At times, where attention for facts about nutrition is growing, conventional wisdom still reflects health advice outdated by decades. Even professionals are promoting concepts already proven wrong.
There is evidence to bust those sticky myths about nutrition deeply rooted in our memories.
Here are seven life-changing facts about nutrition to improve your awareness today.
1. Fat Is Not the Enemy
Fat is going to make you fat. Sounds reasonable and is maybe the most common misconception about health. Countless campaigns have marketed the myth to us for decades. Even medical professionals fell for it.
Hence, someone must be interested in keeping that awful piece of dietary advice alive. Powerful industry lobbies have a commercial interest in people eating low fat, high carbohydrate diets.
Science has never supported this dietary myth and debunked very thoroughly. Nevertheless, government organizations are still resistant to correcting this long-standing error.
Still not convinced that conventional knowledge about fat is flawed? Here is a quote from a scientific assessment of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, which is used to inform most mainstream healthy organizations:
“The DGAC Report does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that increases in whole grain and fiber and decreases in dietary saturated fat, salt, and animal protein will lead to positive health outcomes.” – (Hite and Feinman et al. 2010)
If fat intake can cause weight gain, why isn’t livestock breeding using it? Because it does not work. Corn, soy, and grains are leveraged to achieve slaughter weight in half of the usual time.
It’s no coincidence that these nutrients are also great for fattening people. Cardiovascular and biomedical research uses swine for a reason. It represents human physiology very well (Swindle and Smith 1998).
Why Fat Is Essential to Any Diet
Doctors should know better since it makes no physiological sense that dietary fat is bad for humans. All cell membranes and hormones need cholesterol as an essential building block.
Furthermore, cholesterol is responsible for treating inflammation and repairing damaged cells, especially in the arteries. Nerves need fat for functioning, and even the human brain consists of two-thirds of fat.
Fat can also be used as fuel by all cells except red blood cells and a small part of brain cells. Because of those exceptions, the liver can synthesize glucose out of amino acids.
Summed up, the only macro-nutrient humans do not ever need to consume to survive are carbohydrates. It’s a fact about nutrition that there are no essential carbohydrates.
Carbs are limited to energy provision, while protein and fat are more versatile. Moreover, the human body needs essential fatty acids and amino acids (Fung 2016).
The LDL Cholesterol Level Myth Debunked
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) has been referred to as bad cholesterol many times. Hence, LDL is a protein, and cholesterol is part of its cargo. Additionally, other fats – especially triglycerides – are transported with this lipoprotein.
There are a lot of health myths around when it comes to cholesterol levels. But what are the facts about nutrition? Is dietary cholesterol from eggs a problem? Are high LDL cholesterol levels as bad as its reputation?
The LDL is produced as very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) by the liver. It transports essential cargo to various cells through the bloodstream. While off-loading its cargo, it shrinks in size continuously.
During the process, the VDL becomes an intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL) and ends up in its smallest version, the LDL. Low-density lipoprotein is not bad by definition, but it can turn bad (Cummins 2014).
Mixed up with glucose LDL can get glycated – a condition that makes it vulnerable to oxidation. An oxidated LDL is a damaged version of the particle. Omega-6 fatty acids found in plant-based oils, like sunflower oil, support oxidation.
Sugar damage targets the Apo B 100 receptor in particular – a single protein responsible for triggering LDL consumption by the liver.
Damaged LDL stays in the blood circulation and accumulates. The result is a high particle count of small-density LDL getting through one cell thick layer of an artery, where it is ending up.
Oxidated LDL makes the outer protective layer leaky. The immune system reacts by sending macrophages (white blood cells) to bind damaged LDL. Filled up macrophages are called foam cells.
Foam cells are the real reason for significant artery narrowing. Hence, LDL cholesterol levels don’t truly represent cardiovascular disease risk. Furthermore, most blood tests just estimate the LDL count for financial reasons.
How to Read a Blood Test Correctly
The easiest way to determine health risk is by looking at triglycerides. If they are below a value of 40 mg/dl, everything should be fine. If not, an HDL value above 65 mg/dl indicates healthy blood levels.
Ultimately the triglycerides to HDL ratio can determine excellent levels if they are below 1.8 and alarming ones if they are above 4. In conclusion, “bad cholesterol” isn’t a good indicator of health status (Mason 2014).
