amy March 28th, 2007
Medical News Today has a great article that dispels 10 of the most commonly held diet and nutrition myths, including some of my favorites most hated:
- Drink eight, 8-oz. glasses of water per day. You should replace water lost through breathing, excrement and sweating each day - but that doesn’t necessarily total 64 ounces of water. It’s hard to measure the exact amount of water you have consumed daily in food and drink, but if your urine is pale yellow, you’re doing a good job. If it’s a darker yellow, drink more H2O.
- Eating carbohydrates makes you fat. Cutting carbs from your diet may have short-term weight loss benefits due to water loss from a decrease in carbohydrate stores, but eating carbs in moderation does not directly lead to weight gain. The body uses carbs for energy, and going too long without them can cause lethargy.
- All alcohol is bad for you. Again, moderation is key. Six ounces of wine and 12 ounces of beer are considered moderate amounts, and should not pose any adverse health effects to the average healthy adult. All alcohol is an anticoagulant and red wine also contains antioxidants, so drinking a small amount daily can be beneficial.
Check out the article for some more logic on common food myths.
There are some additional diet myths not featured in the article that drive me crazy, including:
- You shouldn’t eat after [insert your favorite number here] PM.
- Drinking a lot of water will “flush out” the fat.
- Organic foods are more nutritious.
- Caffeinated beverages don’t “count” as water.
- “Muscle weighs more than fat, which explains why I gained a pound last week after I exercised so much.”
- Green tea and/or dairy products are miracle weight loss foods/beverages.
What diet myths have you come across? Or do you disagree that any of these are myths?
Update:
Here’s another good article with some additional diet myths, including one of my favorites:
Organic food is always more nutritious.
Myth. Few studies have compared organic and conventionally grown foods, according to food toxicologist Carl Winter, director of the FoodSafe program at the University of California, Davis.
Some evidence suggests that organic produce may be higher in certain antioxidants, but there appears to be no nutritional advantage to organic milk and meat, he said.
The descriptor refers to the practices on the farm and not the nutritional content of the final product. When it comes to the snack aisle, don’t assume that “organic” gives you the green light to load up. An organic cheese puff is still a cheese puff.
amy March 27th, 2007
Here’s a link to the episode on Google Video, in case you don’t get Showtime:
Penn and Teller’s Bullshit! Obesity
amy March 27th, 2007
I’ve added a new page to list the books I am reading as part of my quest to learn to eat like a “normal” person. There are only two books up there for now, Mindless Eating which I am currently reading (excellent by the way, book review to come soon) and Breaking Free From Emotional Eating which was recommended to me by a dear friend. I hope to read and review at least one book each month.
amy March 27th, 2007
One of my guilty pleasures is gas station cappuccinos. There’s just something I love about burning hot water mixed with coffee-flavored sugar powder for $1.29. According to Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone, that 20 ounce cappuccino I usually get could have as many as 400 Calories and 12 grams of fat!
These days when I do stop and get a cheapo cappuccino, I fill my 20 ounce up with half cappuccino and then top it off with their darkest coffee. The coffee helps to tame the sweetness of the cappuccino, and the cappuccino helps give the usually bland gas station coffee more flavor and add sweetness and creamer to it. By going halfsies, you get a more grown-up tasting coffee for only half the Calories. Try it sometime!
amy March 27th, 2007
This has been an odd week for me. I haven’t been feeling so great the last few days due to a sinus infection that just won’t end and some bouts of nausea and light-headedness that my doctor claims are due to dehydration. I haven’t been in the mood to cook much. I won’t be spending much time in the kitchen for the rest of this week either because I’ll be busy getting ready to leave for Arizona on Thursday. Jason and I are taking our son James to visit his great-grandparents for the first time. Twelve hours there and back in the car with a 13 month old should be interesting!
I’ve lined up some new veggie recipes to try when we get back, however, so I haven’t been a complete slacker:
amy March 25th, 2007
Eating extra vegetables the last two weeks hasn’t been difficult for me. I generally like veggies, so I haven’t been eating them just for the sake of eating them. The problem, however, is that my husband is a bit pickier about the kinds of veggies he will eat. I generally cook stuff that he likes so that he can eat healthier too, but I’m getting a bit tired of broccoli, salad, corn, asparagus, onions and peppers, and the same old techniques I have always used to cook them. My goal for this week is to try some different vegetable recipes to make things more interesting. Maybe Jason will even learn to like some different veggies.
Yesterday I picked up two bunches of asparagus on sale for $1 a pound, so I tried a new method of preparing them tonight. Normally I steam asparagus and add some garlic and herb seasoning, salt and pepper. It’s ok, but a bit boring. Tonight I roasted it instead. I definitely liked the roasted asparagus much more than my usual steamed, and Jason liked it as well. James (my son) didn’t eat a lot of it, but he has been getting picky about veggies recently. Here’s the recipe:
Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients:
2 bunches of asparagus, washed and stems trimmed
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Spread asparagus out on a baking sheet. Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil and toss to coat, then spread it out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for 10 - 12 minutes until parts of the asparagus begin to get slightly browned and it is tender but not mushy.
amy March 25th, 2007
It’s the end of my second week of blogging and setting healthy goals, and so far it is going well. My goal this week was to make half of my lunch and dinner either fruits or veggies. I missed a few meals, but most of the time I did make an effort to eat extra vegetables, both when eating at home and when eating out. I’ve gotten in the habit of eating two different vegetables with lunch and dinner, so I’m also getting more variety.
My focus right now is trying to eat healthy and more like a “normal” person rather than losing weight, so I’m trying to stay off of the scale. I know that if I can learn to eat when I am hungry, stop when I am full, and eat more healthy food than junk, my weight will eventually go down. My fruit and veggie goals have been a good start so far. I try to eat most of the vegetables on my plate first, so I have been successful with filling up more on veggies first and have thus been eating smaller, more normal sized portions of other foods.
