Nutrition can be confusing, especially when you're seeing news headlines about a trending topic in the media or hearing advice from your best friend or neighbour. In your effort to follow suit and make "healthy changes" to your lifestyle, the outcome is that you may have opted to avoid certain foods or choose foods that are actually worse for your health. Today we're talking about five food myths that aren't true, so that you are empowered and aware of what you're eating and how it actually affects you.
1. EGG YOLKS ARE BAD FOR YOU aka “THEY CAUSE HIGH CHOLESTEROL”
Dietary cholesterol has been blamed for years for raising cholesterol levels to near dangerous and causing health issues for people. The truth is that cholesterol is essential to our body and for our health because without it, we’d die. Our livers produce 80% of our cholesterol for healthy survival, the remaining 20% comes from the foods we eat. The unhealthy cholesterol caused by overconsumption of saturated and trans fat foods.
Egg yolks do contain cholesterol but are low in saturated fat. Not only that but egg yolks are high in essential nutrients that we require for health, a contain a healthy dose of protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, and choline, which is important for brain health. For a healthy individual, eating two whole eggs at a meal won’t throw their cholesterol levels into a dangerous category.
2. LABELS WITH “ORGANIC” AND “GLUTEN-FREE” ON THE PACKAGE MEANS IT’S HEALTHY
A lot of people assume that the words “organic” or “gluten-free” on a label automatically means it’s healthy. Snacks and beverages are still snacks and beverages that just have “organic” or “gluten-free” ingredients but eating them doesn’t deem them as a healthier option. Organic or gluten-free cookies, chips, granola bars, juices, candy, etc. have the same amount of fat, sugar, fillers, and sneaky food ingredients that are in non-organic foods.
For example, Glutino’s brand of gluten-free multigrain bread contains ingredients such as corn starch, canola oil, sugar, molasses, caramelized sugar (that’s three types of sugar). It’d be a healthier option if the bread was made without those ingredients. Be cautious and always read ingredient labels to deem if it’s actually a healthy food or beverage product.
3. MARGARINE IS HEALTHIER THAN BUTTER
If you haven’t read my article about margarine versus butter, click here. Margarine is a man-made food product that was a food trend back in the ‘90s, during the low-fat craze. Because it’s made from chemically processed (and GMO) oils, it contains more saturated fat and trans-fat. Margarine is made from partially-hydrogenated oils, then bleached with chemical solvents, odourized with more chemicals, coloured to look like butter, and then moulded to shape the package. As a side note, beware of labels that say “trans-fat free” as there are laws that if it’s under a certain amount of trans-fat, it does not have to be labelled.
Your better option of healthy fats is a small amount of butter, from churned stick butter from grass-fed cows or ghee, which is clarified butter that has had the whey removed so it’s lactose and dairy-free.
4. COFFEE IS BAD AND YOU SHOULDN’T DRINK IT
Coffee is a diuretic (promotes urination) but it does count toward your fluid intake, as it contains water. One to two cups of coffee per day is acceptable, followed with an additional glass of water right after, to offset any dehydrating effects. It’s not an ideal choice when you’re dependant on it to keep you going throughout the day or when it’s filled with other things, like sugar and dairy, just to make it palatable.
5. LOW-FAT, LOW-SUGAR, NO SUGAR IS HEALTHIER THAN THE ORIGINAL
In response to the fat element, healthy fats are an essential macronutrient in the human diet and required for optimal health. Eating healthy sources of fat does translate to creating fat in the body. Fats are calorie dense, meaning you only need to eat a small amount with your meal and feel more satiated. When fat is removed from food products, food manufacturers replace it with sugar, salt, and other unpronounceable filler ingredients so stick to full-fat foods and enjoy in smaller servings.
As for low-sugar food products, when sugar is reduced from a product, vice versa, food manufacturers add salt, fat, and other filler ingredients to help maintain the taste and texture. With no sugar foods, artificial sweeteners are used. Artificial sweeteners are artificial; therefore they can be harmful to your health and trick your body into thinking that the calories (from the sugar) are coming but they don’t. This can leave you feeling more hungry and thirsty than before. To read more about why you should avoid artificial sweeteners in your diet, click here.