Popular Nutritional Myths

By James Spann


I:6:T Everyday Nutritional Myths What are nutritional myths? Why should you be concerned about them? Simply stated, nutritional myths mean just what it says. They are statements about nutrition that are not completely true. Why are they important? Look at it this way. More people are becoming concerned about their overall physical fitness, nutrition, and well-being. If these people are following a diet plan, based on nutritional myths, they could be harming themselves. So, this could affect their overall physical fitness. Some nutritional myths have been around for a long time. Therefore, they are accepted by a lot of people. Consider the following example. Some people believe that high fructose corn syrup is worse than table sugar. However, both HFCS and table sugar, or sucrose, are composed of two sugars, fructose, and glucose - a disaccharide. Therefore, they're both just sugar. It's best to reduce all sugars. However HFCS's role as nutritional culprit has been greatly exaggerated.

Other examples of nutritional myths are found below:

Sea salt is more beneficial to your health than regular table salt.

Based on a study taken by the American Heart Association, many individuals agree. Nevertheless, the statement is incorrect. Sea salt is not more beneficial to your health than regular table salt. Although they have different origins and taste, both are composed of the same two elements, sodium and chlorine.

Drinking red wine is good for the cardiovascular system, including the heart.

Research has proven that this statement is not one of many nutritional myths. However, a survey found that most Americans believe that increasing their daily intake of wine will increase its benefits to the heart. This is a myth. Drinking too much wine can cause many serious health problems because it contains alcohol. The American Heart Association recommends only one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. In other words, moderate drinking of wine, not excessive drinking, is good for the heart.

Consuming eggs for breakfast is not beneficial for your heart.

Eggs do contain a significant quantity of cholesterol in their yolks. You will find 210 milligrams of cholesterol in a large size egg. It is common knowledge that the cholesterol may add to blocked blood vessels and cardiovascular disease. However, a study has shown that the majority of healthy individuals could eat an egg every day with no difficulties. Why is this so? The cholesterol in eggs does not create an enormous impact on increasing our blood cholesterol. The principal heart-disease perpetrators are saturated and trans fats, which have a great effect on increasing blood cholesterol. A common egg has two grams of saturated fat and no trans fats. You must limit your cholesterol consumption to less than 300 milligrams daily. When you consume a large egg, you are only obtaining 10 % of this amount. Hence, a large egg a day is okay as long as you don't exceed that 300 mg of cholesterol in the rest of your daily meals.

Eating fatty foods, such as bacon and sausage, will make you fat.

This statement is not always true. Foods high in fat do have cholesterol and saturated fats that are instrumental to having cardiovascular diseases. Nevertheless, calories from sugars-- not fatty foods-- are the major root cause of weight gain. Yes, bacon and sausage most certainly contain calories, yet not as many as carbohydrates - that are metabolized to form different types of simple sugars. These simple sugars are the primary sources of energy - calories - for our physical body.

The take home point: If you wish to shed or keep from gaining a great deal of weight, you should lower your intake of high-sugary foods, such as buttermilk pancakes with layers of mocha cream covered with delicious chocolate and whipped cream. Rather than consuming high-sugary carbs, eat the good carbohydrates which are high in fiber and crucial nutrients, such as broccoli, grains, green spinach, and fruits.

If you are not sure whether a particular food practice is a nutritional myth or not, study it online. If you find that the habit or practice is a myth, praise yourself own becoming one of the many nutritional myth busters.




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