Hey, this question is for people who are trying to understand nutrition better. I want to know where do regular people struggle, any misinformation among general population, what would you like to be clarified? I’ll be answering all of your questions.
That carbs are not the enemy, and can be part of a balanced diet. While some keto crusaders will probably crawl out of the woodwork and tell me otherwise, carbs are your body’s preferred source of fuel. Healthy carbs can provide you with fiber, and an assortment of B vitamins that are very important for your health, and high volume carbs like oats are especially helpful for satiety and weight loss.
I don’t think basic nutrition is inherently confusing – I think the absolute dumpster-fire of bad and out of context information paired with overall lack of nutrition education is what makes it confusing.
I’m in the U.S., and I think a lot of us are first introduced to the concept of nutrition from a diet/weight loss perspective - maybe not necessarily for ourselves but for our parents. The amount of us who have this idea that “x is bad” comes from our moms or dads or guardians saying so because of whatever diet they were a part of at the time. Many of us grew up with parents on atkins, weight watchers, jenny craig, or slim fast - none of which teach basic macro information, and have a very polarizing view of foods - and the only benefit to particular foods is if it makes you skinny.
Something that bugs me is the word “healthy” being thrown around. The more I study nutrition (not even formally), the more I notice it among the layperson.
Three recent examples:
All I did was tell my husband that something had less fat in it (Neufchâtel vs. cream cheese). He goes on to tell his friends that it’s “healthier.”
I’ve been really into Halo Top (the company) lately – fascinated, even. So, I’m looking up any interviews and information on YouTube about it, and a lot of the results are titled “healthy ice creams.” WTF? It’s still an ultra-processed dessert – it’s just typically higher in protein and lower in sugar than standard ice cream – why call it healthy?
This happened when I went to look up information about Crazy Richard’s natural peanut butter, too. In a local news report, the news reporter said, “It’s OK because it’s healthy. So, I don’t have to feel so bad about eating the whole thing.” (link to timestamp)
Neither Halo Top nor Crazy Richard’s – nor even generic Neufchâtel – are marketed as “healthy” foods. These are laypeople/customers using the word for themselves. Not marketing.
Why do people throw around the word “healthy” so much out of context?
GI and weight gain!
I have seen so many people, on a different platform that I go to, make the claim that “low GI food makes you makes you lose weight and high GI food makes you gain weight even if you consume the same amount of calories/carbs”.
They are saying that even if you consume the same amount of calories per day, eating low GI carbs (brown rice, whole wheat buns, sweet potatoes, buckwheat noodles) is better for weight loss because it does not cause spikes in insulin. On the other hand, even if you don’t overeat, high GI food (white rice, potatoes, noodles made from white flour) will create a spike in insulin and will store all the calories you consume as fat. That being said, certain diet drinks are bad and making you fat because some sweeteners cause spikes in insulin, even if you don’t overeat.
Is that true? Are spikes in insulin that harmful and scary?
Thanks! I really want to know.
As a food scientist- the amount of social media “heath experts” and bro-science is a huge detriment to the food industry as a whole. People are very easily swayed that a certain ingredient/product is bad for them, with absolutely no scientific basis of the claim.
Everything from MSG to natural flavors to now, vegetable oil, has been demonized by the nutrition community. But you seldom find someone backing up their claim with proven science.
If everyone just focused on eating more fruits/vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and minimized their consumption of sugar & junk foods, the country will be much healthier. There’s no secrets to a healthy diet - everyone just wants the easy/shortcut way out.
It’s very hard to tell because you always hear conflicting things about all types of food. There’s even documentaries with doctors that cherry pick their own data from weak studies to support their agenda. I just try and eat as many nutritious foods as a can and not listen too seriously what the latest food obsession is.
Edit: And also, people always share what they believe themselves to be healthy, even though many times it’s just a placebo already believing something will work before trying it while also forget everyone’s body is different.
Two points:
The superfood fads like the one for blueberries mean that people ignore foods such as kiwi fruits that contain more vitamin C and are a cheaper option
Traditional food pairings often have a reason and are beneficial, and eliminating fats can sometimes be detrimental as the fat acted as a absorption aid for the vitamins / minerals / nutrients present
I get so tired of people telling me I can drown drinking too much water just because they see me with my gallon jug. I’m not drinking it in one sitting…it’s for the day. And I’m not going to down myself with water. People just don’t realize how much water your body actually needs.
I think the biggest issue I see and hear is the idea of having to remove things from your diet. Whether its full keto or low fat or gluten free, etc. it seems most people concentrate too much on removing something instead of replacing your diet with healthier foods.
The most confusing thing is that people think it’s confusing and complicated. Just eat your goddamn veggies. The bulk of the science didn’t change much in the past 20-40 years.
> Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
-Michael Pollan
Of course that’s populational advice. Individuals with specific conditions and goals should consult with a RD.
Everyone’s diet different, but the end of the day losing weight long term is about having consistent habits be in place. Be it knowing your caloric intake, exercise, etc. If it’s a fad diet or a fad workout plan, it will work for a bit, but it’s the main cause of yo yo dieting since keeping up something out of routine is different then if it’s just a passing method.
As someone who is from another country and now lives in the USA. I think people are very clueless about the differences of consuming Whole Foods vs processed foods. They are unaware of how this affects their body. Unfortunately the calories in vs calories out is not enough and inadequate. I think understanding micronutrients and macronutrients would be incredibly helpful.