Another benefit of dietary fat is that it triggers the satiety hormone leptin. In other words, fat helps you to stay saturated. Did you ever experience eating a whole pie or cake is pretty easy? You might be hungry again two hours later.
Try to eat a massive portion of fatty meat or bacon. Even if you can finish it, you won’t get hungry again for hours or even the entire day for a reason.
Key Takeaways:
Fat is a very versatile and essential building block of the human body. Making it responsible for fat storage sounded too obvious. Cells, nerves, hormones, and the brain need fat. It saturates us, does not trigger insulin and helps to prevent cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
2. Exercise Does Not Offset a Poor Diet
Have you ever heard someone saying, “I already did my workout today so that I can have a sweet treat without guilt”? I bet you did or at least unconsciously thought it yourself.
But is the number of calories burned on your fitness app directly taken from stored fat reserves in your body? Most people are blindly hoping it works like that.
An enzyme called hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) enables the breakdown of stored body fat. As the name suggests, it is sensitive to hormones, in particular to insulin.
The presence of insulin is blocking HSL from breaking down fat storage. Food ingestion triggers insulin release. The higher the carbohydrate and lean protein intake, the more significant the insulin spike.
In terms of insulin response, fat (e.g., pure olive oil) is the only neutral one of the three macronutrients. Hence steady exercising and eating is a rather lousy strategy, especially when you cut back on fat consumption.
If it is not coming from your body fat due to insulin blocking HSL, where is the energy utilized during exercising coming from? Alternative fuel is carbohydrates stored in blood sugar or as glycogen.
Glycogen stores in liver and muscle tissue have a volume of about 400 to 500 grams or 1600 to 2000 calories when filled up. In human blood circulation, there are only about 40 calories of glucose at any given time (Phinney and Volek et al. 2011).
The inconvenient third option is burning muscle mass for energy utilization. The process is called gluconeogenesis and occurs in the case of calorie reduction while consuming a considerable amount of carbohydrates.
Thus, the common perception of eating fewer calories in particular from dietary fat and exercise more results in mostly burning through glycogen storage or even muscle tissue in the worst cases.
The Human Body in Battery Saving Mode
The contrary approach of working out while restricting nutritional intake is putting the body into stress. Correspondingly, it wants to counteract the situation by slowing down metabolism.
The result is a rise in cortisol levels, a drop in testosterone levels, and a decline in muscle mass. Cortisol is amplifying fat storage while testosterone, the trigger for fat breakdown, is lost (Talbott 2007).
Additionally, I can confirm from marathon training, more energy consumption through exercise results in an increased level of appetite. That does not make exercising a bad idea in general.
Due to the offset by enhanced caloric intake exercise by itself is not considered a highly effective treatment for obesity in scientific research (Friedman 2004).
The hormonal system is mainly regulating fat gain and loss. Consequently, letting exercise legitimize poor food choices can, for example, block the satiety-signaling hormone leptin.
Consumption of starchy, sugary carbohydrate-heavy foods and even low-fat sources of protein are triggering the pancreas to release insulin to decrease increased blood sugar levels.
Insulin encourages cells to consume this excessive energy in your bloodstream through their insulin receptors on the one hand. But it also signals fat tissue to store energy on the other.
Long-term exposure of receptors to insulin can cause them to diminish their responsiveness. The chances are that a significant history of poor food choices has fostered such a state for many people.
Insulin resistance is not affecting all types of cells. Fat cells are happy to absorb the energy the resistant cells rejected. Consequently, parts of the body are waiting for a supply of energy that has already been stored as fat.
At the same time, the body cannot tap into fat for energy supply. The paradoxical result is a significant craving for even more food intake due to unmet energy demands.
Why Running Off a Donut Does Not Work
Now we can conclude why many obese people are starving while having vast energy reserves. Besides, people also did not get lazier. Research has disclosed similar energy expenditure levels in Western society and hunter-gatherer tribes (Pontzer and Raichlen et al. 2012).
Nevertheless, excessive exercise does not directly lead to weight reduction as a study of overweight women suggests, extreme training results in compensatory mechanisms that attenuate weight loss.
