There are many myths and misunderstandings attached to healthy diet and weight loss. Let us discuss them here in some details:
Eggs raise cholesterol levels:
As we all know, high cholesterol levels are associated with
cardiovascular disease. Eggs and especially the yolk are high in
cholesterol. This has led to the conclusion that eggs can be detrimental
to heart’s health. This, however, is actually a myth. Most of the
cholesterol is produced by the liver and we get only 25% from food. What
is more, saturated fat consumption affects cholesterol levels much more
than dietary cholesterol, especially the “bad” LDL-cholesterol. Eggs
are not high in saturated fat and thus they may be part of a healthy
diet, without raising cardiovascular risk.
Coffee causes dehydration:
Studies show that coffee, if consumed in moderation, does not cause
further fluid loss. Caffeine can be a diuretic in quantities greater
than 250mg a day (one cup of coffee only contains about 75mg of
caffeine).
There are foods that burn fat:
We often hear about various foods that have the ability to burn fat.
Ginseng, green tea, grapefruit, chili and many herbs have been linked
with the process of fat burning. The truth is that even though there are
some studies showing that some of these foods can increase our
metabolic rate, this increase is so small that it actually makes almost
no difference. It could be argued that even a small increase in
metabolism, through the consumption of large quantities of green tea or
ginseng could contribute to weight loss. Unfortunately, this is a myth
because your body actually adapts to these changes and thus after a
while any metabolic advantage will be lost.
The same principle applies to the consumption of protein.
Although studies show that our body spends larger amounts of energy to
metabolize protein compared to carbohydrates or fat, in practice it
makes no difference. Specifically, the cost of thermogenesis is about
25% for protein, 10-12% carbohydrates and only 3-5 for fat %. So, it
could be reasonably argued that by consuming 1000 calories only from
protein, you could lose weight more quickly than if you consumed 1,000
calories from carbohydrates. The problem is that our body has adaptive
mechanisms and quickly balances these thermogenic differences. This
means that there are no magic potions or miracle foods and that the only
thing that really counts is the total amount of calories we consume and
not their source.
It is possible to lose only belly fat:
I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the truth is that there is no way to
lose fat locally. Existing data show that spot reduction exercises or
various other techniques (creams, belts, sauna, etc.) are not based in
reality. These techniques don’t seem to be effective. Creams can not
penetrate the fatty tissue and exercise can train the muscles, but won’t
burn the fat that is located above the muscle. Various adipose tissue
biopsies have been done to see whether abdominal exercises actually
reduce the percentage of fat in the abdomen. The conclusion was that
there is no selective reduction of the size of fat cells in abdominal
region.
Frequent meals boost your metabolism:
The issue of meal frequency is a diet dogma that simply refuses to
die. Although there is evidence since 1997 that 3 meals per day are an
equally good choice as 6 meals per day, 14 years later, this old dogma
is still here. A recent study published in the British journal of
Nutrition examined whether frequent meals help fat loss. The study
compared 2 diets that created the same calorie deficit. The first
consisted of 3 meals and 3 snacks and the other consisted of 3 main
meals. At the end of 8 weeks, weight loss was similar for both diets.
What is more, the secretion of ghrelin (hunger hormone) was identical
for the 2 groups, suggesting that there was no difference between 3 and 6
meals in the regulation of appetite when the calories were the same. In
conclusion, eating frequent meals is not the only solution to fat loss.
This scientific finding is very important for people who simply can’t
consume 6 meals every day, because of their job or their lifestyle in
general.
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