Diet myths debunked

Myth 5: Drinking water helps you lose weight.
Drinking water helps to keep you hydrated and fills you up without any calories, but it won’t help you burn calories. Water works well in combination with a sensible diet and regular exercise. With high-fibre diets in particular, water can keep your gut healthy by helping to move things through your system more quickly.

Myth 6: A diet is successful only if you lose more than two pounds a week.
Your main goal when trying to lose weight is to reduce fat rather than muscle. But if you lose more than two pounds a week you’ll also lose lean tissue (or muscle). Because your basal metabolic rate (or the speed at which you burn calories) is determined by the amount of lean tissue you have, less muscle means your metabolism slows down and it becomes difficult to sustain weight loss.

Myth 7: Diets based on single foods (i.e. the cabbage soup or egg diets) are the best way to lose weight.
Diets based on a particular food or food type promise rapid weight loss in a short period of time, but only work because they severely restrict calories. These diets are unsustainable long-term and can lead to deficiencies since single foods don’t contain the range of nutrients we need to stay healthy. The Academy of General Dentistry in the US suggests that certain diets like this can even negatively affect oral health since they lack nutrients like calcium and vitamin D, which are necessary for maintaining healthy teeth and gums.

Myth 8: Fat is a four-letter word
Fat is not bad for you. In fact, it is important to get 35% of your daily calories from fat (if you eat around 2000 calories a day, you’ll need about 70g fat). Fat has many crucial functions aside from being a concentrated source of energy. First, it circulates fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K through the blood so they can be absorbed by the body. Secondly, fat contains essential fatty acids such omega-3 and omega-6, needed for the proper formation of the nerve walls. Note: it’s better to eat poly- and mono-unsaturated fats (such as olive oil) which are good for your heart, than saturated fats (such as animal fats) which increase the risk of heart disease. Because fat is a concentrated source of energy, you don’t need to eat a lot of it. Here’s how to reduce your fat intake:

• Switch to lower fat versions of milk, cheese and other dairy products.
• Use leaner cuts of meat and remove skin from chicken.
• Use little or no fat in cooking.
• Grill, poach or steam foods instead of frying or deep frying them