Last month we looked at popular dieting myths. This month we’ll look at food and exercise myths that can also make weight management and healthy eating harder than they need to be.

Myth: Nuts are fattening and you should not eat them if you want to lose weight.

Fact: Nuts should be part of a healthy weight-loss programme. Nuts are high in calories and fat. However, nuts contain healthy fats that do not clog arteries. Nuts are also good sources of protein, dietary fibre, and minerals including magnesium and copper.

Tip: Enjoy up to 30g of nuts and seeds a day; that’s about a small handful. They are good for you.

 

Myth: “Going vegetarian” means you are sure to lose weight and be healthier.

Fact: Choosing a vegetarian eating plan may be helpful for weight loss. Research shows that people who follow a vegetarian eating plan, on average, eat fewer calories and less fat than non vegetarians. They also tend to have lower body weights relative to their heights than non vegetarians. But vegetarians—like non vegetarians—can make food choices that contribute to weight gain, like eating large amounts of high-sugar, high-calorie foods or foods with little or no nutritional value. Vegetarian diets should be as carefully planned as non vegetarian diets to make sure they are balanced. Nutrients that non vegetarians normally get from animal products, but that are not always found in a vegetarian eating plan, are iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and zinc.  (See Ask Marilyn for more specific advice on going vegetarian.)

 

Myth: Low fat diet foods help you lose weight.

Fact: They do the opposite and may be doing you more harm than good. Pre-packaged diet foods can have a lot of sugar and trans fat. It is the quality of the fat, not the amount that makes the difference. Monounsaturated fats (found in olive oil) and the polyunsaturated variety (in nuts, soya and sunflower oils) help your cardiovascular system, improve weight loss, and are crucial for absorbing beta carotene from vegetables like carrots. Trans fats and saturated fats, on the other hand, have been linked with heart disease and even cancer.

 

In addition, many processed low-fat or fat-free foods have just as many calories as the full-fat version of the same food—or even more calories. They may contain added sugar, flour, or starch thickeners to improve flavour and texture after fat is removed. These ingredients add calories and inches to your waist line.

 

Myth: Cutting calories is the best and only way to lose weight.

Fact: Cut your calories too far—below 1,200 a day—and you’ll end up with a double whammy that quickly decreases your metabolism and muscle mass. To get the most out of the calories you do eat, choose whole foods such as produce, fresh fish and eggs, and whole grains that are as close to their natural state as possible. They have a higher nutrient density than refined foods, because they pack more vitamins and minerals into fewer calories.

 

Myth: Brown equals healthy.

Fact: There are a lot of unhealthy ‘brown’ foods out there. Just because a product is brown in colour does not mean it is whole grain. Look for labels where whole-wheat or whole-grain top the list. It’s worth the extra effort. More and more research is finding that whole grains reduce your risk of many chronic diseases, from obesity and diabetes to cardiovascular disease. The extra fibre in whole grains is the key: It makes you feel full, which means you eat less. It also helps level out the roller coaster of insulin that a meal produces.

 

Myth: The more you sweat during exercise, the more weight you lose.

False: While its true exercise helps you lose weight by burning more calories, in order to lose one pound of real fat weight during your workout, you’d need to burn 3,500 calories. Thus, heavy sweating only indicates how much temporary water weight you have lost. The fluid will quickly be replaced as you drink water to rehydrate your muscles and body.

 

Myth: Lifting weights is not good to do if you want to lose weight, because it will make you bulk up.

Fact: Lifting weights or doing strengthening activities like push-ups and crunches on a regular basis can actually help you maintain or lose weight. These activities can help you build muscle, and muscle burns more calories than body fat. So if you have more muscle, you burn more calories—even sitting still. Doing strengthening activities 2 or 3 days a week will not bulk you up. Only intense strength training can build very large muscles.

Tip: In addition to doing at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, like brisk walking for 30 minutes, on most days of the week, try to do strengthening activities 2 to 3 days a week. You can lift weights, use large rubber bands (resistance bands), do push-ups or sit-ups, or do household or garden tasks that make you lift or dig.

Not only does singing in the shower help you wake up it can actually improve your health. This is because singing increases oxygenation in your blood and exercises your upper body muscles. What’s more singing also reduces stress and promotes a feeling of well being. So, warm up your vocal cords, and your body, in the shower.

Many of us are aware of the importance of calcium for strong bones and osteoporosis prevention. However, we sometimes neglect an essential co-factor in bone health management – Vitamin D.

Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. It regulates how much calcium remains in your blood and how much is deposited in your bones and teeth. A deficiency of vitamin D also contributes to osteoporosis by reducing calcium absorption. According to the National Institutes of Health people with vitamin D insufficiency absorb less than 10% of available calcium. In other words, even if you have an adequate calcium intake, you may not absorb it effectively if you have low levels of vitamin D.

Indeed, researchers from the Harvard Medical School published results of a large-scale study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in February 2003 confirming this. The study concluded that there was a lower risk of hip fractures only in individuals with a higher intake of calcium coupled with a higher intake of vitamin D.

As well as helping to prevent osteoporosis the very latest research published in this year in the medical journal Circulation has shown that vitamin D may also protect against heart attacks and strokes. Researchers found that those with low blood levels were twice as likely to suffer heart failure or stroke as those who had higher levels.  

Research has also shown that vitamin D can help reduce the risk of breast cancer.  A study in 2006 stated that vitamin D can halve the risk of developing cancer and that ‘vitamin D supplementation could reduce cancer incidence and mortality at low cost, with few or no adverse effects’.