amy April 5th, 2007
amy April 4th, 2007
amy April 3rd, 2007
Here are some interesting articles from the last few days:
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:
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 28th, 2007
amy March 27th, 2007
amy March 26th, 2007
amy March 23rd, 2007
amy March 23rd, 2007
Here’s a good article about the high Calorie count of beverages: Swigging Down the Calories by Amanda Ursell
The article is a bit too British for my American sensibilities (since when are there 205 Calories in a can of Coke, and what on earth is a milk-based soft drink?), but it has some interesting points.
Anyone who has ever dieted knows how quickly beverage Calories can add up. The author’s example of this is exaggerated, but there are people out there who drink like this:
Take a hypothetical day. You start with the little probiotic yoghurt shot, which starts the liquid calorie clock ticking by notching up 77. Then there is the medium-size latte you grab on the way back from the school run or on the way to work: another 265. Perhaps you have a fruit smoothie thinking that it is a good way to get one of your “five a day”. Allow another 130 calories per mid-afternoon hot chocolate to keep you going. Expect 448 calories for a medium-size serving from a typical coffee shop.
Once you get home you may enjoy a glass of seemingly healthy cranberry juice, a sparkling elderflower cordial drink or a Duchy Originals Organic Fruit Refresher with dinner instead of wine, all with 120 calories per average 300ml tumbler. Then to round off the day, a nice warming malty bedtime drink, with 188 calories for a small mug. While few of us would consume all of these in one day, you get the picture. Were someone actually to drink this lot, the calories would top 1,432; more than 70 per cent of an average woman’s daily needs of 2,000 and over half a man’s daily requirements.
Back when I weighed 274 pounds, I’m sure I had days where I drank at least 1,400 Calories. This is not unrealistic when you consider that the only things I drank were regular soda, juice, full-fat Starbucks drinks, gas station cappuccinos, Slurpees, and the very occasional glass of milk. Sugary beverages were “comfort” drinks for me and I would sip on them all day and even get up in the middle of the night to drink juice because I had a weird taste in my mouth. My body was lucky to get one glass of plain water a week, no kidding.
When we drink all of these Calories, why don’t we feel full? This is the most interesting point the article makes. Jeya Henry, a professor of Nutrition, has a theory:
“Dehydration was the biggest killer when man evolved in the savannah regions. Fluids rehydrate, whatever their calorie content, and man had to drink whatever was available, whether it was calorie-free water or calorie-rich coconut milk. The last thing you wanted was human beings putting the brakes on drinking. The idea that liquid calories do not feed back into the satiety centres in our brains makes evolutionary sense.”
I guess this could explain why, even when you are completely stuffed from food, there always seems to be enough room to finish off your drink.
Reducing or eliminating caloric beverages is a simple first step towards cutting the total amount of Calories you consume. Here are some of the things I do to avoid liquid Calories:
amy March 21st, 2007
