance your health will automatically be at risk.
13. Vegetarians are always healthy
I will most likely go against the views of my pure vegetarian friends (no meat, no fish and no eggs), but being a vegetarian doesn't specifically mean that you're healthy. Believe it or not but meat, fish and eggs bring a lot of nutritions that our body needs. Yes, there are supplements that you can take, but do you really want to take pills the rest of your life to keep your body healthy? Sounds like a contradiction here: taking pills to keep healthy
"But there are a lot of foods that have the nutritions of meat, fish and eggs."
That is right, but those foods don't have the same amount as what non-veg food can give you.
Eg. oats are number 3 of foods with a high protein level. Though, 100g of oats contain 17g of protein and 100g of chicken contains 27g of protein.
As a vegetarian you have to keep your diet calculated the whole time to make sure that you consume a good amount of the nutrition you need. No, nobody counts their daily intake very strict but still a non-veg person has less to worry and count than a veg person.
On top of that, many vegetarians are not taking proper food and thus they lack a lot of nutritions. Vegetables and fruits are the main source for your vitamin intake; however, many vegetarians eat less vegetables than non-veg people do.
When I first started living here in India I didn't notice but after some time I started feeling weak and craving for healthy food. Weird right? I was eating vegetarian food only and yet I was craving for healthy food, how come? Well, the amount of vegetable intake here in India, with most people, is very very less. A healthy amount is considered to be about 300g of vegetables during one meal and that two times a day. That means that approx. 600-700g of vegetables a person should consume. I started calculating how much of that I got during the day. I came to an amount of less than 150g!!! What?? But I'm eating vegetarian food??!!?? Here in India a vegetable curry won't ever give you enough of your veg intake unless you eat a big salad with the veg curry. What mostly is made here as well is daal and chickpeas or kidney-beans. Those are 3 healthy foods, but not if that is the main meal you eat every time. Daal, chickpeas and kidney-beans are not vegetables. They bring the protein intake but they don't give the nutrition a vegetable will give.
Being a pure vegetarian, even when balancing your food, can cause low-blood pressure, less in iron, lack in calcium and vitamin D and so on. Plus those who are gym-goers and want to develop a firm muscled body, a vegetarian person won't be able to develop muscles as a non-veg person do due to the lack in protein and vitamin B-12. Unless they take a lot of supplements to cope up with the lack in nutritions.
Conclusion: a good balanced diet decides whether you are healthy or not and not the choice of being vegetarian or non-vegetarian.
14. Take artificial sweeteners, they are better for your health
Do I really have to elaborate further about this? Artificial sweeteners are made out of chemicals and those chemicals can cause many diseases including cancer, if misused. You want to sweeten your oatmeal? Use fruits or a teaspoon brown sugar. Fruits will bring sweetness and vitamins, brown sugar is unrefined and thus contain more good than white sugar.
15. Fat-free salad dressings are good for using during your diet
Not completely right. Yes, they contain less to no fat but they do contain a lot of other ingredients which are not natural, to keep up with the taste of the normal salad dressing. It is better to make your own dressing with for example, lemon juice, pepper & salt and 1 tablespoon mayo. You can read about the necessity of all food groups in my other blogs and documents , in short, all food groups are necessary also the top of the food pyramid.
16. Don't eat too many egg yolks
However, that is not completely untrue, it is important to keep track of your egg yolk intake. It is a common fact that egg yolks can bring too much cholesterol to your body which can be very dangerous if not contained. It is important to not eat more than 3 whole eggs per day. If not exceeded than your "good" level of cholesterol will be perfect plus you will have a whole lot more of your protein intake than when you consume only the egg white. Where 100g of egg white contains 11g of protein, 100g of egg yolk contains 16g of protein. That is 5g more which is a lot if you count the 3 eggs per day. So, don't eat more than 3 whole eggs a day and keep track of the rest of your diet as well, and you'll not harm your health.
