Beware Of Nutrition Fads – They’re Not Healthy
A growing number of people are becoming more conscious of their health. This is a good thing, because it could mean that the ever-increasing rate of obesity in our country might just start to go down. It might even mean fewer cases of poor health, improved mortality rates and a better quality of life in general.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. There’s already quite a bit to celebrate so far, so maybe we should take a moment to acknowledge the strides we’ve taken so far. One being the fact that food companies are now being forced to offer healthier food options to remain competitive in the market.
A Seismic Shift in How People Eat
It’s easy to make fun of people in big cities for their obsession with gluten, or chia seeds, or cleanses.
But urbanites are not the only ones turning away from the products created by big food companies. Eating habits are changing across the country and food companies are struggling to keep up.
General Mills will drop all artificial colors and flavors from its cereals. Perdue, Tyson and Foster Farm have begun to limit the use of antibiotics in their chicken. Kraft declared it was dropping artificial dyes from its macaroni and cheese. Hershey’s will begin to move away from ingredients such as the emulsifier polyglycerol polyricinoleate to “simple and easy-to-understand ingredients” like “fresh milk from local farms, roasted California almonds, cocoa beans and sugar.”… See more at NY Times
It’s great that the demand for freshly prepared food is growing, but it’s also possible to get carried away in the nutrition craze. Unfortunately, a lot of nutrition fads have found their way into the public knowledge system. Some of them even sound reasonable when explained, but you may just end up getting into nutrition habits that are not helpful at all.
You’ve heard that you need to drink 8 glasses of water every day to stay healthy right?
Well, here’s something that might interest you:
No, You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day
If there is one health myth that will not die, it is this: You should drink eight glasses of water a day.
It’s just not true. There is no science behind it.
And yet every summer we are inundated with news media reports warning that dehydration is dangerous and also ubiquitous.
These reports work up a fear that otherwise healthy adults and children are walking around dehydrated, even that dehydration has reached epidemic proportions.
Let’s put these claims under scrutiny… Read full post at NY Times
Vegetables are all in now, but we may not be making the most of their nutritious benefits simply because we’re handling them all wrong. Juicing has become quite popular today, but does it give your body exactly what it needs? Or is it just another fad?
The information in this next section may come as a shock to you:
Juicing Is Bad for You and the Earth
There’s a reason your mother told you to eat your vegetables, not juice them.
But no one seems to be listening these days. According to IBIS World, the market for juices and smoothies is $2 billion annually and expected to grow by hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years. You can scarcely go a week without hearing about a coworker or celebrity being on a “juice cleanse,” either.
Juicing is not just another fad though: it is a privileged, wasteful form of food consumption that’s worse for you than cooking and bad for the environment; juicing is the triumph of marketing over science… Read full post at The Daily Beast
Here’s what you should know. There are a lot of health impostors out there looking to make a buck out of your desire to eat healthy. After all, eating healthy is expensive, right? While that may be true (for now), at the very least, you should get your full money’s worth in nutrition if you’re going to spend a fortune at it.
Make sure that your efforts at eating healthy are actually based on fact. You’ll be much better off – and healthier – for it.
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