20 Nutrition Facts That Should Be Common Sense (But Aren’t)

Home

Common sense is surprisingly rare in nutrition.

All sorts of myths and misconceptions are being spread around, even by so-called experts.

The mainstream media is part of the reason for all the nutrition confusion out there.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Here are 20 nutrition facts that should be common sense (but clearly aren’t).

1. Artificial Trans Fats Are Not Suitable For Human Consumption

Trans fats are nasty.

Producing them involves high pressure, heat and hydrogen gas in the presence of a metal catalyst.

This process turns liquid vegetable oils into a thick, toxic sludge that is solid at room temperature.

You have to wonder what was going through the head of the person who actually thought of putting this stuff in food and selling it to humans. It is baffling, really.

Of course, trans fats are more than just unappetising. Studies have shown that they are incredibly harmful as well, linked to a drastic increase in heart disease risk (1, 2).

2. You Don’t Need to Eat Every 2-3 Hours

You really don’t need to be constantly eating in order to lose weight.

Studies have actually looked at this and found that smaller, more frequent meals have no effect on fat burning or body weight (3, 4).

Eating every 2-3 hours is inconvenient and completely unnecessary for the majority of people. Just eat when you’re hungry and make sure to choose healthy and nutritious foods.

3. The Mainstream Media Should Never be Trusted For Nutrition Information

The mainstream media is part of the reason for all the nutrition confusion out there.

It seems like every week there is a new study making headlines, often contradicting another study that came out just a few months earlier.

These stories often get a lot of attention, but when you look past the headlines and read the actual studies, you find that they are taken way out of context.

In many cases, there are other higher quality studies that directly contradict the media frenzy (which rarely get mentioned).

4. Meat Does Not Rot in Your Colon

It is completely false that meat rots in the colon.

The human body is well equipped to digest and absorb all the important nutrients found in meat.

The protein gets broken down in the stomach by stomach acids, then the rest of it gets broken down in the small intestine by powerful digestive enzymes.

All the fats, proteins and nutrients are then moved past the digestive wall and into the body. There is simply nothing left to “rot” in the colon.

5. Eggs Are Among The Healthiest Foods You Can Eat

Eggs were unfairly demonized because the yolks are high in cholesterol.

However, studies show that cholesterol from eggs doesn’t raise blood cholesterol in the majority of people (5).

New studies that include hundreds of thousands of people show that eggs have no effect on heart disease in otherwise healthy individuals (6).

The truth is, eggs are among the healthiest and most nutritious foods you can eat.

Almost all the nutrients are found in the yolk, and telling people to avoid the yolks (or eggs altogether) is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of nutrition.

6. Sugary Drinks Are The Most Fattening Aspect of The Modern Diet

Added sugar is a disaster, and getting it in liquid form is even worse.

The problem with liquid sugar, is that your brain doesn’t compensate for the calories by eating less of other foods (7).

In other words, these calories don’t get “registered” by the brain, making you eat more calories overall (8).

Of all the junk foods, sugar-sweetened beverages are the most fattening of all, and that is saying something.

7. Low-Fat Does Not Equal Healthy

The “low-fat” diet promoted by the mainstream nutrition guidelines is a miserable failure.

Numerous long-term studies show that it doesn’t work, neither for weight loss or disease prevention (9, 10, 11).

What’s more, it led to a plethora of processed “low-fat” foods to be brought to the market. Because foods taste bad without the fat, the food manufacturers added a whole bunch of sugar to them instead.

Foods that are naturally low-fat (like fruits and vegetables) are great, but processed foods with “low-fat” on the label are usually loaded with unhealthy ingredients.

EcoWatch Daily Newsletter