Originally published March 28 2013
Mainstream nutrition myth buster - Here are some of the biggest nutrition lies debunked
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) There are ideas about what constitutes "good nutritional habits" in mainstream America, but a lot of them are simply premised on distortions or outright falsehoods. Here are some of the most common, based on current data and research:
Stay away from eggs - they aren't good for you: In a word, false.
Nutrition professionals have managed to demonize a number of healthy foods, and the egg is one such food item that has gotten a bad rap. Eggs do contain a large amount of cholesterol and for that reason it's been easy to paint them as detrimental contributors to heart disease.
However, the most recent research has shown that cholesterol in the diet doesn't really raise cholesterol in the blood. Also, eggs raise "good" cholesterol levels and are not associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
A study published in the British Medical Journal in January concluded that "higher consumption of eggs (up to one egg per day) is not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke."
Eggs are more of a superfood; they are high in all kinds of nutrients and they have unique antioxidants that protect your eyes.
What's more, eggs are a great diet food; despite being "high fat," eating eggs for breakfast is a known contributor to significant weight loss, especially when compared to other breakfast foods like bagels, according to a 2008 study published in the International Journal of Obesity.
Okay, but saturated fat is really bad for you: Um, not so.
A few decades ago scientists and nutritionists began to warn against consumption of saturated fats, warning that it was a contributor to heart disease. But the dietary guidelines adopted by the U.S. including warnings to avoid saturated fat were based on "highly flawed studies and political decisions that have now been proven to be completely wrong," the website AuthorityNutrition.com says.
A meta-analysis of 21 epidemiological studies in 2010 involving more than 347,000 subjects found absolutely no association between saturated fat and heart disease (http://ajcn.nutrition.org). Indeed, the notion that saturated fat was a major contributor to heart disease was an unproven theory that, over the years, became "common knowledge."
The truth of the matter is, eating saturated fat tends to raise the amount of HDL (the "good" cholesterol) in the blood while changing the LDL from small, dense LDL (which is bad) to large LDL, which is not harmful.
So you don't have to fear meats, butter, cheese, coconut oil and other foods that contain saturated fats. As always, though, everything in moderation.
Eat more grains and make them a primary part of your diet: And yet, grains don't do much in the way of contributing to your overall nutrition.
"The agricultural revolution happened fairly recently in human evolutionary history and our genes haven't changed that much," says Kris Gunnars at Authority Nutrition.
And compared to other real foods - like fruits and veggies - grains are fairly low in nutrients. But they are rich in a substance known as phytic acid, which binds essential minerals in your intestines and prevents them from being absorbed, according to the International Journal of Food Science and Technology.
Wheat is the most common grain consumed in Western diets, and wheat is responsible for a range of health problems, minor and complex. In particular, modern wheat contains a hefty amount of a protein called gluten, in which a growing portion of the population appears to be sensitive.
Gluten consumption causes bloating, damage to the intestinal linings, stool inconsistency and pain. It has also been associated with serious brain disorders, according to a study published in the neurological journal Brain.
There are other food and nutritional myths too, such as, it's better to eat several small meals throughout the day; "low-fat" foods are good for you; and eating a lot of protein is bad for your kidneys and bones.
Sources:
http://authoritynutrition.com/11-biggest-lies-of-mainstream-nutrition/
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539
http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n10/abs/ijo2008130a.html
http://ajcn.nutrition.org
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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