Debunking summer food myths

Debunking summer food myths

Table of Contents

  • 1 Nutrition is a science
  • 2 The food myths of summer
    • 2.1 The fruit after eating is fattening
    • 2.2 Watermelon and melon have a lot of sugar
    • 2.3 Light foods lose weight
    • 2.4 The tonic is like water
    • 2.5 Lettuce at night makes you retain fluids
    • 2.6 Water with meals makes you fat
  • 3 conclusion

Nutrition is a science

food myths

Nutrition is a science and as such it advances. This is why there is so much misinformation and variety of information. Advances in nutrition can disprove or deny previous beliefs, as happened in the case of orange juice, that it was believed that if you did not drink it immediately, vitamin C would be lost because it was oxidized (now it has been seen that this is not the case and hours may pass that the vitamin C content will be the same). This causes so many food myths. For this reason and because summer begins today, I want to address a few of these myths, to try to clarify doubts and make everything clear.

Summer food myths

The fruit after eating is fattening

There are also those who say that if you take it before eating you lose weight. Well you see, neither one thing nor the other. This is totally untrue . The caloric intake of the fruit is the same whether you eat it when you eat it. So neither lose weight nor gain weight, however I want to remind you that a healthy diet is based on fruits and vegetables daily , with a minimum of 3 servings of fruits a day, so I would not worry so much about when to eat the fruit but for all the processed products you can get to eat.

Clarify that this myth comes for a physiological reason: if you eat the fruit before eating, you cause your body a feeling of satiety, since the sugars in the fruit are absorbed quickly (it will always depend a little on the fruit and on whether it is do you eat it with skin or not) and this causes the stomach to send the signal of satiety to the brain. Consequently you will eat less, but you will be hungry sooner, so it is useless.

Watermelon and cantaloupe have a lot of sugar

melon and watermelon

We are all looking forward to summer to be able to eat melon and watermelon and they go and demonize it because it has a lot of sugar. I insist on the same: a healthy diet is based on fruits and vegetables on a daily basis , so do not worry about the sugar in fruit and do it for that of other products.

However, let’s see what sugar content has melon and watermelon (CESNID food composition tables):

Melon: 5.7 g of sugars per 100 g of edible portion. I take advantage of: 88.4 g of water
Watermelon: 6.3 g of sugars per 100 g of edible portion. I take: 91.9 g of water

For you to share: persimmon : 15.3 gr; pomegranate : 13.7 gr; fig : 11.9 gr; mango : 13.1 gr; apple : 10.8 gr; pineapple : 11.3 gr.

You can see how melon and watermelon are practically all water, and they have a low sugar content, that even a simple apple almost doubles the amount. So totally untrue!

Light foods lose weight

With the summer comes the desire to lose weight and therefore increases the consumption of light products , diet or to lose weight. You have to know that a product can be attributed that it is light  only because it has low salt content , so in terms of calories, it has the same as well as fats or sugars. This happens especially with light potato chips that the only thing that has been removed is salt.

In addition, they categorize products as  diet  , which of course is not even healthy. As an example these V line cookies that make us believe that they will help to achieve a slim body or lose weight. When in fact they have 16 g of fat, 8.2 g of saturated fat and 23 g of sugar … In addition, they declare high fiber content and have: 4% wheat bran, 2% wheat fiber and 1% oat fiber … not to mention the “cereals”, read yourselves … wheat, wheat, rice? Wow!

linia V cookies

So once again, lie to the song.

The tonic is like water

Many people drink tonic as if it were water, but have you stopped to read the label of a tonic? As you can see in the attached image, 100 g of tonic has 8.4 grams of sugar, so a can or bottle has almost 28 grams of sugar, more than the daily amount of sugar recommended by the WHO. Which makes it anything but healthy.

It also contains gas that bloats the stomach and causes a false feeling of satiety, which could displace the consumption of healthy foods. And for those of you who think it is digestive, let me tell you no, it is not.

Do you already know no? Another false myth …

Lettuce at night makes you retain fluids

The star dish of the summer is salads. And it is that nothing appeals more with the heat than a tasty, colorful and refreshing salad. But be careful! It turns out that if you eat it at night you will retain fluids and you will swell like a puffer fish.

Well this has no evidence, just as it does not make any sense. The lettuce will not cause you to retain liquids, what if it will is all the salt that you put to season it. It is the end of the day, if you count all the salt you have consumed, you will surely exceed the 5 g of recommended daily salt. If you also dress your evening salad with more salt, it is logical that you may notice retention, but the fault is not the lettuce, but the salt.

Different is that lettuce does not feel good to you and can cause heaviness, bloating or belly pain. But nothing happens, the question is to eat greens and vegetables, if lettuce is not your friend, it can be a gazpacho, a cream or some steamed vegetables. Vegetables there are many and ways to cook them too.

Water with meals makes you fat

The water is caloric. There are no further questions, Your Honor.

conclusion

  • Do not believe anything of what they tell you and half of what you read believe …
  • Contrast the information, look at sources of reliable information and create an opinion with your own criteria.
  • The easiest way to avoid falling into unfounded beliefs: base your diet on FOODS. For everything else, read the nutritional labeling carefully, both the list of ingredients and the nutritional table.

You May Also Like

More From Author

+ There are no comments

Add yours