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Top 10 annoyingly stubborn nutrition myths debunked
It’s easy to believe something so many people constantly proclaim is true — especially when most of us aren’t experts who would know otherwise. Considering the overwhelming amount of misinformation floating around about healthy eating, we don’t blame you if you’ve been fooled by one, two or maybe several of these nutrition myths that can’t seem to die.
1. Superfoods are better than other healthy foods.
Americans are suckers for magical solutions — whether they be in the form of pharmaceuticals, fad diets, medical procedures or even foods. And the people marketing your food are well aware of that, which is probably how the term “superfood” came into existence.
No federal agency or food regulating organization actually has defined the term “superfood,” and its use on packaging and advertising is completely unregulated. The America Dietetic Association states that there are three major problems with superfood claims:
- There aren’t different “superfood” labels for foods that are nutrient-rich due to additives added during processing versus foods that are naturally full of nutrients;
- Sometimes these so-called superfoods can also be loaded with sugar, saturated fat or sodium; and
- Some foods might have an immense amount of nutrients, but those nutrients might not be completely metabolized by the body.
Rather than dish out excessive grocery money for “superfoods,” the ADA recommends eating a “super diet” (cheesy, we know) by following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on a daily basis, which you can find here. As Cooking Light explains, “Grapes, cherries, blueberries and wine offer the same antioxidants as acai for a lot less dough.”
To learn more about the superfood myth, click here.
2. We need to take a daily multivitamin to be healthy.
We all know vitamins and minerals are good for us, and many Americans are convinced it’s necessary to take a daily multivitamin to ensure they’re getting enough nutrients to keep their bodies healthy. But this might not be the case. An in-depth Psychology Today article explained that studies have surprisingly shown little to no benefit from taking a multivitamin/mineral supplement on a daily basis. It didn’t improve longevity, reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer, or improve memory or other cognitive functions.
In fact, two studies released last year showed that high doses of vitamins and supplements can actually be detrimental to your health. One study indicated an association between multivitamin and supplement use and an increased risk of death (except with calcium), and the other study showed an increased risk of cancer for men taking vitamin E supplements, selenium supplements or both.
While some individuals do need certain supplements due to particular deficiencies associated with various health conditions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website that most people can usually get all of their necessary vitamins from their diet. Instead of spending your money on a monthly bottle of pills, go to the farmers market and buy some nutritious produce.
3. Egg yolks raise blood cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease.
Eggs have long suffered from a bad reputation for increasing one’s risk of heart disease, as well as raising cholesterol levels. Yes, it’s true that eggs are high in cholesterol — the average large egg contains about 212 mg. But it’s a myth that it significantly increases your blood cholesterol since, for most people, only a small amount of a food’s cholesterol actually passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats do much more damage to cholesterol levels than the occasional healthy omelet.
As far as heart disease is concerned, unless you have diabetes, moderate egg consumption won’t affect your heart health. Research has shown that eating up to one egg a day does not increase heart disease risk in healthy people. It’s important to note, however, that studies have shown that eating one or more eggs a day is associated with an increased risk of heart disease in diabetics.
4. Red meat leads to high cholesterol and heart disease.
Many people have a beef with red meat because they believe it raises one’s “bad” LDL cholesterol levels, thus increasing the risk of heart disease. If you only eat rib eyes and fatty ground beef, then yes, your arteries aren’t going appreciate it.
But a study in January showed that, contrary to popular belief, red meat can be part of a healthy, low-cholesterol diet if people would just choose the leaner cuts. In fact, the study’s results showed that it’s possible to lower cholesterol levels even with lean beef included in the diet. Just keep in mind that even if it’s lean, you still have to eat in moderation — about one to two 3-oz. to 4-oz. servings per day.
To find out what cuts are the leanest, click here.
