7 Nutrition Myths We Grew Up With in the 90s

When you decide to eat healthy, it’s hard to know where to start.

A lack of information isn’t the problem. Bookshelves are overflowing with nutrition books. You could get lost browsing millions of nutrition articles online.

To the average person looking for practical results, the thought process might go like this:

Should I try going vegetarian? My cousin Chris did that last year, and he can’t quit raving about it.

Wait. But don’t I need to eat meat to get enough protein? He does look pretty thin.

What about this Atkins or Zone diet stuff? Seems to be working for some people…

And on and on!

It’s easy to get caught up in an endless loop of research and analysis. Too many people end up swimming in information, too confused and overwhelmed to ever get started improving their health.

Even if you do get started, how can you know you’re doing what’s best for your health when the “official position” about so many foods seems to change every few years?

---

Clearing up the Confusion

Buying into nutrition myths is harmful enough, but things getreally dicey when people start repeating them.

Hear something enough times, and popular opinions turn into “facts.” It becomes off limits to question them – at least for the average person trying to get healthy.

But more scientific studies are published every day questioning nutrition guidelines we grew up with a few decades ago. Cold, hard evidence is trumping what’s popular.

Most mainstream nutrition groups haven’t updated their advice to match the latest science. But you don’t have to listen to them anymore.

---

Here are seven common nutrition myths we grew up with in the 1990s:

1. Eating Fat Makes You Fat

This one just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?

“Eating fat makes you fat.”

It’s simple and easy to remember, two good reasons why this caught on during the anti-fat frenzy in the 1980s and 1990s.

But it just isn’t true.

Researchers found that a high-fat, low-carb diet was actually more effective for weight loss than a low-fat, calorie-restricted one (1).

This nutrition myth ignores the fact that not all fats are created equal. Some fats will make you fat and unhealthy. But others aren’t unhealthy at all. They’re actually essential for your health.

Healthy fats play a role when it comes to fighting inflammation, improving your cholesterol levels, stabilizing your heart, and many other key aspects of health  So people are shortchanging themselves when they give in to “fataphobia” and don’t eat enough of them.

Following a Paleo diet—which emphasizes fats from animal products, avocados, coconuts, and other sources—gives your body the fuel it needs to stay full, energized, and healthy.

2. Low-Fat Foods Are Healthier

The “fat is evil” idea from the 80s and 90s is so dangerous because it ended up creating a bunch of other nutrition myths (like high-carb diets are better, saturated fat will give you a heart attack, and reduced-fat processed foods are healthy).

Because so many people bought in to the idea that fats were bad, they were desperate for low-fat options whenever they went grocery shopping or out to eat.

It didn’t take long for the food industry to take advantage. Companies started filling grocery store shelves with low-fat versions of cookies, crackers, and other food to cater to changing consumer tastes.

But the low-fat, processed foods were still junk foods. When food companies took the fat out, they ended up with products that tasted like cardboard. They added salt, sugar, and all kinds of other chemicals and preservatives to hide the bad taste .

People ate less fat. But they were eating a heck of a lot more of the stuff shown to cause obesity, diabetes, and all kinds of other serious health issues so common today .

The verdict is in: “low fat” doesn’t mean healthy. It’s usually even worse for you than full-fat food options.

3. A Calorie Is a Calorie

What’s the typical advice for someone trying to lose weight?

“Eat less and move more.”

The idea here was that, as long as your calorie intake was less than the calories you expended, you’d reach your target weight and stay there.

People started counting their calories religiously. They’d write down every morsel that went into their mouths (usually after weighing it). Some restricted their calories by an insane amount.

But the reality of weight loss is a bit more complicated:

While the amount of calories you take in and expend definitely matters, not all calories are created equal.

You could lose weight by eating Twinkies every day. But you’d rob yourself of key micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals. You might lose weight now, but you’d set yourself up for long-term health consequences.

Studies have shown that this style of weight loss—calorie counting and restriction—hardly ever works in the long term . It’s actually a recipe for yo-yo dieting and constantly changing weight.

The quality of your calories is hugely important. High quality calories actually go through different pathways than low quality calories, and they have a significant effect on fat loss and regulating your appetite .

The Paleo diet offers an effective solution for long-term health. Focus on eating the right types of calories (vegetables, animal products, safe starches, fruit and nuts), and the amount of calories works itself out. You’ll find your body gravitating towards your ideal weight and food intake without even thinking about it.

