Food Myths

1. Raw Foods make more Nutrition sense than processed foods.

Well, some, not all. Fresh crisp salads and fresh fruits are a great idea but that does not necessarily mean that anything that is frozen, dried or cooked is not good. Besides, a lot of raw foods may contain undesirable bacteria, while processing of some sort can clean them up. Best examples – canned carrots have more absorbable beta carotene than fresh carrots while frozen peas can provide more Vitamin C than ones that have been stored in their shell for a few days. Tomatoes and carrots release the anti-oxidating carotene only on cooking so raw veggies are not always a great idea. And did you know, potatoes are indigestible if eaten raw?

Certain beans like the red kidney bean have toxic substances which need to be boiled away before consumption, while butter and lima beans contain compounds of cyanide which are poisonous if not cooked properly.

2. Excessive sugar causes Diabetes

No, never, only when one gets diabetes, it’s a good idea to go low on sugar. The cause of diabetes is lack of insulin, not excess of sugar. Excessive consumption of sugar may, however, cause other health related problems but to blame it for diabetes is unfair.

3. Miss a meal, lose weight

The only thing that will happen if you miss a meal is stronger cravings; while the body demands you OVEREAT, to make up for the lost energy of the lost meal. The result, the next meal is EXCESSIVE…and you put on more weight than the missed meal would have given you. Besides, the metabolism slows down in a panic attack, to conserve the available energy, and the result is a sluggish, exhausted body.

4. Preservatives are bad news

Not all, some, like Nitrates and nitrites which are used in processed meats help to protect against the deadly Clostridium botulinum bacteria. Mould inhibitors used in cereals help to stop the growth of potential carcinogens that could otherwise lead to stomach cancer. There are some preservatives and food colors that do harm, but a generic statement cannot be made against preservatives.

5. Grazing between Meals is Bad for the stomach.

Far from it, it is much better to eat four or five smaller meals that three LARGE ones. The smaller meals keep the body well-fuelled throughout the day and the digestive system is not taxed. Besides, small meals can be controlled in terms of the nutrients consumed, while sit down, traditional large meals are much heavier, voluminous and of course, much heavier on the system.

Another strategy is to have light snacks between meals, so overeating can be prevented during meals.

6. Margarine is better than butter

Sorry folks, it is the other way around. Margarine actually contains harmful fats that can increase blood cholesterol levels, which can really cause heart trouble. Butter is always a healthier option, of course, in smaller quantities.

7. Lose Weight – turn vegan or vegetarian

Absolutely no…many vegetarian diets like those based on cheese, nuts and pastry and from flour can be quite high in calories and even fat. In a nutshell, both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian diets can be fattening, if the nutrition and calorie intake is not balanced out sensibly. The common belief that eating leaves and sprout makes sure one gets a beanie body is just that…….a belief, with no truth behind it.

8. NO FAT diet is the best

Not only an impossible dream, but also extremely unhealthy – that’s what a completely fat free diet is. The body needs fat as it needs other nutrition and it’s only the quantity that matters. In fact certain constitutions need more fat in their diet than some others. Dietary fats carry fat soluble nutrients like vitamins E, D, K and X, and the essentially fatty acids that are found in plant and fish oils are absolutely essential for a balanced diet. These are vital for healthy cells, a healthy brain functioning and controlling the flow of certain hormones.

9. Cold water or ice-cream will give you a cold or sore throat in cold weather
Wrong. Doctors over the world agree that sore throat and colds are due to germs, viruses and bacteria, not because of eating cold foods. In fact there are surgical procedures like tonsil-removal, that recommends eating ice-cream ONLY.

10. Never pair dairy or dairy based products with fish

If this were true, some of the best fish dishes in the world would have been poisonous. In certain countries it is believed that having yoghurt in the same meal as fish will bring on dreaded diseases like leprosy or worse. Common sense tells us the worst that can happen is indigestion, if one is unable to digest the animal proteins and lactose together but this is also an individual problem, and has nothing to do with foods.

11. No cold drinks if just in from hot sun

This is a very commonly held view in hotter countries, attributing the sudden change in temperature as the reason for cold or worse. Exposure is the culprit, but doctors have not found any scientific evidence to support this belief, so it may just be a grandma’s idea that we prefer to follow.