5. You have to drink eight glasses of water a day.
One nutrition myth our society really can’t seem to shake is that the human body requires eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy and hydrated. Heinz Valtin, a retired professor of physiology from Dartmouth Medical School, told Scientific American magazine that this just isn’t true and would really only apply to people with such health concerns as kidney stones or a susceptibility to urinary tract infections.
A glass of pure, clear water isn’t the only way to hydrate. We also obtain a good amount of H2O from our food, including fruits and vegetables, as well as other beverages, such as coffee, tea, milk, soda and juice. In 2004, the Food and Nutrition Board, which may have originally been responsible for the eight-glasses-a-day myth, revisited the issue and stated that “the vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.”
6. Red wine is the only alcohol with health benefits.
Just because you’d rather an IPA (or a Chardonnay) than a Pinot Noir doesn’t mean you’re not getting any nutritional benefits. It’s true that too much beer will give you a beer belly, but if you drink in moderation, beer can supply you with folic acid, iron, niacin, silicon, fiber, riboflavin and antioxidants — plus B vitamins and folates, which wine doesn’t have. Additionally, beer consumption has been linked to positive effects on bone, mental and heart health; blood clot prevention; diabetes prevention; and longevity. Click here to learn more.
And if you prefer a refreshing glass of cold, white wine in the summer, you’re not necessarily missing out on any health benefits. Studies are mixed; some have shown that red wine contains more resveratrol, flavonoids, antioxidants and tannins than white wine, but a New York Times article stated that there aren’t enough studies out there to conclude that red wine has more positive health outcomes. Click here to learn about more wine myths.
7. Vegetables are healthier raw than cooked.
Raw food fanatics constantly claim vegetables lose critical nutrients when you cook them. The truth is that while cooking veggies can potentially destroy their vitamin C, it can have the opposite effect on many vitamins. For example, cooking tomatoes boosts their amount of lycopene — an antioxidant that strict raw foodists are low on, according to a 2008 study. According to Scientific American, cooked carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and other vegetables also contain more antioxidants — like carotenoids and ferulic acid — than their raw equivalents.
The other claim you’ve probably heard — we noticed someoned use this in the documentary “Food Matters” just the other day — is that raw foods preserve specific enzymes that are essential to digestion; when you cook the food, those enzymes are destroyed. Here’s the thing: “Those enzymes are made for the survival of plants,” Brenda Davis — a registered dietitian and co-author of “Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets” — was quoted saying by Eating Well. “For human health, they are not essential.”
8. Some foods (like celery) have “negative calories.”
We admit it: We ate tons of peanut butter on celery sticks in college, thinking that somehow the vegetable reduced the amount of calories in that delicious spoonful of Skippy. While not everyone was such a sucker for the myth of negative calories, most people have heard of that magical concept whereby the body burns more calories digesting a certain food than it absorbs from it. Celery is mostly water and fiber, so it seemed to make sense to a 19-year-old girl petrified of the freshman 15.
The truth is that even if there is such a thing as a negative-calorie food, that negative number would be so miniscule it just wouldn’t make a difference. According to Livestrong, the calories required by your body to digest and process food equate to a very small percentage of the calories you eat. Foods frequently thought of as having negative calories — such as celery, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower and zucchini — might be healthy, low-calorie additions to your diet, but eating them won’t burn off calories.
9. Eating after 8 p.m. causes weight gain.
The myth of “eat late, gain weight” has hung around forever, and plenty of people still cut off their food consumption at 8 p.m. for fear it will ruin their diet. It turns out your body doesn’t care if it’s 8 a.m., noon or midnight; it’s still going to digest your food in the same way and absorb the same amount of calories from that food. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains, “The time of day isn’t what affects how your body uses calories. It’s the overall number of calories you eat and the calories burned over the course of 24 hours that affects your weight.”
That said, there is an unusual phenomenon associated with late eating that can affect your weight: Research published in the Journal of Nutrition suggests that food eaten in the evening tends to feel less satiating than when eaten at other times of the day. Because of this, we tend to eat more when we eat later in the day.