4. Eat Small, Frequent Meals to Lose Weight

I’m not sure where this one got started, but it’s still alive and well among many mainstream nutrition groups. It’s like they expect us all to carry around Tupperware containers and break them out every three hours before our body enters “starvation mode.” Forget about all the responsibilities we have like work, family, and living life!

Supporters of this myth argue that eating often “stokes the fire of your metabolism” and makes it easier for the pounds to come off…

But it just isn’t true.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that meal frequency doesn’t affect the speed of your metabolism . One Canadian study comparing different groups who ate the same amount of calories (one group ate three meals a day and the other ate three meals and three snacks), found no difference in average weight loss .

The truth: as long as you’re getting enough quality calories, it doesn’t matter how many meals you eat a day.

A Paleo approach is much easier on your sanity (it’s no fun washing all that Tupperware anyway). Eat when you’re hungry until you feel full. And don’t eat when you aren’t. Nice and simple.

5. Eating High-Cholesterol Foods Will Raise Your Cholesterol

Put down the red meat! Put down the egg yolks!

Are you crazy? Those things will jack up your cholesterol. You don’t want to end up with heart disease.

This was common advice in the 90s. Companies that sold egg whites and substitute meat products made a killing from it, but it didn’t do a thing for anyone’s health.

The idea was that eating high-cholesterol foods would cause the cholesterol levels in your body to soar. And if you did this often, you’d put yourself at risk of a serious (potentially fatal) heart problem.

This just isn’t true.

Why not?

Because around 75 percent of your cholesterol is made inside your liver . Cholesterol helps your body make hormones, vitamin D, digest food, and all kinds of other key functions. It’s so important your body makes it all the time.

Despite what the nutrition myth says, scientific studies have shown that eating high-cholesterol foods has very little impact on cholesterol levels for almost everyone .

Finally, it might not even matter even if high-cholesterol foodsdid increase your cholesterol levels. More studies haveseriously disputed the idea that high cholesterol is a solid marker for heart problems .

(Related: 5 Common Myths About Cholesterol)

6. Meal Timing Matters

You’ve probably heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

And you’ve also probably heard how you shouldn’t eat after six, seven, or eight p.m.—especially if you want to lose weight.

Conventional thinking is that eating first thing in the morning gives you energy and primes your metabolism to burn quickly throughout the day. But plenty of people (including myself) have started skipping breakfast once they switched to Paleo, whether it’s part of an intermittent fast or just because they aren’t hungry when they wake up.

If anything, skipping breakfast if you aren’t hungry can make you more focused because your body isn’t bogged down digesting food. So the reality is straightforward: eat in the morning if you’re hungry, and don’t if you aren’t.

The other side of this myth—the idea that you shouldn’t eat after a certain time in the evening—doesn’t hold water either. Supposedly, calories consumed close to your bedtime are more likely to end up as extra body fat because your metabolism slows down while you sleep.

This isn’t true, either . Creating an artificial limit for yourself where you have to stop eating (even if you’re hungry) doesn’t help you lose weight. It just sets you up to be cranky, tired, and more likely to binge when you finally do eat.

Let your instincts be the guide. Eat when you’re hungry, and don’t force yourself to eat when you aren’t just because you’re “supposed” to.

7. A High-Carb, Low-Fat Diet Is the Healthiest Way to Eat

I saved this one for last because it’s like the final boss in the video game you could never beat.

The idea that a high-carb, low-fat diet is the recipe for health is probably the most widespread nutrition myth around. It’s also probably the most dangerous.

Mainstream nutrition groups have been “all in” about recommending this way of eating for decades. In the 90s it was the food pyramid. Now, it’s MyPlate (which is slightly better, but still pretty awful). But there’s a common theme: grains and carb-heavy foods play a key role. But fats are something to avoid.

Yet scientific evidence has destroyed these guidelines. Studies have found that a low-carb, high-fat eating pattern—the exact opposite pattern of what the mainstream groups usually recommend—is far more effective when it comes to weight loss, as well as fighting type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome .

People who continue buying this myth put themselves on a path towards obesity, diabetes, and a laundry list of other serious health problems.

---

Back to the Basics

Nutrition myths come and go, but the foundations of a solid diet are constant.

Focus on produce, animal products, safe starches, and nuts. Avoid grains, refined sugars, and processed foods.

That’s all there is to worry about. Tune out all the other noise, and watch your energy shoot up, health problems disappear, and the pounds melt off.

http://blog.paleohacks.com/nutrition-myths/