Diet not working? Take a closer look at your plate! Dietary products have become a separate industry and trade, all the forces of which are thrown at the conviction that in order to lose weight and stay slim, we need a very specific special food! Whether we are talking about dishes from which all suspicious components from a dietary point of view have been removed, or about the "Frankenstein" works of chemical technology, we are confident that we eat food that promotes weight loss and health. While things are going in the exact opposite direction.
Myths about healthy food
For someone who cares about health and harmony, grocery shopping can turn into a responsible, exhausting and full of surprises event.
Myth 1: Low-fat milk is good for your figure
Cow's milk is one of the things that invariably causes "holy wars" in the camps of consumers and nutritionists. Someone completely refuses this product, citing the fact that milk:
in its pure form, fat emulsion (solution of fat in water);

little remains of its vitamin composition after industrial processing;
the composition of milk proteins, which nature has created for the needs of calves, and not at all people, is difficult for us to assimilate and is not physiological;
Abuse of animal milk leads to gene changes that cause, in particular, disorders such as lactose intolerance.
Others, on the contrary, are sure that a complete healthy diet is impossible without milk and dairy products. To minimize milk fat intake, weight-conscious milk lovers choose a product with a reduced fat content.
“Milk labeled 1.5-2.5% in terms of total fat content actually differs slightly from whole milk, the fat content of which is 3-4%. A glass of low-fat milk contains about 5 grams of fat,” warns nutritionist Cary Gans, author of The Small Change Diet.
For those who can't give up milk altogether, Carey advises choosing low-fat (less than 1% fat). However, even here, losing weight, several traps await at once:
along with fat, the most important vitamins A and D in its composition are removed from milk;

skimmed milk distorts the feeling of satiety and provokes overeating or hunger;
added to skim milk dry milk concentrate in order to give the drink the expected taste and organoleptic qualities. As a result, transformed industrially indigestible proteins enter the body.
Therefore, it would be more correct to call skim milk a milk drink - and if so, maybe it’s easier to refuse such an ambiguous substitute and control the amount of consumption of “normal” milk?
Skimmed milk lacks not only lipids - during industrial processing, its composition changes so much that the resulting drink actually ceases to be milk.
Skimmed milk lacks not only lipids - during industrial processing, its composition changes so much that the resulting drink actually ceases to be milk.
Myth 2: Brown-shelled eggs are "more natural" than white-shelled ones.
It is impossible to trace how the myth that brown eggs were healthier, more natural and generally better than white ones was formed and at what point became widespread. "Egg racism" is pure marketing trick; often dark eggs are more expensive solely because of the color of their shell! But boil two different eggs, peel and try to find the difference. She won't. Chicken eggs are not coffee maker filters, where the white color means the paper has been bleached with chlorine.
The color of the “skin” of an egg depends on a single factor: the breed and “color” of the mother chicken. Pied hens with dark scallops and mostly brown plumage lay brown eggs, while whites produce a color-matched product. The color of the yolk is also not an indicator that the egg is "country" - it mainly depends on the amount of carotenoids in the chicken menu. A laying hen can be fed with corn, pumpkin and carrots both at her grandmother's in the poultry house and at the plant.
The main indicator of the quality of eggs and their value in the right diet is the content of omega-3 fats. As well as the conditions for keeping chickens, if, of course, ethical issues are not alien to you: the eggs of free happy laying hens living on free pasture are really tastier and healthier!
Egg "racism" will not pass! The color of the egg shell is not an indicator of its origin, quality and composition.
Egg "racism" will not pass! The color of the egg shell is not an indicator of its origin, quality and composition.
Myth 3: Turkey bacon is healthier than pork bacon.
By and large, any an attempt to create a useful substitute for a popular but harmful food product is doomed to failure: it turns out either something completely different from the original, or an invention of dubious benefit. The same fate, as it turned out, awaited turkey bacon, which became extremely popular among losing weight, barely being on the shelves.
The composition of turkey meat is leaner than pork; however, in order for "bird" bacon to taste distinctly like "pig" bacon, it undergoes a series of industrial transformations. Nutritionist Victoria Shanta Retelny, author of The Essential Guide to Healthy Food, has verified that the salt and fat content of turkey bacon is comparable to the "original source", and some manufacturers make "bird" bacon even more salty and fatty. In addition, turkey bacon is recommended to be fried in oil, otherwise it sticks to the pan - such processing also does not add any benefit to the product.
Verdict: Poultry bacon may open up new taste sensations for those who don't eat pork, for example, for religious reasons, but, alas, cannot be considered a "sinless" healthy substitute for tempting juicy strips of pork meat.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, it's safe to say: bacon is bacon, whether you make it from turkey or make it from pork.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, it's safe to say: bacon is bacon, whether you make it from turkey or make it from pork.
Myth 4: You can replace sugar with sweeteners without hesitation
It is no secret that the sweet taste has great power over a person - there are numerous chemical and psychological explanations for this. Addiction to sweets is often compared to drug addiction: well, sugar, of course, is not as harmful as heroin, but it can noticeably ruin life. The main danger of sucrose is in the ability to “shatter” the metabolism, leading to impaired insulin production, and, accordingly, uncontrolled weight gain.

