Are you trying to lose weight by steering away from carbs? Do you munch on celeries thinking that it fills you up while burning calories? Or maybe you’re eating a lot of acai berries and kale so you can lower your risk for chronic diseases? These nutritional bites have all been way too familiar to all of us. But times have changed — especially in the world of nutrition. With new information being reported on the daily, it seems these old facts that we know of are being debunked as myths. It is so easy to get confused about the science of nutrition. However, since more and more studies are being done, things in nutrition are becoming more actualized. Here are 5 basic nutrition facts you should know about.
What You Need To Know:
- Carbohydrates are not the cause of your weight gain. It’s more about the number of calories you consume and not the type of food that you eat.
- Eating a certain superfood doesn’t magically cure your disease. It’s best to prioritize variety in your diet rather than overloading on one food.
- Quick and drastic weight loss will do you more harm than good. You can end up gaining the weight back or even more! Aim to lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week.
- There’s no such thing as negative-calorie foods, like celeries. They might be low in calories, but that also means you don’t use much energy to digest the food.
- Low-fat foods are not necessarily healthier. Some products actually overload their foods with sugars and calories to mask the lack of taste.
Basic Nutrition Fact #1: Carbohydrates Alone Are Not The Cause Of Your Weight Gain
Carbohydrates have long been controversial, particularly when diets like South Beach, Dukan, Atkins, and Ketogenic grew in popularity. Proponents of these weight loss diets put the blame on carbohydrates as they believed that the calories you get from bread, pasta, and rice are the easiest to convert into body fat. So instead, these diets allotted more portions for proteins or fats and cut back completely on carbs.
Truth is, carbohydrates aren’t the culprit for your weight gain. The real reason why you’re packing on the pounds is primarily due to the amount, and not necessarily the food group, you are eating. Carbohydrates are vital components in a diet since they are the ones chiefly responsible to give you energy. Cut them out and you’ll be lethargic and fatigued all day!
Here’s A Tip
The key is moderation and balance. Too much of anything will be bad for you — and of course, that includes your carb sources. It’s important to choose the right type of carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables instead of free sugars from candy, cakes, and pastries. Fiber-rich carbohydrates are also the best since they give you the energy to fuel you throughout the day while filling you up well so you’re not easily hungry. In addition, add up the right amount of proteins and carbs so you get your required dose of macronutrients every day.
Basic Nutrition Fact #2: There Is No One Superfood That Will Cure Your Disease
The term “superfoods” or “power foods” have graced headlines now more than ever. The top superfoods like kale, blueberries, pomegranates, and acai berries are said to contain beneficial compounds and antioxidants that may lower your risk for many chronic illnesses. These eye-catching titles have caught the interest of many people looking to improve their health. The food innovations and skyrocketing sales of superfoods have grown to become a billion-dollar industry.
But the thing is, although these superfoods really outshine many other foods with their exemplary nutritional contents, getting these “super” benefits is a lot harder to achieve. For one, most of the studies that prove their effects often require really high levels of beneficial nutrient, making it unrealistic to apply to a regular diet. Moreover, the studies on superfoods have also been primarily done on animals, which doesn’t really guarantee the same effects on humans.
Here’s A Tip
When it comes to optimizing your diet, it’s best to look at the variety in the foods rather than just focusing on one food that claims to be “super”. Set a realistic diet by incorporating different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Prioritizing on these can already dramatically improve your health and lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
Basic Nutrition Fact #3: A Healthy Weight Loss Is Just Around 2 Pounds (1 Kilo) Per Week
Ever chanced upon weight loss shows where contestants drop up to 10 or more pounds in a week? Or maybe you’ve heard of a friend who did this diet and dropped a whopping 15 pounds in 7 days? Rapid weight loss sounds appealing because it offers quick and easy results. But taking drastic dietary and lifestyle changes — even for just a short while — may actually do you more harm than good!