In conclusion, if you want a late-night snack or prefer later dinners, feel free — as long as you haven’t already consumed your recommended daily amount of calories.
10. High-fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar.
High-fructose corn syrup has gained a reputation as one of the villains in the processed food industry because of its association with obesity. A sweetener made from corn, HFCS is sweeter and cheaper than sucrose, which is why you’ll find it in plenty of non-diet soft drinks, cereals, candy and sweets, condiments, baked goods, salad dressings and other food products.
Dr. David Katz of Yale University believes that the main problem is eating too many sweet foods — whether they contain high-fructose corn syrup or pure sugar. “While there is some legitimate debate about the importance of differences in the metabolism of pure fructose, and table sugar, or sucrose, there is no good reason to differentiate high-fructose corn syrup from table sugar.”
Before you light up the comment section, we know: Just last month, the Food and Drug Administration rejected the Corn Refiners Association’s request to rename HFCS “corn sugar.” This is because of its syrup form; the FDA said it defines sugar as a solid, dried and crystallized food, not a syrup. The FDA also said back in 2008 that “we would not object to the use of the term ‘natural’ on a product containing HFCS produced by the manufacturing process.”
In the past decade, when experts noted that obesity was skyrocketing, they pointed the finger at HFCS since Americans had also increased their consumption of it. They theorized that our bodies were metabolizing it differently than other forms of sugar and that it was raising the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. However, most experts now regard HFCS to be no different than other forms of sugar and blame the controversy on the fact that too much sugar in general had started being added to too many foods at the same time HFCS was introduced.
Tags: acai, alcohol, antioxidants, beef, beer, calories, cholesterol, egg yolk, eggs, fruits, healthy food, heart disease, high-fructose corn syrup, hydration, multivitamin, myths, negative calories, nutrition, pomegranate, raw food, red meat, red wine, snacks, sugar, superfood, supplements, vegetables, vitamins, water, white wine, wine
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If drinking beer increases your longevity then my father is going to live forever.
The statement that #10 is a myth is blatantly wrong. HFCS has been shown to be WORSE than other sugars.
See the 2010 Princeton research.
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
Actually, Ruth, we’re well aware of that study. It was performed on rats, and because there hasn’t been significant research showing negative health effects on humans, most food industry experts and nutrition experts regard it as harmless. You can read more about it in our food additive glossary: http://www.hellawella.com/the-food-additives-you%E2%80%99ll-probably-eat-today-and-how-safe-they-really-are/4329
I have a problem with #5 too. I read the linked article and agree that we get hydrated from our foods and that too much water is dangerous. However, 2 out of 3 Americans are NOT healthy, they are overweight. Therefore the “panel’s” conclusion of being adequately hydrated is wrong. These people are hydrated but inadequately so by consuming the wrong foods and beverages. As you can see from the quote in the referenced article, people are consuming more than 64 ounces. Appox 64 or the 91-125 ounces should come from water, not soda and juice.
“women who appear adequately hydrated consume about 91 ounces (2.7 liters) of water a day and men about 125 ounces (3.7 liters). These seemingly large quantities come from a variety of sources—including coffee, tea, milk, soda, juice, fruits, vegetables and other foods.”
Actually, there are some good recent data in people showing that HFCS is metabolized differently, and has greater effects than sucrose on blood sugar, uric acid and blood pressure in both men and women.
See for example
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22152650
It is probably not a coincidence that the obesity epidemic started around 1970, which is about the time of HFCS introduction, and that on average, Americans eat 34.8 pounds of it annually (2010 data), compared with 0.4 in 1970.
John, I hadn’t seen this one! Thanks for the reference. HFCS is definitely a highly controversial issue, and I think it’s safe to say we need more research to confirm its effects. I appreciate the feedback and the link. Thanks!
I would like to know who conducted the study on meat and the artery info.
I would also like to know your source for the high fructose corn syrup info as well.
