As you probably know by now, I believe modern nutrition to be infested with a lot of corruption and misinformation.
New research is coming out all the time that overturns much of what we “knew” in the past, but many nutritionists and dietician are wedded to the old information they learned 10-20 years ago
In this article, I’ve listed the worst examples, but unfortunately there is plenty more where that came from.
Here are the 9 biggest lies of modern nutrition.
1. Saturated Fat is Bad For Your Heart
Probably the most damaging mistake of all is the claim that eating saturated fat leads to heart disease.
This myth was based on political decisions and bogus studies that were discredited a long time ago. Yet, our beloved professionals refuse to admit that “artery-clogging-saturated-fat” is harmless.
Yes, it does raise LDL cholesterol, but it is a benign subtype of LDL (large, fluffy type). It also happens to raise HDL, which has a protective effect (1, 2, 3).
The reality is that saturated fat doesn’t have any effect on heart disease (4, 5).
2. Reducing Sodium is Good For Your Body
Our beloved authorities on nutrition and health generally tell us that it will improve our blood pressure and health to reduce sodium in the diet.
In fact, many authorities recommend amounts as low as 1500-2300mg of sodium (4-6 grams of salt).
As outlined in this article, diets that are too low in sodium may actually lead to serious health consequences and higher mortality (6, 7, 8, 9).
The recommendation for healthy people to limit salt intake seems unnecessary at best and potentially harmful.
The best thing to do here is to limit your intake of processed foods, which add the greatest amount of sodium to the modern diet (along with other nastyness).
Adding some salt to your meals to make them palatable is absolutely fine and may even be healthy.
3. Eggs Are Bad For You
Eggs are, in my opinion, one of the healthiest foods on the planet.
They have been demonized in the past due to their high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol. But, as outlined above, saturated fat does not increase chances of heart disease.
Additionally, dietary cholesterol doesn’t really raise blood cholesterol and there have been many studies on egg consumption that fail to show an association with cardiovascular disease (10, 11, 12).
The fact is that eggs are incredibly nutritious. The yolk is very high in healthy fats, quality proteins, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and the egg white is a great source of protein.
Eggs are also very satiating and should be considered an awesome weight loss food (13).
4. Sugar is Bad For You Because it’s Empty Calories
Conventional wisdom would have you believe that the only reason sugar is unhealthy is that it’s “empty calories”, providing a lot of calories without any essential nutrients.
Sugar does provide empty calories, but excess sugar (fructose) consumption can also lead to many symptoms of the metabolic syndrome (the biggest health problem in the world). It is quite literally toxic for your liver (14, 15, 16).
This only happens during periods of caloric excess, which is the norm for many western nations. This does not apply to fruit and other natural foods with a low energy density. Period.
5. Polyunsaturated Omega-6 Fats Will Improve Your Health
It is generally accepted in the science community that polyunsaturated fats do improve health and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
However, the situation is more complicated than that. There are two different types of polyunsaturated fats that we need to get from the diet, Omega-6 fatty acids and Omega-3 fatty acids.
As you’ve probably heard a million times, Omega-3 fats are good for you. You get a lot of them from fish and fish oil supplements. Me and the dietitians agree on that one (17).
However, excess consumption of Omega-6 is most likely harmful and may lead to increased inflammation in the body.
This is the fat you get from processed seed and vegetable oils, something that is often recommended in modern nutrition but is probably doing you harm (18).
6. Carbs Should Be 50-60% of Your Calories
Governments all around the world recommend we eat a low-fat diet with 50-60% (give or take) of our calories as carbohydrates.
Obviously, this doesn’t make a lot of evolutionary sense as we evolved eating a lot of fatty animal foods and didn’t have any grains until 12.000 years ago.
The fact is that this macronutrient ratio is wrong and should actually be the exact opposite. It leads to more favourable health outcomes to eat a low-carb, high-fat diet.