Losing a lot of weight in a short amount of time can increase your risk for many side effects, like muscle loss, slower metabolism, nutrient deficiencies, hair loss, and fatigued. In addition, studies have shown that people who have quick and massive loss often results in them gaining all the weight back (and for some even more!) in 3 to 5 years.
Here’s A Tip
Slow and steady wins the race — and that saying goes as well with weight loss! The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a weekly weight drop of just 1 to 2 pounds (½ to 1 kilo) per week. Adults who lose weight at this pace are said to have greater success in losing the weight and keeping it off for the long-term. In order to reach this amount of weight loss, it’s ideal to reduce your calorie consumption to just 500 to 1000 calories daily, equating to around 3500 calories or a pound of fat in a week.
Fact #4: Celeries Do Not Have Negative Calories
Losing weight requires you to pay close attention to the number of calories you put in and burn out. In an attempt to trick the system, many people theorize that there’s a way to maximize the thermic effect of food (or the amount of energy your body needs to digest and metabolize the food).
This suggests that by eating certain low-calorie foods, you may actually burn more energy than what you take in. A classic example is a medium-sized celery stalk, which is said to have negligible calories after it gets digested.
Hypothetically, it could make sense since the thermic effect of food accounts for 10% of your total energy expenditure. However, applying this theory to real life is just impossible. Multiple studies and nutrient analyses have proven that there is no known food with negative calories.
It’s important to note as well that the body burns macronutrients at different rates. Carbohydrates don’t take much to burn in comparison to fat and protein. In this case, celery, consisting of mostly water, fiber, and small amounts of carbohydrates, do not actually need much energy to move it down your system!
Here’s A Tip
Instead of concentrating on individual foods, apply a holistic and sustainable approach if you want to change your diet. Make sure you’re getting a variety of different foods, eat more vegetables and fruits, and switch up your proteins to lean meats and carbohydrates to whole grains. These are small simple steps, but if you can do it for a long period of time, you will definitely notice improvements in your health.
Fact #5: Low-fat Foods Don’t Necessarily Mean They’re Healthier Too
Many of our favorite foods now have alternative options. Whether they’re low-fat, fat-free, or reduced fat, consumers instantly assume that these are the healthier choices. It’s easy to think that since we have associated fat with obesity, heart disease, stroke, and many other chronic diseases.
The fact of the matter is, these low-fat labels are often misleading. For one, they veer away the consumer’s attention to how much free sugars and artificial flavorings the product contains. Foods that are low in fat are actually tasteless. As a solution, many manufacturers fix this by dumping a lot of sugar into their foods. So in reality, these low-fat foods may actually be high in sugar and calories, which doesn’t make them all that healthy in the long run.
Here’s A Tip
It’s time we stop looking at fat as something evil. It’s a basic macronutrient that we need every day, and there’s no need to avoid them completely (unless of course, if you are suffering from heart disease).
Instead, we should be looking at the type of fat that we are eating. Good fats are those with mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids which can lower your risk for heart diseases. These can be found in plant oils like olive oil or canola oil and avocados. Bad fats are those filled with saturated or trans fat which, in turn, may cause heart attack and stroke.
The Takeaway…
Nutrition is an evolving science. The things we thought were facts before, may not be true anymore. But with the rise of many scientific studies, information on nutrition is becoming actualized. Here are some of the proven nutrition facts you should know:
- Carbohydrates shouldn’t be blamed for your weight gain. Experts say it’s more about the number of calories you consume rather the food group you’re eating.
- Superfoods aren’t all that superior. It’s still best to have a variety of fruits and vegetables rather than focusing on just one.
- Drastic weight loss may be appealing, but it might actually do you more harm than good. For a sustainable weight loss, the goal should be to lose just one or two pounds per week.
- Negative calorie foods that burn more calories than what you consume do not actually exist. These low-calorie foods don’t contain many nutrients, so you’re body easily digests this without needing too much energy
- Low-fat foods are not all that healthy. Look at the nutrition facts and spot if they’re high in calories or sugars. Often, food manufacturers make up for the lack of taste in low-fat foods by dumping a lot of sugar.
