Eating For Health

When you hear someone giving you nutrition advice – how do you know if it is good advice or some myth?   There is so much information on nutrition and some is reliable and some is not.   Here are 5 Nutrition Myths you may have heard of.     “Sugar is Addictive” – Most people know sugar isn’t healthy.   I was talking with a relative about sugar and she stated that we all need some sugar each day – some white table sugar.   Out of respect, I didn’t argue with her but no, we don’t need any white table sugar.   In fact, our bodies easily make sugar (glucose) out of the carbs we eat each day.   Some people think that if you eat foods with white table sugar or other added sugar, you will be addicted to “sugar”.   Food Addicts Anonymous recommends abstinence from sugar (along with flour and wheat which makes no nutrition sense.)   Science doesn’t back up the claim that sugar is addictive.   An article in the European Journal of Nutri...

      So much nutrition information on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and all over the internet.   Easy to find nutrition information, but what it true and what is a myth?   A while back I had a student in my class who seemed to know a lot about nutrition.   One day I asked him why he was taking my nutrition class as he seemed so knowledgeable about nutrition.   He replied that he wanted to know what was true and what wasn’t.   What were really the facts and what were myths and misinformation?   Just because something about nutrition is on the internet, doesn’t make it true.   What are some popular nutrition ideas that are in fact nutrition myths?          1.   Will going on a gluten-free diet promote weight loss? Will going gluten-free improve your health? Go to the store and package after package is labelled “gluten-free”.   Some are so odd like “gluten-free juice”.   Why woul...

So many nutrition myths about what foods are good for you and what foods are bad for your health.   MSN has an interesting article 11 things people think are terrible for your diet that actually aren’t .   What are some of these foods and drinks?   Red Bull – yes, it can be loaded with sugar.   But what if you get a can of sugar-free Red Bull?   The writer says when she drinks it, people say things like, “That stuff will kill you.”   The sugar-free Red Bull has about 80 calories so not really a high calorie drink and about 80 mg. of caffeine.   This amount is about one third the caffeine in a Starbucks coffee.   They do add some B vitamins and taurine which most people don’t need but not really harmful.   Even white bread is enriched with B vitamins and any protein food provides taurine so these nutrients aren’t ones lacking in most Americans diets. Fatty Foods like Avocado and Olive Oil will make you fat .    It is t...