Such diets lead to bigger improvements than a government-approved low-fat diet. Improvements in body fat, blood sugar, insulin levels, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. Basically, the main biomarkers of health that we care about (19, 20, 21, 22).
7. Low-Fat Foods Are Healthy Options
Following the war on fat came a massive range of low-fat food options.
Like we’ve already covered, the war on fat was unfounded and therefore low-fat foods are useless to improve health.
The fact is that these foods taste like garbage without fat. For this reason, food manufacturers need to replace the fat with sugar, artificial sweeteners and other unnatural chemicals. Otherwise no one would eat them.
The added sugar can lead to disease, like outlined above. The artificial sweeteners are also associated with many serious diseases in epidemiological studies, including (ironically) weight gain (23, 24, 25).
8. Everyone Should Eat Whole Grains
For some reason, our beloved nutrition authorities think it’s a good idea to base our diet around foods that are low in vital nutrients.
Not to mention the fact that these foods were introduced to humans only about 12.000 years ago, which is a very short amount of time on an evolutionary scale.
As outlined above, low carbohydrate diets (no grains) lead to very favorable health outcomes, suggesting that grain (and sugar) restriction is extremely healthy.
Many grains (wheat, spelt, rye, barley) contain gluten, which can lead to a variety of health problems (26, 27, 28).
An important fact that is often forgotten is that grains have a vastly inferior nutritional value compared to meat, eggs, seafood, fruits and vegetables (29).
The non-gluten grains are most definitely less unhealthy than the gluten-containing ones, but other grains still contain a host of anti-nutrients like lectins and phytic acid.
So, grains aren’t just low in nutrients, they actually have substances that steal nutrients from other foods.
9. Eating Fat Makes You Fat
It seems intuitive that eating fat will make you fat.
The stuff that is building up below the skin and making us look soft, is fat. Therefore, eating it should give your body even more of it.
But it really isn’t that simple. Fat, despite having a higher caloric value per gram than carbohydrate and protein (9kcal vs. 4kcal), eating a high-fat diet doesn’t lead to weight gain in humans.
Of course, this depends on the context. A diet that is high in sugar, refined grains, processed foods and fat, will be fattening, but it’s not because of the fat.
In fact, diets that are high in fat (and low in carbohydrates) lead to more weight loss than diets that are low in fat (30, 31, 32).
Final thoughts
You’ve probably noticed a common theme about the Top Lies told by nutritionists – many still believe the old model of 60% carbs and low fat.
That bs responsible for a lot of the obesity problem in the US today.
Nearly all the most popular diets are low carb now for a reason – they work.
The truth is, you should eat all the Omega 3 fats you can, plenty of protein and very little carbs. No pasta, bread, rice, or sugar.
We prefer going a step further than low carb, and strongly believe a ketogenic diet is easiest to maintain, better for your blood glucose, triglycerides, and many other health markers.
Other Topics you might be interested in:
Want to know if Garcinia Cambogia is still the biggest diet pill fad in 2016?
We always say a low carb diet is the best way to lose weight and keep it off. No starving necessary.
Berberine could very well be the most powerful supplement for overall health benefits, and also aids in weight loss.
Just because it is “natural” doesn’t mean that Lipodrene is mild – in fact, the manufacturers push the edge of what the FDA will allow.
For those concerned about slowing the aging process and maintaining as much physical health as possible, Niagen is a great product to check out.
Probiotics are all the rage now for a cornucopia of health issues, and are now being used for weight loss also.
Comments:
Raj says:
June 12, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Anna, check this out..check the citation as well!!
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sue says:
June 13, 2012 at 2:29 AM
Is this Anna from Ashland and her Raj?
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Graham Lutz says:
June 12, 2012 at 12:31 PM
#8 has been the hardest to convince people of, but I always say that there is nothing good in grains that you cannot get elsewhere at a lower cost (in terms of calories, and anti-nutrients).
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fredt says:
June 12, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Saturated fat as trans fat, hydrogenated, is bad. It should be specifically separated and avoided as sugars, fructose, grains.