Weight loss inhibition has been found valid for participants exposed to broad dozens of exercise. The induced weight loss observed has been significantly smaller than predicted by most exercise guidelines (Church and Martin et al. 2009).
I personally observed a similar compensation mechanic during my last marathon preparation. In just three weeks, I gained more than 16 pounds or 7 kilograms without any changes in my diet.
Nature has been smart in designing the human body. Given survival as the primary goal, it is reasonable that efficient energy storage is compensating threats like excessive exercise or calorie reduction.
Overall, you shouldn’t limit exercise to its physical benefits. There is only one reason humans have such an advanced brain. It’s the complexity of the human locomotive system (Wolpert 2011).
The commonly underestimated facts about exercise are its contribution to mental well-being and the mitigation of stress-induced elevated cortisol levels.
Key Takeaways:
The hormone system is designed to regulate weight. On an improper diet, it supports fat storage efficiency. Additionally, exercise increases hunger and can amplify weight gain due to poor food choices.
In contrast to conventional wisdom, save your carbohydrates for competition, where performance is the focus. For long-term health and weight goals, it’s smarter to stay low on sugar and starches.
3. Added Dietary Fibre Is Not Supporting Digestion
Fiber is the carbohydrate proportion of plant foods the human body can’t digest. Its necessity for a healthy diet is conventional wisdom. That fiber inhibits constipation is a common myth that science doesn’t support.
Generally, we need to differentiate between soluble and insoluble. Gut bacteria ferment soluble fiber in our colons resulting in the production of short-chain fatty acids and gas. Insoluble fiber is more resistant to bacteria and is adding bulk to our stools (Mason 2018).
Singaporean researchers investigated the effect of reducing dietary fiber on patients with idiopathic constipation. Therefore the role of fiber in the gastrointestinal tract was explained to 63 patients.
For the next two weeks, they had to stick to a no-fiber diet. Afterward, patients could reduce their dietary fiber to an amount they found appropriate. They split up into zero, reduced, and high fiber diet groups.
At the start of the study, all participants suffered from constipation and strain-opening symptoms. About half of them experienced anal bleeding, abdominal bloating, and partially abdominal pain.
While all five symptoms increased in the high fiber group, they generally decreased in the reduced fiber group. Surprisingly, all symptoms vanished in the no-fiber group during the six months of study.
For people on a zero fiber diet, the bowel frequency increased from one motion in 3.75 days to one motion per day. Participants in the reduced fiber group reduced their mean from one motion every 4.2 days to one every second day. People remaining on a high fiber diet maintained a mean of one motion per week.
In conclusion, the study provides evidence that stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake also reduces constipation and its associated symptoms. Additional fiber intake does not improve digestion (Ho and Tan et al. 2012)
Facts About Nutrition – Fiber and Water
Another study supports the conclusion and also points out there is no evidence for another common misconception. Increasing fluid intake doesn’t mitigate constipation (Müller-Lissner and Kamm et al. 2005).
The assumption that fiber can retain water in the gut is also wrong according to research (Stephen and Cummings 1979).
In short, fiber is instead a necessary component of raw food rather than a supplemental tool. That’s a fact about nutrition everybody should be aware of.
Key Takeaways:
Nature has foreseen fiber in real food to the benefit of the human body in processing this particular food. Science shows that its use for the treatment of metabolic issues like constipation does not lead to desired results. In short, it’s not necessary to add fiber to any diet to improve digestion.
4. Calories Are Not Equal
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. That’s the first law of thermodynamics. You might also know it as Law of Conservation of Energy. I do not doubt this given scientific fact.
But does our body function like a scale? The most popular method to control weight gain still is calorie counting. Is regulating body fat just about simple math – calories in minus calories out?
Researches at the University of North Carolina found that the total energy intake of a person per day increased by 570 calories on average between 1977 and 2006 in the United States (Duffey and Popkin 2011).
Based on that observation, we can calculate the average weight gain of a person over ten years. Excess energy intake equals 2,080,500 calories for the defined time frame.
A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. If simple calorie math works, the average American is gaining about 600 pounds or 270 kilograms over ten years. This result cannot be accurate.
