The Truth Behind 10 Diet Myths

Does Eating at Night Make You Fat? Is Caffeine Bad for You? The Facts On 10 Big Diet Myths

(WebMD)  True or false: You'll get fat if you eat at night, high fructose corn syrup makes you gain weight, and caffeine is bad for you?

Those are all diet myths that got busted today in Chicago at the American Dietetic Association's annual meeting.

Meet the diet myth busters:

Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD, CSSD, of Georgia State University in Atlanta

Roberta Duyff, MS, RD, FADA, CFCS, the St. Louis-based author of the American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide.

Here are 10 diet myths Rosenbloom shattered at the conference, and Duyff's tips on telling diet fact from diet fiction.

Myth: Eating at night makes you fat.

Reality: Calories count, whenever you eat them.
There's no proof for this myth, Rosenbloom says. She notes some small studies with mixed results, tests on animals, and a belief that because eating breakfast is linked to lower BMI, eating at night isn't as good. But all in all, Rosenbloom says, it's your calorie total that matters, day or night.

Myth: Avoid foods with a high glycemic index.

Reality: You could use the glycemic index to adjust your food choices, but don't make it your sole strategy for losing weight or controlling blood sugar, Rosenbloom says.

"For those people that are already counting carbs, this can be a way for them to fine-tune their food choices, but it isn't the be-all, end-all for weight loss," she says.

Myth: High fructose corn syrup causes weight gain.

Reality: "There's probably nothing particularly evil about high fructose corn syrup, compared to regular old sugar," Rosenbloom says.

She explains that this diet myth arose in 2003, when researchers noticed that obesity was rising along with the use of high fructose corn syrup. "They speculated that ... maybe we handle [high fructose corn syrup] differently than we do sugar," but "there really isn't any evidence to support that," she says.

The American Medical Association recently concluded that high fructose corn syrup doesn't contribute to obesity beyond its calories.

Myth: Caffeine is unhealthy.

Reality: Rosenbloom says there is some evidence that caffeine may have a positive effect on some diseases, including gout and Parkinson's disease , besides caffeine's famous alertness buzz.

Also, caffeine doesn't dehydrate people who consume it regularly, Rosenbloom says.

But she cautions that caffeine isn't always listed on product labels, and children who drink a lot of caffeinated energy drinks may get more caffeine than their parents expect. "Kids tend to guzzle these things, whereas an adult may sip a beverage," Rosenbloom says.

Myth: The less fat you eat, the better.

Reality: "For some people, counting fat grams can work for weight control, but it isn't the be-all end-all for people," Rosenbloom says.

She says that people with heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome may benefit from adding a little healthy fat - the monounsaturated kind - and cutting back on carbohydrates. But they shouldn't increase their overall fat intake - just swap saturated fat for monounsaturated fat.

"If you go out to an Italian restaurant and you have triple cheese-meat-sausage lasagna but then you have a little olive oil on your bread, you're not doing much for your heart," Rosenbloom says.

Myth: To eat less sodium, avoid salty-tasting foods and use sea salt in place of table salt.

Reality: Your sense of taste doesn't always notice sodium, and sea salt or other gourmet salts aren't healthier than table salt.

"Just because it doesn't taste salty doesn't mean that it isn't salty," Rosenbloom says. She says many procssed foods contain a lot of sodium - check the label.

Sea salt, Rosenbloom says, contains slightly less sodium per teaspoon than table salt only because sea salt is coarser, so fewer grains fit into the teaspoon.

Myth: Drinking more water daily will help you lose weight.

Reality: There's no evidence that water peels off pounds.

Foods containing water - such as soup - can fill you up, "but just drinking water alone doesn't have the same impact," Rosenbloom says. "Our thirst mechanism and our hunger mechanism are two different things."

Myth: Whole grains are always healthier than refined grains.

Reality: Whole grains are a healthy choice, but you needn't ditch refined grains. "You can have some of each," Rosenbloom says.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's "My Pyramid" dietary guidelines recommend getting at least half of your grain servings from whole grains.

