5 Food Myths Busted
While this list could have WAY more than five, it seems best to stick to the most common. The following 5 food myths or misconceptions are common place in the health industry and if you hear people spouting these off as common knowledge you need to seek a second opinion. Do adequate research and always be skeptical of generalized nutritional tips that are “a fix for everyone”. Like many things in the training world, there is a large grey area with nutrition, and very little black and white.
- “Carbs Make You Fat”
This myth was likely made popular by Paleo and Keto type diets that are very popular in the CrossFit world. Don’t get me wrong here, low carb diets can be an extremely effective tool in helping someone lose weight, but it ends there. Low carb diets can be detrimental to the majority of training protocols (strength, hypertrophy, CrossFit). So why are they so frequently recommended in the untrained or weight loss population? Well, imagine if I told someone to spontaneously cut out a large percentage of any macronutrient, (therefore in this case avoiding any processed carbs/foods) this would spur a reduction in total caloric consumption for the day, which should result in weight loss. The majority of nutritional studies show low carb diets work for weight loss because of a reduction in calories. So why don’t carbs make you fat? Simple answer, over eating ANY Macronutrient will make you “fat”. In fact, carbs are the muscles preferred form of energy and recovery. Simply put, without dietary carbs your body will make glucose (carbs) out of fat stores and amino acids anyway but in doing so your performance/training/recovery will suffer. However, losing weight may be more important than your performance in the gym. One last point to consider, it has been shown that those on very low carbohydrate diets tend to have a higher recurrence of weight gain, and no one wants that.
- “Too Much Protein is Bad For Your Kidneys”
There is so much misinformation about protein intake and how much is enough or dangerous. We could dive into a very lengthy article specifically about this and the byproducts created within protein metabolism (ammonia and urea), but here’s a quick synopsis. Supposedly in a high protein diet these byproducts will build up over time and cause kidney or liver damage. Well, what actually happens in healthy individuals is that the removal of these two byproducts is simply upregulated, an adaptation similar to any progressive adaptation. If you are an individual who suffers from kidney dysfunction or disease there might be reason to more tightly control protein intake. Yet, there is a useful intake or top “cap” to this. The RDA according to the government is around 0.8g/kg of bodyweight. However, in healthy individuals there is no reason to worry about going higher than this. In fact consuming 1.4-2g/kg of bodyweight can be very useful in a calorie restricted diet as it will help preserve muscle mass as one loses weight.
- “Low-Fat Foods Are Always a Better Choice”
Food marketing gurus figured this out pretty quick. The general public sees something is low fat and automatically assumes it’s healthier because it has fewer calories. While reducing calories can be a good thing. Drastically reducing the amount of fat you eat could lead to one missing out on many crucial fatty acids, which help aid in cell repair, growth and various immune/hormone responses. You will need to decide where it is best for you to cut out calories when attempting to lose weight. But choosing the low fat product that likely had fat taken out and sugar added in is not always the best option.
- “Don’t Eat Pass 7PM”
Eating carbs or other foods past 7pm will not turn you into a Gremlin or make you fat. In fact “starving” yourself by not eating enough could have a detrimental return on fat storage and recovery from training. This myth likely became popular because of the desire to snack on “bad” items late in the evening. Simply saying, “don’t eat those bad items” would have worked just as well here. Bottom line is you need to hit your macronutrient goals for the day regardless of when you eat and sometimes that means that you don’t get to snack before bed, sometimes it means that you need to snack before bed. I think we can all identify and understand that the urge to have some ice cream at 9pm is stronger than the desire to have an apple. So it’s easy to see why this is a frequent “tip”.
- “Eating More Frequently Boosts Your Metabolism”
A very common myth to hear from health “experts”. Tell you what, eat food more often and tell me what happens in 3 months. You will gain weight, because all you did was increase your caloric intake. This myth has taken good advice and simply blown it out of proportion. To capitalize on many factors it would be beneficial to eat a protein rich meal every 3-4 hours and the argument could be made that your “metabolism” may increase, because of proteins’ thermogenic effect and/or because you may be adding lean muscle mass by doing so. Even if this advice was to eat smaller meals more often, there is no research showing that this helps improve weight loss when compared to an iso-caloric diet of 2-3 larger meals. Improve Quality and Quantity first and then worry about fine tuning things with meal timing.
With your newly acquired myth-busting knowledge, you can avoid the magazine and interwebs hoopla, and actually get some results. Be committed to making small changes each week and you will see long term continued success.
For help in reaching your goals, email us to set up a meeting with one of our certified personal trainers. Our team of trainers offers a variety of workouts and fitness classes designed to help you achieve your personal goals. Email support@gofreedomfit.com to get the ball rolling.
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