Sugar substitutes are often presented as a good way to solve the problem: there is a favorite taste, no calories! Their attractiveness is also supported by the fact that the sweetness of sweeteners is many tens of times more intense than that of sugar.

However, lovers of proper nutrition cannot but be confused by the fact that the most common sweeteners are a product from a chemical laboratory. Periodically experts announce that, according to the results of studies, one or another sweetener moves from the “safe” category to the “not recommended” category: it turns out that the chemicals in the composition cause either diseases of the excretory organs or provoke the growth of tumors.
One of these newly exposed products was the super-popular splenda (sucralose), a substance that was advertised as "sugar freed from the disadvantages of sugar." Sucralose was marketed as an all-natural product, made from emasculated sucrose, that had that desirable sugar flavor without the risk of weight gain. However, all these assurances turned out to be another marketing trick - sucralose does not exist in nature, and therefore the substance cannot be considered natural. In addition, it turned out that splenda contains chlorine, as well as high-carbohydrate maltodextrin, which has a very bad dietary reputation due to its ability to cause blood sugar spikes. Italian scientists took sucralose seriously and found, among other things, that its use several times increases the risk of developing leukemia in mice.
American nutritionist Shira Lenchevsky is sure that the use of intense sweeteners in a diet for weight loss is meaningless and even harmful, since sugar substitutes intensely stimulate the receptors for the perception of sweets and only increase the destructive craving for sweets. The only truly natural substitute for sucrose can be considered the Paraguayan chrysanthemum stevia and products from it - however, here we must take into account the fact that stevia has been widely used relatively recently, and it is impossible to track the long-term effects and side effects of its use. What can be said for sure is that stevia can be consumed by patients with diabetes. And it will be more useful for everyone else not to come up with tricks, but to seriously try to eat and drink less sweets in order to lose weight and keep fit.
The non-caloric content of sweeteners does not solve the main problem of sweet addiction - psychological.
The non-caloric content of sweeteners does not solve the main problem of sweet addiction - psychological.
Myth 5: Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best at any time of the year.
Of course, the ultimate dream is a fruit just picked from a tree or root crop, the tops of which have not yet had time to wither. Whether you are retired or just spending the summer in your country house, the supply of such products follows the natural cycle and is regulated naturally. But living in a big city distorts the idea of ​​harvest seasons. However, if you want to eat right and get all that it can give from food, this indicator must be taken into account.
Today in supermarkets all year round you can find a huge range of fruits and vegetables. However, do not rush to pounce on "fresh", no matter how appetizing it may look. Alas, an attractive appearance and even a high price are by no