"It doesn't say you have to replace all of your breads with whole grains or all of your foods with whole grains," Rosenbloom says. She adds that enriched grains - refined grains with certain nutrients added (such as wheat enriched with folic acid , an important nutrient for preventing neural tube birth defects ) - have some perks.

"Enriched grains generally are going to have more folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin , and iron. The whole grains usually have more fiber, vitamin e, selenium, zinc, potassium - so there's kind of a trade-off," Rosenbloom says.

Myth: Sugar causes behavioral problems in kids.

Reality: You might want to check your expectations about sugar and children's behavior.

For most children, "the excitement that kids have when supposedly they eat sugar is probably more related to the event and the excitement of the event than it is to actually consuming sugar," Rosenbloom says.

She cites research showing that when parents think their kids have been given sugar, they rate the children's behavior as more hyperactive - even when no sugar is eaten.

Myth: Protein is the most important nutrient for athletes.

Reality: "It is true that athletes need more protein than sedentary people. They just don't need as much as they think. And they probably don't need it from supplements ; they're probably getting plenty in their food," Rosenbloom says.

But timing matters. Rosenbloom recommends that after weight training , athletes consume a little bit of protein - about 8 grams, the amount in a small carton of low-fat chocolate milk - to help their muscles rebuild.

"That's probably all you need," she says. "You don't need four scoops of whey powder to get that amount of protein."

How to Spot a Diet Myth

New diet myths can crop up at any time; fads come and go. To Duyff, the task of telling nutrition myth from reality boils down to this: Step back, check out the evidence, and be a bit skeptical. Here is Duyff's specific advice:

Look for red flags, such as promises that sound too good to be true or dramatic statements refuted by reputable health organizations.

Think critically. Consider the "facts" touted in diet myths. Are they from biased or preliminary research? "One study doesn't make a fact," Duyff says. "The messages need to be evidence-based," which means multiple studies conducted in large groups of people and reviewed by independent scientists.

Ask an expert. A registered dietitian or other health professional can help you tell nutritional fact from fiction.

Remember, there are no magic bullets. "The true approach to good health includes an overall healthy eating pattern, enjoyed and followed over time," Duyff says.

[lloydbest1]

In my grandfather''s day, people had physically demanding lives. Most occupations involved more - sometimes much more - physical labor and energy expenditure than today. It was not unusual for a mill worker, farmer, firefighter, construction worker or any of a large number of jobbers to burn 4000 or more calories in a day.
Hardly anyone does that now.
In today''s world, with all the labor saving devices and processes, the only way to burn that many calories is to make firm commitment to do so. Daily.
Not very many people do that, either.
being knowledgable about what you put in your stomachs is useful, and good nutrition is an integral part to following a sensible health plan. I don''t belittle those efforts in the least; but boosting energy output is a whole lot easier, and more effective in the long run, than trying to control energy input.

[nirbhasa]

Dear Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD, CSSD,

You sound like a nice person, aiming to help others with your professional opinion and expertise. However, you failed to mention the following myths:

Myth: Eating meat and dairy products everyday will not cause osteoperosis as long as I take calcium supplements.

Reality: Eating animal products everyday acidifies our bloodstream to the point that our body pulls calcium out of our bones to increase alkalinity levels to maintain ph balance in the blood. Calcium supplements don''t address the root of the problem, and some of them have far worse side effects than simply reducing the amount of animal products in our diet.

Myth: I need to get calcium from dairy products.

Reality: dairy products are often fortified with calcium from plants, because we cannot properly digest dairy products ion the first place, as they were designed for baby animals who have a different kind of metabolism than humans.

A far better source of calcium would be broccoli, dark leafy greens like spinach, and seaweed. It would also help to reduce animal products, as they serve little to no benefit other than psychological.

Thank you.

[nirbhasa]

Dear Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD, CSSD,

You sound like a nice person, aiming to help others with your professional opinion and expertise. However, you failed to mention the following myths:

Myth: Eating meat and dairy products everyday will not cause osteoperosis as long as I take calcium supplements.

Reality: Eating animal products everyday acidifies our bloodstream to the point that our body pulls calcium out of our bones to increase alkalinity levels to maintain ph balance in the blood. Calcium supplements don''t address the root of the problem, and some of them have far worse side effects than simply reducing the amount of animal products in our diet.