I belive both to be in error based on some great scientific evidence – one of which is the evidence produced by all the docs and professional people behind the Forks Over Knives info.
Lou Ann, thanks for the feedback. We’re committed to accurate, evidence-supported stories, and we want our readers to know our sources, which is why they’re linked within the text. We’ve already linked our sources in both of those facts, but for your convenience, here is the meat link: http://www.hellawella.com/wheres-the-beef-turns-out-red-meat-can-be-part-of-low-cholesterol-diet/3967 And here are the two main links we included in the HFCS story: http://www.hellawella.com/the-food-additives-you%E2%80%99ll-probably-eat-today-and-how-safe-they-really-are/4329
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/corn-syrup-versus-sugar-legal-fight-court/story?id=15969618#.T-OjKXCkAnU
I read the link that you had provided in the story – when I initially read the stroy.
However, I still am not certain who FUNDED that study. I have found out that makes a big difference in what is reported.
“its true that too much beer, will give you beer belly”
Quit reading there. The biggest myth there is in nutrition and you actually end up putting it in your article as fact.
That is completely untrue, or atleast as true as saying “wine will give you wine belly”, “steak will give you steak belly”, etc.
Do some research.
I think we’re actually in agreement here. I didn’t say “Beer will give you a beer belly.” I said “Too much beer will give you a beer belly.” Just like drinking too much wine or eating too much steak would have an effect on your weight. That part of the article was actually supporting the health benefits of beer. Sorry you misinterpreted that, but thanks for reading.
Too much of anything (well nearly anything) will give you a belly of something. I didn’t misunderstand the intent of the article, was just pointing out that mentioning the beer afects as you did is ironically perpetuating the ‘beer belly’ myth.
I think Melissa has done a great job of debunking these myths and shedding some light on the facts. As a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for food and beverage companies, including the CRA, I hear these nutrition myths on a regular basis and am constantly explaining to clients and to the general public the truth about these nutrition topics. As Melissa said, HFCS is highly controversial and we do indeed need more research on the effect of all sugars. That being said, I would like to point out to John that the study he referenced has many limitations, which the study authors themselves concede. One of the main limitations is that the study was not a comparison of HFCS and sucrose as it is claimed to be in the title. Rather, it is a comparison of HFCS and an inconsistent product that in the end contained almost no sucrose. Additionally, it’s important to point out that there is no way to determine where the sugar in the bloodstream or urine came from – it could have been from the diet or it could have been from what was produced within the body. At the end of the day, there is no conclusive evidence that HFCS is metabolized differently from sugar.
I would also like to point out that correlation does not equal causation as John suggests with regards to the increase in obesity around the same time as HFCS was introduced. In 2009 Americans consumed 425 calories more than they did in 1970; added sugars only accounted for 38 calories of the daily increase (the rest came from added fats and flour and cereal products). Additionally, the US Department of Agriculture data shows that the consumption of HFCS has actually been declining while obesity and diabetes rates continue to rise. Obesity is a real problem in our country, but let’s not place the blame on a single ingredient or food.
I would like to respectfully debunk #4 even further. While choosing leaner cuts of meat seems logical, it is actually the bad fat in grain-fed meat (high omega 6 to omega 3 ratio) that is important to avoid. The ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fat in grain fed meat can be as high as 20 to 1, far more than the 4 to 1 ratio where health issues begin. The fat in grass-fed meat has the same ratio as fish, 3 to 1. CLA is much higher in grass fed meat than it is in grain fed meat. CLA helps fight cancer as well as helps our bodies to burn fat. Also, the fat in grass fed meat is higher in vitamins A and D. So, if one is eating grain-fed meat, yes, it is best to choose leaner cuts, for the purpose of avoiding the “bad” fats, but wouldn’t it be better to choose grass-fed when possible, and not miss out on the other wonderful nutrients its fat provides?
Also, while HFCS is controversial, just the fact of it being a highly GMO commodity is reason enough for me to avoid it.
