Over time, various nutrition myths have come about, which is why people unnecessarily exclude certain foods or consume something excessively because they do not know better. However, balance is the most important when it comes to nutrition – eat as much as your body needs and can use up.
Myth: Potatoes, pasta, rice, and bread make you overweight.
Truth: Potatoes are quite energy-dense, but it is very hard to become overweight when you eat only potatoes. Bread with grains contains a lot of fibre, which is beneficial for weight loss. Pasta products themselves do not provide much energy; the source of unnecessary weight is the sauce: sour cream, mayonnaise, lard, minced meat, cheese or sausage sauce are quite energy dense.
Myth: Frozen vegetables are expensive and have low nutritional value.
Truth: On the contrary. Vegetables lose quite a lot of nutrients when cleaned. Freezing them does not decrease their nutritional value. Frozen vegetable mixes are usually prepared during the season when the vitamin content of vegetables is the highest, and the loss of vitamins is relatively small when they are preserved.
Myth: Egg yolks contain a lot of cholesterol, so they should not be eaten.
Truth: Egg yolks do contain a lot of cholesterol, but they also contain lecithin, which helps stabilise the level of cholesterol in your blood. Eggs are rich in vitamins and egg proteins are very energy dense. A healthy person can eat 3-4 eggs per week without any risk.
Myth: Eating after 8 p.m. makes you overweight.
Truth: It is not important when you eat, but how much you eat. You gain weight when the amount of energy gained from food and drink exceeds how much energy you burn. It is true that it is not recommended to eat a lot in the evenings because digestion interferes with sleep. Also, the simple sugar and starch you eat may turn into body fat more easily because people are usually less active in the evenings.
Myth: Some foods, such as grapefruit, celery, and cabbage soup burn fat.
Truth: Unfortunately, fat-burning foods do not exist. Some foods, such as those containing caffeine, accelerate metabolism, but the effect is short.
Myth: Curd cheese is healthy, and you can eat it as much as you want.
Truth: That is not quite right. No food can be called healthy or unhealthy. It is important to have a diverse diet. For example, curd can contain a lot of so-called hidden fats (especially saturated fatty acids). The sweet curd sold in stores also often contains a lot of added sugar.
Myth: Chocolate makes you fat.
Truth: So-so. Eagerly eating any type of chocolate will soon ruin your waist. However, a daily piece of dark chocolate high in cocoa (at least 70%) may help prevent heart disease.
Myth: Only hamburgers are junk food.
Truth: Every food high in sugar, fat, salt, and additives, but low in vitamins and minerals becomes so-called junk food if you eat it frequently and in large quantities. Infrequently eating a hamburger in between other food does not make it junk food. Chips and soft drinks accompanying the hamburger are much more dangerous.
Myth: Those who exercise can eat anything they want.
Truth: That is not quite true. Doing sports is no doubt useful and increases how much energy you burn, but it may also increase appetite. Those who eat two chocolate bars after exercising may not lose a gram of weight.
Myth: Eating sugar leads to diabetes.
Truth: If you do not have diabetes, then eating sugar will not immediately cause it. The risk of diabetes is increased by being overweight, but it is not important which foods caused it. Diabetics must monitor not only sugar, but other carbohydrates as well.
Myth: Brown sugar is healthier than white sugar.
Truth: Brown sugar is usually made by adding molasses to white sugar crystals. This slightly increases the mineral content of brown sugar, but it is so negligible that it does not affect health. The taste of brown and white sugar is different, but their other differences are minimal.
Myth: You should not eat many foods together.
Truth: Some have claimed that, for example, foods containing carbohydrates and proteins should not be eaten at the same time because our digestive organs cannot digest them together and this causes you to gain weight. That is not true. Humans are omnivorous. Our digestive system adapts well to the food we eat and secretes the digestive enzymes needed to digest various nutrients. Certain foods should be excluded only in the case of some illnesses, such as food allergies or intolerance.
Myth: Energy drinks give you energy.
Truth: The drinks referred to as energy drinks contain approximately the same amount of sugar as regular soft drinks. Energy drinks contain a lot of caffeine and other ingredients which temporarily increase both mental and physical performance. However, strenuous work should instead be followed with rest to restore your energy reserves. Since the safe limit of many energy drink ingredients as well as their combined effect has not been determined, it is not recommended to drink more than 500 ml per day. Energy drinks are definitely unsuitable for children.
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The article has been written based on toitumine.ee. The information included on the website is based on the Estonian national nutrition and food recommendations and scientific studies. Source: Toitumine: müüdid ja tegelikkus by Tiiu Liebert.
Published in the youth information portal Teeviit in 2021.