Myth: I need to get calcium from dairy products.

Reality: dairy products are often fortified with calcium from plants, because we cannot properly digest dairy products ion the first place, as they were designed for baby animals who have a different kind of metabolism than humans.

A far better source of calcium would be broccoli, dark leafy greens like spinach, and seaweed. It would also help to reduce animal products, as they serve little to no benefit other than psychological.

Thank you.

[mrsark01]

I am like some of the rest of you. High Fructose Corn Syrup is horrible for you. My daughter, myself and several people have researched it. It is not the corn syrup that is bad it is the way they process it is bad, but so is a lot of this diet sweetners they put out.Aspertain is horrible for some people and I myself am terrible allergic of it.
I think we all need to eat more natural. Whole grains, fruit, beans more green stuff.
But so many of these kids live on fast food, Fried hamburger, fried chicken finger,french fries, and soda.soda and more soda. I have a grandson who drinks at least 30 soda''s a week. That stuff is horrible for you and he wonders why he can''t keep his weight down. also and lot of these so called fruit drinks are horrible for you because they have a lot of Fructose Corn Syrup in them and they taunt these for kids. They have little or no fruit in them so some of the dietians needs to get real and get out of the pockets of the Soda, Mcdonald, Windy and burger king pockets

[naturalrd1]

I meant the dietitian''s comment posted before mine (which is below). I apologize for any confusion.

[naturalrd1]

I completely agree with the dietitian above. The author of this article did not source more than ONE person for the article. Not sure that is good reporting. It is a known fact that High Fructose Corn Syrup causes fatty liver, high triglycerides and leads to obesity. It is extremely irresponsible to be too conservative and wait until our country has 80% obese adults to agree, as the RD interviewed in this article seems to be doing.
Please know that all dietitians do NOT tout this irresponsible and archaic party line.

[nohfcs4me]

Please don''t listen to this advice! I am a dietitian that did go to this conference and I know how frustrating it is to listen to these "old-school" dietitians that don''t want to or can''t use their brains to understand any new research! If this reporter (or dietitian) had gone to some of the other seminars she might have learned that fructose when not found in its natural form with fiber (such as high fructose corn syrup) can produce fatty liver, gastrointestinal disturbances and can contribute to obesity. Obviously, foods that are unprocessed, whole (i.e. whole grains) thus translating to a low glycemic load are much more nutrient dense and in the form that were meant to be eaten! And she must be smoking something to say that sugar doesn''t cause behavioral changes in children! It''s dietitians such as her that take our profession 10 steps back every time we make a step forward.

[incog-nito]

The secret? Buy unprocessed food like people used to do years ago, and stop stressing about food. Back then nobody cared about calories and nutrition and trends and fads, yet they were a lot slimmer then.

All this "knowledge" about food only makes people think and worry about it too much, and has the opposite effect than people want. Notice how much we know about nutrition and dieting, and yet people are fatter than ever before.

Eat to live, not live to eat.

[kamehagreat]

No Serious , An exercise plan is necessary, 3 times a week , 1 hour each of Cardiovascular activity .

[kamehagreat]

the secret...... Arnie Becker said in episode of L.A.Law back inthe 1980''s,Quote: " Walk to the Kitchen Table."

[emilymhanson]

I don''t buy this.

Why has the media trumpeted for years that whole grains are good and white bread, rice, potatoes, etc. are bad/evil and we should look down on those who eat white breads/potatoes/rice only to change their minds now?

They obviously want to get us to relax our eating habits now so we gain weight over the holidays from eating pototaoes and other things that are bad for us, that this article gives people permission to eat, and then around January they''ll release another article saying such foods are horrible yet again, so we feel the need to buy their diet products for the New Year. Timing is everything.

[phloide]

Decaf coffee has caffine...its like 80-175 mg in regular vs 3-4 for decaf coffee - its not much, but its still there

[spazzlor]

Unfortunately the advice that caffeine has a positive affect on gout is incorrect. Latest research reports that coffee, whether caffeinated or decaf, can have a positive effect on gout. Therefore, caffeine is NOT the active compound. Source: tinyurl.com/5d44q9