Nice article and good information. Beware of referencing/using ADA, FDA, USDA and/or other “official government organizations” with economic “responsibilities to the food system” and competing interests that have led us down the path of processed foods and misinformation about healthy eating. The words “manufacturing process” and “natural” simply being in the same sentence to describe an edible product is an example of this tragic miseducation. Let us not forget these are the same organizations that gave us the USDA Food Pyramid.
Thanks for the good info. I am often appalled by how easily people accept off the wall radical or new theories about food as fact ( IE HFCS=poison). Funny how they swallow the camel that comes from some unknown “authorities” but refuse to accept anything published by known authorities. IMO you need to look at the material and the source( IE who puts out the anit-HFCS studies lol) then take it with a grain of salt
.
I really hope no one believes most of these myths. It’s so appalling to me. You seriously can’t believe anything the government or the FDA regulate. You can’t trust studies because you don’t know how their funded. There are countless articles of research that are not published, since the results are not what congruent with what the funder wanted. This makes me so sad. John, you’re right – it’s not a coincidence that the obesity epidemic started around 1970. It’s also not a coincidence that the U.S. suffers from so many more diseases than other countries who don’t have processed and GMO food. So, so sad.
I am glad others have posted more on #10 HFCS. There is a reason farmers use corn feed for their cows. It bulks them up quickly so that they can keep up with consumer demand. Why on earth would it not have some effect on human bodies when HFCS and corn derivatives are in the vast majority of things we eat-including our meat. What they eat, we get too…
There are other reasons why some of these so called myths are good to heed. To name a few, HFCS is usually made from GMO corn and it is everywhere, in so many processed foods. So sugar may or may not be an issue, but consuming GMO products aren’t great for you, and constantly eating it as a sugar is something I would avoid. As for eating late at night, if you ate late at night and then go lay down, you’re not exactly helping your digestion. In fact, you may just get indigestion. Try going to bed on a full stomach so night, it feels pretty terrible and you feel heavier in the morning. As for the vitamin supplementation, because of soil fertility loss due to conventional farming, the amount of nutrition you get from foods has really plummeted. A conventionally farmed apple or any other produce contains less nutrition than it did 50 years ago. Also, it used to be that we all cooked more. Now, people eat so many more processed foods, be they canned or frozen. Frozen food does retain much of the nutrition, but not so with canned foods or fast foods. People don’t eat healthy most of the time so unless someone really practiced eating healthy, balanced, organic food, they are definitely not getting the right amount of vitamins. As for the water intake, in all reality, how many people actually eat enough fruits and vegetables to get their hydration? With fruit juices, you get a lot of sugar with that and kids already have a serious sugar problem in this country from the ubiquitous amounts of HFCS in almost every food item. They also get a load of pesticides. Given the times we live in, I think it is not the greatest advice to tell people to not drink water, since our society is in love with sodium and MSG is in everything as well, sauces from the store, dressings, canned food, frozen food, restaurant food, chips, and so forth. I’d rather follow some of the old myths.
“Also, while HFCS is controversial, just the fact of it being a highly GMO commodity is reason enough for me to avoid it.”
Shalley, I’m pretty sure this sentence obliterates any credibility you bring to the table. Without even getting into how pointless, reactionary and unsubstantiated the hate against GMO’s is, in what way would a genetically modified corn crop affect the HFCS produced? No matter where on Earth HFCS comes from, it’s going to be made of the same three things: Water, fructose and glucose. The only variance is in the ratios among the three. If a GMO HFCS source caused the sugars produced from it to be different, it wouldn’t be HFCS, it would be something else.
Also, the studies showing the differences in the effects of acyl glycerols derived from fructose or glucose in the body are generally extremely narrow in scope and suffer from confirmation/who-gave-me-money bias on both sides. The best answer to that debate is, “we don’t know, because the issue of weight gain (and weight gain in specific areas) is far too complicated for anyone to figure out right now.”