Fitness influencers and nutritionists (I prefer registered dietitians). They are spewing misinformation to vulnerable people all over the internet. Instead of people going to experts and doing actual research they take the advice of these people word for word. It’s very unfortunate.
I guess I have no questions I’m just ranting lol.
Two things:
People with insulin resistance have a metabolism that is broken to some extent, and that means that things that would work for people with normal metabolism don’t necessarily work for people with insulin resistance.
If you aren’t an effective fat burner, you will find it hard to lose weight. So eat in ways that maximize fat burning.
For me it’s…
What did our ancestors eat?
Are we better off by eating a diet that is evolutionarily consistent with what they ate?
Or, are we better off eating a different diet that modern day technology, knowledge and selection offers us?
The assumption that your doctor knows what’s best - my friend is a highly qualified senior NHS GP and did ONE day of nutritional training. She’s the first to admit her own diet is crap because she is so time-poor and stressed. She is in no position to advise anyone on their nutritional health, and sees it as a real weakness to her own skill set.
The number one most popular misunderstanding I’ve seen is a complete lack of understanding of the first law of thermodynamics which states that if you consume more calories than you burn, you WILL gain weight regardless of what your diet is, and on the flipside, if you consume less calories than you burn, you WILL lose weight regardless of what your diet is.
No violation of the first law of thermodynamics has ever been observed, so if anyone ever actually does find exception then they will instantly win a Nobel Prize and completely change our entire understanding of the laws governing the universe.
Simply put in my eyes, if you want to avoid all the most debatably unhealthy foods, you would eat meat, fruits and vegetables, there’s virtually nothing to gain from eating grains and dairy unless you consider variety important. You get all the complete proteins from meat, and all macro and micro nutrients from meat, fruits and vegetables. Grains are a toss up on whether or not they are “healthy” they may have specific benefits but are in no way required to be healthy.
What (the heck) is ‘natural flavour’? Soft drink bubly is apparently made with natural flavour. But when I drink it, I feel as queasy as when I drink aspartame or other synthetic sweeteners. My question: how do they get awY with calling “whatever that is”, natural?
Bioavailability is criminally under-appreciated. Vitamin D in a supplement is not the same as vitamin D from eggs or organ meat. There are certain conditions that determine how much of a certain vitamin or mineral will actually be absorbed by the body depending on what forms you consume it as.
This is why vegans will typically be vitamin deficient despite getting everything in on paper.
In my opinion, people still aren’t being told these facts:
Food quality > Calorie/Food content.
Wholefoods > Processed foods.
Animal products are good for you (see first point if you struggle to understand that).
Diets have little to do with weightloss, they have a more specific purpose.
EDs can’t be diagnosed by your unqualified social media influencer peddling the same crap they claim they’re against.
If the government is recommending it… and they still look like zombies? Probably should look elsewhere.
Can’t outrun a bad diet.
Your body being a low weight is not an indication of good health.
High agrochemical abuse is a problem (but not one that’s easily solved).
For me it comes down to what a balanced diet consists of. I know that to loose weight you simply have to burn more calories than your intake but I do feel a big difference when I focus on eating more veggies and protein than just hitting the right number of calories. Hope that makes sense.
Layman, but I’d guess the several layers of dynamic heterogeneity to the whole damn thing. So many aspects differ depending on numerous variables and they do so differently for different people and this all can change over time too. So a nutritional snapshot of a pop will have plenty of heterogeneity AND a nutritional movie of the same pop will show heterogeneous change too.
This applies to just about anything I guess.
Well for starters, how many of each vitamin/nutritional supplements should you intake every day on top of taking the appropriate amount of fiber per meal.
If that’s not enough, make sure the food/meal contains probiotics to ensure your gut health is great while making sure that you eat enough fruits/vegetables/water every hour on the hour.
I haven’t even touched on making sure you limit your sodium intake and learning how to cook your food so it contains the most nutritional content (as in did you know it’s better for you eat your carrots as opposed to raw whereas for other food you may want to eat it unprocessed because it’s better for your health).
Can you explain like I’m five nutritional information on packages. I get so confused between % of things and grams. Like flavoured yogurt could have 6 grams of sugar but only be 20% of the daily recommended value (not accurate, just an example) . I’ve been reading a nutritional book for kids and it showed that one serving of flavoured yogurt is the total max value of what a child should have a day. 6 tsp of sugar was the recommend amount for kids and up to 12 tsp for adults. But if you read the yogurt container it’ll say its only a small amount of the recommended daily amount. I feel like I’m completely missing something !
If you use a calorie app or Google and see that 100g of something has multiple macros, chances are it’s giving you the cooked and uncooked macros, which are different
Ex: 100g of raw chicken will have less calories and protein than 100g of cooked chicken
I have no idea how people get all the nutrients they’re supposed to get. I’ve been eating really healthy the last few years. I’m a pescatarian, and I eat very few carb-heavy foods (I hardly ever have pasta, or bread, only have rice in sushi, which I have about once per week, and I do my best to avoid refined sugar). I’m not skipping meals. I eat when I’m hungry. I start my day with a big egg white omelette and protein shake, have a plant-based lunch, and usually have something involving seafood for dinner. I snack on things like almonds and dates throughout the day. But when I started tracking my nutrition, I wasn’t getting enough of… well, anything but sodium. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong, or if I don’t have a big enough appetite, or what?
What’s the deal with breakfast? Does it start your metabolism? Stabilize blood sugar? I know IF is the hot thing right now but it seems like it wouldn’t stabilize your blood sugar like eating small meals, frequently. Breakfast used to be the most important meal of the day, then demonized.