Myths Regarding Weight Loss
‘Foods labeled ‘low fat’ or ‘reduced fat’ are always a healthy choice’
Nowadays, almost anything you can buy from the supermarket has a ‘healthy’ or ‘low fat’ alternative. The health food market is one of the most profitable and growing markets in the food industry. However, here is a note of caution about some of the tricks of language used by the food industry you have to watch out for.
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Foods labeled ‘low fat’ have to meet legal criteria to use that label. For instance, labels that claim a produce contains ‘reduced fat’ do not have to meet the same standards, and can be misleading. A reduced-fat snack should contain less fat than the full-fat version, but that doesn’t automatically make it a healthy choice: it could still contain a lot more fat than, say, a portion of fruit. Low-fat foods also sometimes contain high levels of sugar.
Therefore do not judge a healthy alternative product just on the front labeling. Your decision should not just be based on fat content alone. Excess sugar gets turned into fat by the body and can cause many other health complications.
‘Eaten in the right quantities, carbohydrates will not cause weight gain’
Margarine contains less fat than butter.
Many dietitians and nutritional experts recommend changing from butter to margarine. We seem to take it for granted that margarine is less fatty than butter. But did you know that the difference between margarine and butter is not as black and white as you might think?
Margarine and butter contain different types of fat. Margarine is usually lower in saturated fat than butter. Yet, it is more likely to contain hydrogenated fats. Hydrogenated fats, also called tran-saturated (or trans fats), may be more harmful to health than saturated fats. To lose weight, and for heart health, you need to reduce the amount of saturated and hydrogenated fats you eat. If oil in margarine has been hydrogenated, this has to be listed on the ingredient listing on packaging, so check labels carefully.
Food manufactures are required by law to list all their ingredients so just spend a bit of time reading up on what exactly is in your food.
‘Carbohydrates make you put on weight’
‘Cutting down on Carbs’ has become a bit of a buzz term in healthy eating circles. Indeed in some ways ‘Carbs’ have replaced fat as the new bogey ‘substance’. Take the Atkins diet for instance. Its worldwide success was based on eliminating Carbs from the individual diets.However, when eaten in the right quantities, carbohydrates will not cause weight gain. A 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine came to the conclusion that dieters on the best-known low-carb diet, the Atkins diet, tended to lose weight not because they ate fewer carbohydrates, but simply because they ate less overall!
Tags: fat, myth, weight loss
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