Eating healthy can be really hard, especially when everyone and their mother has an opinion on how you should take care of your body. It doesn’t help that their advice can be wrong due to the internet perpetuating tons of crazy healthy eating myths. Here are 15 popular health tips that you should steer clear of.
1. Counting calories are an important part of being healthy.
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While it is beneficial to gain an understanding of your calorie consumption, it is also important to listen to your body. A better way of paying attention to how much you consume would be to pay attention to the portions that you eat.
2. All fat is bad for you.
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This one kind of hurts my feelings because I love avocados, which are the best fat in my opinion. Good fats can also be found in walnuts, salmon, pumpkin seeds and flaxseed.
3. You should only have 3 large meals per day.
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People have different metabolisms. It is completely normal and healthy for some people to need larger meals and for some people to need smaller meals throughout the day.
4. You have to eat little meals throughout the day.
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This is also not true. Eating is not a one size fits all system. Just eat when you are hungry and pay attention to the portions you consume.
5. Carbs are bad.
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Ok, so eating tons of food with sugary refined carbohydrates is probably not the best choice but completely cutting out all carbs including good carbs like whole grains isn’t a great idea either. And if you love bread as much as I do but want to be healthy, you can switch to whole grains and moderate your carb intake.
6. One diet is better than another.
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No diet is one-size fits all because people are different and their bodies will react differently to different diets. Don’t get discouraged if a popular diet doesn’t work for you. The only exception would be when it comes to crash diets. Crash diets are ALWAYS bad.
7. A vegetarian diet is automatically healthy.
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Vegetarianism can be healthy but it depends on what you’re eating. If you cut out meat but eat french fries and pizza all of the time, you will not get the results you want.
8. Gluten is bad for you.
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When you have celiac’s disease or are diagnosed as gluten-intolerant, you will benefit from cutting gluten out of your diet and will definitely feel better. However, if you do not have celiac’s disease and are not gluten-intolerant, completely eliminating gluten from your diet might not be as beneficial as you’d like. While there are not really any nutritional benefits to gluten, there are nutritional benefits in the foods that contain gluten.
9. Artificial Sweeteners cause cancer.
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The American Cancer Society has found no link between artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, and cancer.
10. It’s bad to eat the egg yolk.
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The egg yolk contains most of the egg’s good fats and protein. Since your body needs large amounts of protein to do important things like strengthening your bones and skin, you might not want to skip the poison.
11. The sugar in fruit is basically the same as the sugar in candy.
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Who started this and how did they arrive at this conclusion? For starters, your body processes fruit sugar differently than it processes refined sugars. Also, sugar from fruit contains antioxidants, vitamins and water, which your body needs.
12. You should feed a cold and starve a fever.
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You can thank someone’s mom from a millennium ago for the most ridiculous of the healthy eating myths. There is no evidence that proves that this myth is true. You may have a decreased appetite when you are sick but you should not intentionally avoid meals when you have a fever or eat excessively when you have a cold.
13. Food with labels like “all-natural” are better for you.
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The truth is that there is little to no regulation by the USDA on how companies can advertise the health of their food by using words like natural. This is mostly because the word “natural” is not regulated by the USDA. “Organic” is regulated by the USDA, making it more trustworthy when deciding on health benefits.
14. You need to drink 8 glasses of water per day.
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Drinking water is good for you as it will keep you hydrated and naturally help your body to flush out toxins. However, there is no set amount of water that every person should be drinking per day. Drink when you are thirsty; no more and no less.
15. Fruit juice is better for you than soda.
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Fruit juice can have health benefits like providing you with antioxidants. However, many fruit juices can contain just as much sugar as soda, which is generally why people ditch soft drinks in the first place.
Now we can all stop counting calories and starving our fevers. Be sure to watch out for insane healthy eating myths and always listen to your body.