People can gain more weight than their patterns of food intake, and physical activities can be held accountable for (Talbott 2007). That’s what researchers affirmed for obese and (pre-) diabetic persons (Ayachi and Paulmyer-Lacroix et al. 2006).
Reactivation of the stress hormone cortisol stored in those abdominal (belly) fat tissue is supporting the fat-storing mechanism of those people (Dube and Norby et al. 2015).
How Your Body Can Turn Calories into Heat
Furthermore, researchers at the Mayo Clinic showed that non-exercise activity thermogenesis – the ability to turn energy into heat by unconscious activity or biochemical processes – can counteract overeating.
Volunteers ate 1000 excess calories on top of the calculated base intake for weight maintenance. Partially they were able to burn even more than the 1000 calories without exercise.
In contrast, people without a proper functioning hormonal system showed a decrease of unconscious energy expenditure increasing fat storage (Levine and Eberhardt et al. 1999).
Researchers at Harvard Medical School obtained similar conclusions. They observed that “lean” participants of their study where able to maintain weight without trying. On the other hand, “post-obese” volunteers struggled with weight gain under the same conditions (Dulloo and Geissler et al. 1989).
Calories Are Not Equally Processed
Since we just busted the myth of calorie counting, we need to find a suitable alternative approach. Let’s take a look at food quality or more precisely how our body processes different calories.
Trans fats, for example, used to be in almost every processed food. Their use might be slowly decreasing, but you will still find them in bakery goods or chocolate bars.
The synthetic nature of hardened fats doesn’t allow mitochondria – the power plants in our cells – to break them down. Thus, trans fats have been associated with metabolic disease and atherosclerosis.
Another well-known calorie source to observe is alcohol. The brain metabolizes about ten percent of alcohol intake. This part of the calorie transformation represents the reason for getting drunk.
The majority of alcohol is going straight to mitochondria in the liver, bypassing glycogen stores. There it can be either burned or turned into fat, contributing to metabolic syndrome, or fatty liver disease.
The last and most exciting calorie source I want to point out is fructose. The liver is metabolizing it in similarly to alcohol. Fructose is a liver toxin and a foreign substance to the body as well.
The fruit sugar fructose is the sweetening molecule besides glucose in ordinary sugar. Unfortunately, its consumption has increased enormously over the last 30 years across all age groups and genders.
Since the liver is treating it similar to alcohol, fructose can lead to almost all the same issues. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is just one example. But there is an interesting distinction in the consumption patterns of those nutrients.
Nobody would offer children an alcoholic beverage. But for orange juice or any candy that might be different. The worldwide reckless consumption of fructose highlights the danger it represents (Lustig 2013).
Redefining Food Quality
We can agree that nobody is enthusiastic about breathing polluted air. Hence it is very reasonable to care about the quality of food similarly. But in reality, how food is influencing the human body is not that obvious.
We can agree that nobody is enthusiastic about breathing polluted air. Hence it is very reasonable to care about the quality of food similarly. But in reality, how food is influencing the human body is not that obvious.
Food quality starts at the level of macronutrient composition. Organic whole foods are excellent. But you can go wrong with them if your diet’s macronutrient composition triggers insulin release steadily.
That’s, in the same way misleading, like doing a task in the most efficient way, which should not have been done in the first place. The outcome does not lead to set targets effectively.
As already pointed out earlier, weight gain and weight loss should be instead considered a hormonal process than a mathematical energy equation. Nevertheless, the measurement of hormone levels is a relatively new technique.
On the contrary, the calorimeter was invented in the 19th Century. More than 100 years of advantage in practice might be a perfect reason why calorie counting is such a well-established approach.
Key Takeaways:
What we eat affects the hormonal weight regulation of our body. The human body is processing calorie sources differently. In many cases, you can already determine the quality of calories from a macro perspective. Consequently, a healthy lifestyle is about more than just going for organic food.
5. Fruits Are Not Healthy in General
Fruit sugar or fructose has already been a significant point of the previous topic. So, we have already come to the conclusion that added sugar is the biggest issue of western society in terms of nutrition.
So it’s smart to avoid the number one place where added sugar is hiding – processed food. Modern fruit is far from being natural. What if most fruits available already represent processed food?
