Food Myths
This is probably one of the most controversial topics that I will have written for this site and many of you will have some pretty strong opinions on what I’m about to discuss, but even so I hope that it will enlighten and bring to light some common food myths.
Generally when I sit down with a client who wants to shed some excess fat and put on some lean toned muscle the first thing I look at is their diet. It’s interesting, sometimes I think most of us have our brain turn off and we become unaware of all the different things we consume not in just the course of a day but through the entire week.
To really shed light on this I’ve found that keeping a food journal for at least 3 days is a great way to change your subconcious when it comes to eating. In case you missed it I wrote an article including a free printable food log just a little while ago, so give it a look.
Food Myths: #1
Hopefully you have already given the food log a go lately or are ready to give it a try now. Even though that cookie or small bag of chips today doesn’t seem like a big deal over a matter of a week this accumulates to hundreds if not thousands of calories you could easily eliminate.
This is in fact is a pretty common food myth in itself! Thinking that one thing today won’t really make a big difference does a lot more harm than you may realize. If your goal is to show those abs you now have a great reference on what to pay attention to.
Food Myths: #2
Low fat is always the healthiest option in a grocery store right? The problem with low fat products is that in many cases their sugar (carbohydrate) content is blown way out of proportion in order to make it still tasty. You’ll find this happens the most frequently with yogurt, frozen yogurt and even cereal or baked chips. Remember to take a quick look at the carbohydrate amount per serving next time you grab something that is labeled low fat.
Food Myths: #3
Red meat is always far inferior to chicken and other lean meats? I think this is a fundamental flaw in what a lot of old school health studies have shown. If you’re going for extra lean red meat and you’re having a smaller portion then few other meats come close to the nutrient quality of red meat (especially if you go with grain fed organic). The problem with the old studies is that they focused on fatty red meat being burned and those burned parts have been shown to be cancer-causing.
The great thing about extra lean red meat is that they contain nutrients which are fantastic for the recovery and growth of our muscles. Of these nutrients Vitamin B and L-Glutamine are found in greatest concentration in red meat, and if you do a search in this website you’ll see many instances where I talk about the benefits of these for anyone who is working out.
Conclusion: Food Myths
This list of food myths can get pretty long but I think I’ll make it a multi-part series of articles so that I can take the right amount of time to research and write about them with a good amount of depth. For now, the above mentioned are some of the most important that I honestly believe will help you combat that extra amount of fat covering your midsection, just make sure you start with the food log to start getting you on the right path.
Have any other food myths or questions/feedback about the above? Please leave a comment below…
Sign up to the weekly Weight Loss & Training Newsletter & get a 50 Smoothie Recipes PDF for FREE!
Thank you for visiting! Weight Loss and Training is a health blog which features all the best weight loss tips that I have learned over my 20 years of training. My background includes a degree in Kinesiology from the world renown Simon Fraser University, certification in nutritional sciences from UBC, and Personal Trainer Specialist certification from Can Fit Pro.