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Dr, Motley says:
June 12, 2012 at 11:56 PM
Of course but there both completely different. All trans fats are bad.
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Steve Wang says:
June 13, 2012 at 5:44 PM
Trans fats have a double bond somewhere with the carbon chains ‘trans’ to each other. A saturated fat does not contain double bonds – they are ‘saturated’ with hydrogens. Thus, as Dr. Motley has said already, saturated fats and trans fats are in fact different.
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Carlos says:
June 12, 2012 at 12:48 PM
Kris, I found a lot of your material repeated in this article in the Guardian (UK) today – http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat
Seems like you’re starting to make a difference!
All the best.
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Graham Lutz says:
June 12, 2012 at 2:48 PM
People might finally being realizing that we’ve all been eating low-fat for 30 years, getting fatter and fatter all the time!
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Kristjan says:
June 12, 2012 at 5:28 PM
That is a great article, thanks for sharing.
I’m afraid I’m nothing but a very small pawn in a very large game. I’m doing my best though
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Eva LaRoche says:
June 12, 2012 at 2:22 PM
#10 Soy Is Good For Everything
NOT!!!!!
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Graham Lutz says:
June 12, 2012 at 2:50 PM
10. Eat Less, Exercise More
Calories in/calories out is one of the biggest myths in all of nutrition, if you ask me. The more time I spend studying this stuff the more it becomes clear that calories are only important secondarily to the macronutrient profile of the diet.
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Stuart Phillips says:
June 12, 2012 at 4:51 PM
You mean the first law of thermodynamics is a myth… wow? A calorie is a calorie, can’t refute that Graham. What that calorie does in your body may be important, but it’s still a calorie!
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Graham Lutz says:
June 13, 2012 at 12:02 AM
Oh, I’m not saying that the law of thermodynamics is a myth – I’m saying that there are more ways to use those calories other than storing them as fat or burning them on a treadmill.
The macronutrient profile of your diet (and to a smaller extent, the micronutrient profile) dictates how those calories are used in your body.
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Bryan says:
June 13, 2012 at 4:52 PM
True – the calorie profile will dictate how it’s used. But the bottom line is still a calories in / calories out. Every one of those little rascals can be used for energy. And if you’re in a calorie deficit, it WILL be used for energy.
Calorie deficit = weight loss. If you (or anyone) disagree with that, I urge you to prove it wrong. Eliminate ANY macro, food group, food type, change your meal timing, eliminate breakfast, eat breakfast, etc. Whatever you can come up with. Do that protocol for 2 weeks making certain you are taking in more calories than you are burning and let us know the results. Follow that with 2 weeks of calorie restriction of any type and report those results.
Any takers?
P.S.
I’m not trying to hijack this post or argue any of Kris’ recommendations on nutrition. Kris is doing a great service here. I’m only pointing out that regardless of the method you choose for weight/fat loss, the first rule IS going to be calorie restriction. There’s just no other way.
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Graham Lutz says:
June 13, 2012 at 9:40 PM
No one is arguing that you don’t have to have a calorie deficit. But that’s like saying you have to lose weight in order to lose weight. It’s a foregone conclusion.
If the goal is a lower number on the scale, sure, restrict calories and the number will go down – with up to 40% of that being lean muscle.
Focusing on the number of calories you eat is the worst way to lose weight. There are hormonal mechanisms in place to deal with fluctuations in caloric intake that have evolved in us over millions of years. If you know the science, and base your diet on it, you can eat as many calories as you want, and your body composition will continue to improve.