As Dr. Gary Fettke, founder of the “Nutrition for Life – Diabetes and Health Research Centre,” pointed out, the recommended intake of fruit has been one of the biggest marketing campaigns of the last decades (Fettke 2017).
It’s shiny and comes in bright colors to get our attention, but its availability used to be limited to a season. Fruits used to serve a fundamental purpose – turning sugar into fat to survive a rough winter.
It is the source of natural obesity. From a biochemical point of view, there is little difference between sweets and modern fruit in its attractive colors available in abundance the whole year-round.
Additionally, take into account that seedy vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini or peppers are technically seasonal fruits. They similarly trigger fat storing via the endocrine system (Gundry and Buehl 2017).
What You Have to Know About Fructose Metabolism
Our bloodstream is only able to contain about 4 grams of glucose at any point in time. Intake exceeding one teaspoon is mostly stored as fat if not used immediately.
The body might also store some parts as glycogen. A slice of white bread and an apple have about five teaspoons of sugar in it. The difference between them is the higher fructose proportion in the apple.
Compared to glucose metabolism, the understanding of fructose metabolism is brand new. Game-changing research insights from 2010 are still not comprised of textbooks or guidelines (Tappy and Lê 2010).
Fructose metabolism is very complicated. Only a small part finds its way into glycogen stores. The liver transforms the majority into alcohol. Excess fructose is stored as fat and causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
A primary waste product of the whole process is uric acid. This substance inhibits nitric oxide – a chemical critical for the functioning of our brain and blood vessels as well as white cell mobility.
The lack of Nitric Oxide favors dementia and hypertension, as well as overall infection rates and cancer. On top of that, fructose is fostering insulin resistance in muscle and liver cells.
It is also a leptin inhibitor as well as a ghrelin stimulator. The former is a hormone signaling satiety to the brain. The latter is the hormone triggering the sense of hunger.
Moreover, it has been found to increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL) production via de novo lipogenesis. Their condition becomes a health issue if they get oxidized and inflamed. Hence, it’s not just about the often stated LDL cholesterol level.
For example, most plant oils and sugar foster the negative state of LDLs. Consequently, they end up in blood vessels causing even more inflammation and supporting modern diseases.
Why You Don’t Need Any Fruits in Your Diet
So can fruit at least reduce the risk of inflammation through antioxidants like it has been marketed to us? Well, since coffee contains six times as many antioxidants, I would somewhat negate that.
That even dark chocolate offers more antioxidants than most fruits is another fact about nutrition.
Next, let’s take a look further at the most common perception – fruit is the essential vitamin source.
Data shows that vegetables are a far better option. Broccoli offers 20 times the value of vitamin C found in an apple. On top of that, the apple provides as much sugar as Coca-Cola per gram.
Some essential vitamins are neither in fruits nor vegetables. For example, animal sources provide vitamin D and K2 almost exclusively.
In conclusion, fruits are not a great nutrient source. Sugar in fruit makes you hungry. Furthermore, its long-term consumption is linked to inflammation, obesity, and modern diseases.
Fruits are manufactured foods from seed to harvest and even beyond. It should rather be considered candy on a tree than an essential part of healthy nutrition focusing on longevity (Fettke 2017).
Key Takeaways:
We have been fooled for decades in terms of nutritional relevance of fruit. In short, the fructose in fruit is making us sick, fat and hungry.
As a significant source for vitamins and nutrient density in general green vegetables are a far better option. If you still want to grab fruit, keep it seasonal and local.
6. Salt Is Way Better Than Its Reputation
That we can’t live without getting enough salt is a little known fact about nutrition. Conventional knowledge cursed salt consumption for a long time. As a result, mindful people tend to keep their salt intake to an unhealthy minimum.
The U.S. federal government’s guidelines are trying to limit daily sodium intake to 2300 milligrams. On the contrary, the New England Journal of Medicine stated a range of 3 to 6 grams to be ideal.
According to this study, reducing sodium intake below 3 grams significantly increases the risk of a cardiovascular event or death compared to exceeding 6 grams of sodium per day (Oparil 2014).
Salt has to be consumed in incredibly vast amounts in a short time to dangerously impact the body. It can do so by overcoming the filtering ability of the kidneys.