Lots of commenters like to point out the correlation between weight gain and HFCS in the 70s, while ignoring tons of other contributory factors. Whether or not there is causation, once again, is outside the scope of any study conducted that I have heard of, whether the researchers pretend otherwise or not.
By and large, this article was a good one. Thank you for helping raise awareness about how wrong some of these long-held beliefs are.
HFCS isn’t “controversial” any more than smoking was in the 60s. It’s clearly very bad for us. And it is worse than table sugar, mainly because it appears in so many liquids which are metabolized much more quickly than table sugar (which is usually combined with other foods that slow absorption). Watch the YouTube video lecture “The Bitter Truth” by UCSF pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig. Excellent, thorough breakdown of what fructose does to our bodies.
To Janet:
Actually, I’d recommend taking a much closer look at who puts out the PRO-hfcs studies. Follow the money, as they say…
Here is the only research I can vouch for that I know is 100% true. I eat tons of red meat and drink soda all day at work. In addition to a wife and 2 small children I find a way to EXERCISE at least 1-2 hours a day. My doctor told me in 37yrs of medicine I’m the healthiest person hes ever seen, strong heart and a clean colon (Im currently 30 and have a family hisory of related cancer). Long story short… a bit of exercise will let ya eat whatever junk ya want to and not become a fat slob who blames everyone else for their lack of activity.
Thanks, Scott!
Um, PR, I think you’re mistaken to say that a little exercise means you can eat whatever you want. Maybe it works for you, but in my case, that was absolutely not true.
I started getting serious about health and exercise a few years ago, and after working out 6 days a week (intense cardio and circuit training, including 6 months of P90X) for a year without changing my diet, I had toned up and lost some weight, but was still not seeing great results with classic female problem areas: buns, thighs and the last 5 lbs to my target weight. Then I changed my eating habits, and everything improved.
I find I can exercise for half the time I used to with the same results if I eat a healthy diet.
It is true that because I work out, I can “cheat” on nutrition occasionally without major consequence. Well, other than heartburn!
I completely disagree, about what you are saying about High fructose corn syrup it is the worst thing that has being invented there is no point of comparison with our natural sugar
I believe that coffee dehydrates rigt? ,soda is high corn fructose syrup a little bit of h2o and colors. who in the right mind will say that drinking soda and coffee is “like drinking water”?
All of this dialogue simply proves that you can find a study to ‘validate’ whatever opinion you choose to support.
Moderation, folks.
Thanks for the interesting, if not entirely provable, content.
I just go done reading the top 10 annoyingly stubborn food myths for 2012. It was informative and well researched. I find so many of the comments to be “strain the gnat and swallow the came.” When you have as long as I have, you take all the current nutritional info with a grain of salt. Just wait a few years, and they will find the downside of all this info. Remember when eggs were of the devil? Eat food and drink in moderation. You’ll be fine. Our ancestors knew that — along with hard work. Quit overthinking.
Hfcs IS more detrimental than sugar–which is in itself toxic waste–in that it has an unnatural concentration of fructose. I must admit that if our livers were not overworked from filtering out all the man-made chemicals in our diets, then they might be able to filter the occasional dose of hfcs, but they are so exposed to other toxic waste that there is no capacity left to do what God designed them to do. Do remember that table sugar is nothing but empty carbs and floods the system with calories that have absolutely no nutritional value, so it is only marginally better than hfcs. We need to return to the diet that God designed our bodies to ingest. That being said, it is extremely hard to correct a lifetime of bad eating habits. The food industry loves carbs–they are cheap and they are addictive–kind of like cigarettes with added nicotine to keep you hooked.
L-carnitine is the concern of heart disease in high quantity meat diets. The fat on meat is still not determined with this.
More people started becoming obese when their daily physical output could not match or out pace their consumption. If you double the amount you eat and double the calories in that food and cut your physical work by half to three quarters you might ‘magically’ discover you are obese.