Eugenia says:
June 14, 2012 at 12:39 AM
I do hard-core Paleo/Primal and I also did a Paleo-keto diet (including all the superfoods like bone broths, offal, sea veggies, kefir, fermented foods, coconut oil etc), and if I hadn’t restrict calories below 1100 (I’m small framed), I wouldn’t lose any weight. My blood test didn’t show any thyroid problems btw, so I don’t know how all these people lost weight on Paleo or keto, because I can’t. In fact, I’ve seen many stories like mine from FEMALES. Males seem to be losing weight the way you and the Paleo doctrine is proposing. But for many women that I’ve read online, they had to restrict calories. There’s something at play here. BTW, 9 months later, I’m still borderline obese. I still do low-carb Paleo with enough fat, bouncing in the range of 1500-2200 calories per day (and without cheating, since I’m grain-intolerant), and I haven’t lost a single pound since March (which was the last time I heavily restricted my calories). Explain that…
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Graham Lutz says:
June 14, 2012 at 1:27 AM
I can’t explain this with 100 words worth of information. Your thyroid is not the only thing involved, and the whole thing is extremely complicated.
If you restricted calories to 1100 and it was carbs and sugar, you would lose less weight and it would be more muscle lost and less fat. My point remains that the number of calories consumed is only important in the context of the macronutrient profile of the diet.
Without a lot of time and tests, it would be very hard to tell exactly what is going on in your specific case.
Snicci says:
June 15, 2012 at 10:13 PM
You said you haven’t lost any weight on the scale, but has your body comp changed? Are you “firmer”? Just wondering… sometimes the scale doesn’t tell the whole tale.
Erin says:
June 19, 2012 at 7:18 PM
Eugenia, I agree! Women are different! Hormones and leptin (the master hormone) resistance play a huge role in weight gain/loss, es. for women. Leptin signals your cells to release fatty acids to be burned for fuel and if your cells are ignoring it (i.e. resistant), your weight loss won’t be proportionate to the amount of work you put into it.
Re: thyroid – tests are usually not interpreted by the newer (and narrower) functional medicine ranges, so just because your tests were “normal” doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a problem. I was told I was “normal” for a decade before finally being diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease. Standard thyroid panels don’t usually include TPO antibodies, and often even Free T3, so a lot of thyroid disease gets missed.
Chris Kresser has some great articles on thyroid issues and http://www.thyroidbook.com has a good practitioner directory of people who know what they’re doing when it comes to endocrine health.
wsmith says:
June 14, 2012 at 12:37 AM
That might be true if there was no output from the system. Me, I like to poop, pee and sweat once in awhile.
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Eugenia says:
June 14, 2012 at 1:05 AM
Given that I had IBS-D for years, the poop still comes out daily (albeit healthy now). And ketosis has been diuretic. I occasionally go run too (although others haven’t lift a finger and lost weight). So these three factors don’t apply to me. I still have to restrict calories to lose weight (more info on my diet on my comment above).
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Ken Kinstle says:
June 12, 2012 at 6:09 PM
Hey Kris great post and I will be sharing this with my networks. So many things that we learn new about health and nutrition. Those old false ideas die hard.. Thanks
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Kristjan’s Friend says:
June 12, 2012 at 10:32 PM
My head is spinning a bit. Maybe you’ve covered this really quickly, or my sugar level is a bit Low. Anyway, Kristjan, Am I following you if I plan to avoid the center aisles of the grocery store, and Cook food for myself?
I might have my feet steady on the path already.
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Graham Lutz says:
June 13, 2012 at 12:03 AM
Definitely shop the outside perimeter of the grocery store – I call it “the other gluten free section!”
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Kristen says:
June 13, 2012 at 3:08 AM
So true. And it’s not just the “other” GF section – its the GF nutrition source
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Vix- Miss Fitness Life says:
June 12, 2012 at 11:38 PM
Great post Kris!
The terrible effect that sugar and artificial sweetners have on cravings make points 4 and 7 even stronger!
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Abby de Beer says:
June 13, 2012 at 2:59 AM
Great article
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Kristen says:
June 13, 2012 at 3:07 AM
Thank you! I teach this daily and of course right now I can’t add to your list of 9 (c’est la vie) but I hope the whole world has read this list of 9 and acted positively on the information.
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