Like the body is regulating its temperature or its fluid balance, it is also regulating salt absorption. As long as the kidneys are working, they will excrete excess salt. If sodium levels are low, the kidneys inhibit sodium release into the urine for a reason. Neurons and muscles can’t work without enough sodium.
Like the body is regulating its temperature or its fluid balance, it is also regulating salt absorption. As long as the kidneys are working, they will excrete excess salt. If sodium levels are low, the kidneys inhibit sodium release into the urine for a reason. Neurons and muscles can’t work without enough sodium.
When sodium is getting too low, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system (RAAS) is activated. Consequently, the production of aldosterone, whose job is to retain sodium in the body, increases.
The hormone has its downsides. Researchers associated aldosterone with increased inflammation, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure.
Why Craving for Salt Is Not a Bad Thing
So a craving for salt has its points. Be aware that a taste for unhealthy foods like potato chips might reflect your body longing for salt – an important fact about nutrition to know.
Increased exercise, fluid consumption, or being on a low carbohydrate diet are common reasons for more salt intake. The body’s desire for salt lowers as the sodium level of the body rises.
This negative feedback system is not getting you addicted. Sugar, on the other hand, has been found to have a positive feedback system – the more you consume it, the more you crave it.
A study of taste changes in pregnant women suggests that “a physiological mechanism for increasing salt intake may develop during pregnancy” (Brown and Toma 1986).
Research comparing low and high salt diets observed that the former is causing more miscarriages, premature babies and stillbirths. More than 2000 pregnant women were part of the study (Robinson 1958).
The Relation Between Salt, Potassium, and Blood Pressure
By now salt seems less of a problem than most people think, but what about blood pressure? Potassium deficiency can often explain association of high blood pressure and salt.
Like sodium, potassium is essential for the body’s functioning. It’s also known for lowering blood pressure (DiNicolantonio 2017).
South Koreans show low risks of hypertension, stroke, and coronary heart disease.
The country’s overall sodium intake is very high. Like in comparable countries with high salt consumption, inhabitants in Korea simultaneously have a significant craving for potassium, too (Park and Kwock et al. 2016).
In conclusion, increasing potassium intake seems to be a way better strategy to improve long-term health than the WHO guidelines’ questionable suggestion for sodium restriction (WHO 2012).
Their recommended amount is less than a teaspoon. Unfortunately for diabetes troubled western world, restricting salt intake has been associated with a decrease in insulin sensitivity (Sakuyama and Katoh et al. 2016).
One of insulin’s functions is to retain sodium in the kidneys. Consequently, a low sodium diet supports the body’s preserving of salt. Increased activity of the RAAS also fosters this fact.
According to research, the activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can increase insulin resistance. Limiting salt intake to the WHO’s recommendation very likely activates the RAAS (Garg and Williams et al. 2011).
How Sugar and Salt Counteract
Like it is valid for taste, sugar and salt also have almost opposite effects on the human body. Low salt consumption, as well as high sugar consumption, are supporting insulin resistance (DiNicolantonio 2017).
Fructose metabolism can deactivate a primary insulin receptor (IRS-1). The pancreas counteracts by producing more insulin. Besides insulin resistance, low salt intake is also likely to promote obesity.
Animals use the so-called metabolic syndrome to store winter-fat efficiently. Uric acid is a significant factor in supporting fat storage as well as insulin resistance (Johnson 2012).
Elevated levels of uric acid commonly induce abdominal obesity, fatty liver, hypertension, high triglycerides, and diabetes. According to a recent study uric acid causes fatty liver disease.
This is not just a consequence since liver cells have been observed to produce fat when uric acid is put on them (Lanaspa and Sanchez-Lozada et al. 2012). On top of that, uric acid blocks an enzyme required for fat burning.
Summed up, it supports fat storage and inhibits energy production and the breakdown of fatty acids.
Increased salt intake, on the other hand, can counteract by enhancing insulin sensitivity (DiNicolantonio 2017).
In conclusion, salt consumption above generally considered values can improve longevity as long as it isn’t exorbitantly high. Unfortunately, it is still common practice to restrict it to deal with hypertension.
People with diabetes often face a prescription of a low salt diet, since hypertension is a common complication of diabetes. Given the stated evidence, they are more likely to benefit from increased salt intake.
