1. You shouldn’t eat late at night
One of the most common nutrition myths that we all have heard is don’t eat food late at night or it will all be stored as fat. Really? So, what they’re trying to tell you is that when you go to bed to rest, so does your metabolism? Not the case. Your metabolism doesn’t simply shut down at any point during the day. What this myth is truly saying is that you can’t be trusted with your food choices.
Late at night, many people sit in front of the television and snack. That’s a big no-no don’t eat for comfort, eat for fuel and function. If you want to have a nice protein packed snack at night, by all means, go for it. You’re not going to wake up and instantly be fat. It doesn’t work that way. What you eat is way more important than when you eat.
2. Fat is bad for you
How many times has the news gone back and forth with eggs? Eggs are bad for you! No wait, eggs are good for you! The back and forth is enough to make any dieter want to rip up their nutrition plan.
But demonizing fat has been one of the nutrition myths we’ve heard for quite a long time. Just because you eat fat does not mean you’re going to get fat. Fats are an important part of regulating hormones in your body to ensure proper functioning—especially when it comes to testosterone levels.
Nutrition myths surrounding fat such as saturated fat is bad for your heart has been debunked a while ago. As it stands right now, the only inferior fat that you want to stay away from is trans fat. Getting in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your diet is essential.
3. Fad diets can help me lose weight
It’s true, fad diets may help you lose weight. But, I’m willing to bet the diet isn’t something you’re able to maintain long-term and keep the weight off. Most fad diets are nutrition myths at their finest. Cut out all sugar! Cut out all fats! Why not just eat a sensible well-balanced diet and exercise a little? Is it really that difficult? Most people want a quick fix and an easy way out.
4. Avoid fast food restaurants like the plague
Fast food restaurants can easily fit into any diet you’re utilizing. You can order a salad with grilled chicken, use a low-calorie dressing, and then you can order another grilled chicken breast to give the protein content a boost. Or you can grab yourself one or two grilled chicken breasts by themselves and get a fruit cup to go along with it. Just because fast food restaurants have been criticised for years does not mean that the times have not changed to where you can find a healthy meal on the go.
5. Drink eight glasses of water each day for health benefits
I’m not sure where some of these nutrition myths such as this example came from, but how do you put out a guideline for the amount of water you need? It’s completely personal from person to person based on their needs.
6. Coffee is bad for your health and promotes dehydration
Another common nutrition myths that you can include in the above section is coffee and tea. we are led to believe that coffee and tea dehydrated us because of the caffeine content in the beverage.
This diet myth was later debunked and these beverages can now to be included in your overall water intake for the day. In fact, if you want some extra antioxidants in your diet, coffee is a great way to do it.
7. To lose weight you need to eat 5-7 small meals throughout the day
No offense, but none of us have time to sit down and eat that many meals each day if you’re out there being productive at your job. Thank goodness, nutrition myths such as this were exposed by science.
The thinking behind this nutrition myth was that by eating more frequently, you will be able to keep your metabolism revving all day long and thus burn fat for rapid weight loss. The funny aspect about this diet myth is that there are zero studies that have ever proved the idea to be true.
8. Eating too much protein is harmful to your kidneys
In the past, many were told that if they ate a diet that was high in protein, that it would raise their risk of doing harm to their kidneys and potentially have kidney failure. While the harmful effects of large amounts of protein are indeed dangerous to those who already have kidney disease, healthy individuals will have no issues upping their protein intake. With all of that being said, what are some reasons why you should increase your protein intake?
For starters, it can help promote muscle growth. Another great reason to up this macronutrient is because it helps you feel fuller throughout the day and satiated rather than feeling like your stomach is digesting itself due to lack of substance. Protein is a highly beneficial micronutrition. Don’t believe the misconceptions surrounding nutrition myths like this. Keep protein in your diet and have it in every one of your meals.
9. A calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from
One of the long-running nutrition myths has been that a calorie is a calorie and it has no bearing on where it’s coming from. Well, I hate to break it to you but not all calories are created equal. Various foods break down and are metabolized differently than others. Foods that have the ability to increase your metabolism are clearly preferred over sustenance that has a slight impact on your metabolism.
Also, food sources coming from protein or even fats can help you feel fuller longer. You will feel satiated when compared to eating food high in sugar that can actually release hormones in your brain making you want to eat even more sugar. It’s because different macronutrients go through different metabolic pathways that we simply can’t throw calories into one big bucket and call each calorie the same.
10. Look for low-fat foods because they are healthy options
Food that has natural fat in them should always be chosen over their low-fat counterparts at the grocery store. Nutrition myths that we still hear to this day that just won’t die seem to revolve around fat. A common myth is that low-fat foods are healthier options because they contain less fat. What they don’t tell you is that generally what’s happening is that they are swapping out the fat in the product and substituting sugar for it.
That’s a horrible trade-off. The question might come up as to why a brand would decide to remove fat and add sugar. The simple answer is that when you remove the fat from a product, the taste can be terrible.
Therefore, they add excess sugar to the product to counteract. Without you knowing it, you’re trading fat for an unhealthy ingredient that doesn’t belong in your diet. Skip the low-fat version of anything you are looking to purchase.