There is an excellent range of choices for your salt consumption. Be aware that many salts contain anti-caking agents. Sea salt and pink Himalayan variations tend to be generally safer options.
Key Takeaways:
Research evidence stresses out that common perception and established guidelines are limiting salt intake excessively. Too little sodium consumption can be a risk factor during pregnancy.
A low salt diet also promotes inflammation, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and insulin resistance. Due to its benefits, salt can even be considered a natural antagonist of sugar.
7. Milk Is Not a Staple Food
We all have heard it. “Drink milk. It’s good for your bones”. But shouldn’t we rethink the fact that humans are the only species still consuming milk at an adult age?
Milk does a tremendous job for baby mammals. It is helping them to thrive, gaining a severe amount of weight in a short period. There is no doubt that milk is satisfying its purpose.
If it’s such a great strategy to drink milk your whole lifetime, why didn’t evolution encourage other species to do so? On top of that observation, we are consuming the milk of a different species.
Since nature did not design cow milk for humans, it doesn’t come as a surprise that some of the nutrients in it are not ideal for humans. Milk sugars and proteins can be inflammatory.
Issues with carbohydrates in dairy products are better known as lactose intolerance. This nutritional problem has been spreading for years now and does not seem to stop doing so.
The Calcium Myth Debunked
Is it still smart to keep milk within your diet for the sake of calcium? According to research, there is no significant evidence for the support of bone strength by dairy consumption.
Moreover, studies instead show that dietary milk can weaken human bones. It’s an interesting fact about nutrition that highest dairy consuming countries are also those with the highest rates of osteoporosis.
Additionally, our bodies are absorbing only about a third of the calcium found in milk. Furthermore, science reveals more and more that our bodies might need less calcium than we expect (Berry and Fettke 2019).
An excess of calcium intake might also support other health risks like heart artery disease. Do not forget that milk is also processed food, especially the skimmed version in your supermarket.
It is easy to supplement milk with a vegetable source, in case you are looking for a dietary calcium source. If you can’t get your hands off dairy, watch out for a source high in fat and low in milk sugar.
Dairy products generally contain the sugar molecule Neu5Gc that has been associated with cancer and heart diseases (Gundry and Buehl 2017).
Key Takeaways:
Milk is an excellent nutritional source for baby mammals of the particular species. As a dietary calcium source, I would instead consider a less inflammatory high nutrient-dense option like spinach.
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Conclusion
Many nutritional myths might not be that obvious. The evidence above creates transparency to debunk them reasonably. Leverage these distilled insights to find your path to a healthier life.
The hormonal system is a critical factor when it comes to health. Stop counting calories or spending hours in the gym before you didn’t rethink how your food choices are impacting your body.
Different calorie sources can be processed differently by the body while fructose and milk are making us fat and sick in the long run, the presumed villains fat and salt support opposite effects.
If you’re used to eating around exercise, skip the protein bar, its fructose, other carbs, and trans fats. Credible energy sources like walnuts or avocados with a pinch of sea salt can be a great replacement.
As has been noted, there is an incredibly easy way to experience the supposed benefits of fruits and dairy products marketed to us umpteen times. Just eat leafy greens.
Facts About Nutrition FAQ
What kind of fat is good for you?
Monounsaturated fats are good for you and can help with weight loss. For example, you can find them in avocados or olive oil.
What are the health benefits of salt?
Salt consumption can improve longevity as long as it isn’t exorbitantly high. Moreover, research has shown that salt intake promotes insulin sensitivity.
What fruits should you eat everyday?
Avocados are fruits you should eat everyday since they are high in soluble fiber, nutrient-dense, rich in electrolytes, vitamins, as well as healthy fatty acids
Is cow's milk really good for you?
No, since nature did not design cow milk for humans, nutrients in it are not ideal for us. Milk sugars and proteins can be inflammatory.
References A – E
References F – K
Fettke G. Is Fruit Good or Bad For You? Low Carb Down Under, Oct 2017, youtu.be/L6LL92Zs5L0.
Fung J. The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2016.
References L – R
Lustig RH. Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar. London: Fourth Estate, 2013.
References S – Z
WHO. Guideline: Sodium Intake for Adults and Children. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012.
