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Four health myths and nutrition myths exposed.
Welcome to the Disease Prevention book club.
Eat for Health is Dr. Joel Fuhrman's nutritional prescription for superior health. Here are four health myths and nutrition myths exposed by Dr. Fuhrman.
These myths resurface over and over again.
1. Frequent small meals aid in weight control. This statement is false. Scientific studies involving mice and rodents that live longer when fed the same number of calories over an extended period of timeas the control group but less frequently than the control group. Dr. Fuhrman writes "The body needs time between meals to finish digesting, because when digestion has ended the body can more effectively detoxify and promote cellular repair. To maximize health, it is not favorable to be constantly eating and digesting food."
2. Being overweight is due to poor genetics. False. Your genes may cause you to be predisposed to a particular condition, but that doesn't mean that you will definitely develop it. Take breast cancer and heart disease as examples. In the case of being overweight, the combination of environment (food choices and activity level) and genetics determine your health. "Excellent nutrition and a healthy lifestyle will overwhelm genetics and allow even those with a genetic hindrance to achieve a healthy weight," Fuhrman states.
3. Milk builds and strengthens bones. Most likely, this is the most widely held myth in America. Drinking milk actually encourages the development of osteoporosis. Dr. Fuhrman shouts back, "In a comprehensive review of all studies of dairy intake and bone strength in 2000, researchers concluded, 'the body of scientific evidence appears inadequate to support a recommendation for daily intake of dairy foods to promote bone health in the general US population.' "
4. Heart disease and dementia are the consequence of aging. If this were true, all people would develop heart disease and dementia, not just the people who eat a diet rich in animal food and low in nutrients. Lifestyle is paramount in determining who develops disease.
More discussion on 'Eat for Health':
- Today's healthful foods are the same foods your grandparents ate
- Don't flush nutrients down to toilet: Chew your food
- Best food pyramid for best health
- 5 types of high-nutrient foods you can eat in unlimited quantities and the ANDI scale
- Phytochemicals essential for immune function, disease prevention not available in supplement form
- Eating vegetables, fruits, beans, grains squeezes out harmful foods and makes them less appealing
- Best diet for keeping body healthy: very high-fiber diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts
- The common sense secret to good health: eat larger portions of high-nutrient foods
- Disease Prevention book club 'Eat for Health' starts April 20th
- 'Eat for Health' dedication and the withholding of nutrition information by the medical community
Comments
Your 1st point is wrong because its comparing equal meal sizes. When eating smaller meals you'll require less time to digest.
So the more important issue is to have smaller, more frequent, and healthier meals, therefore increasing your metabolic processes and speeding up your digestion.
www.trophynutrition.com
As a nutritionist, I caution against going longer than 3 hours without eating. The gall bladder needs to be stimulated regularly to prevent gall stones forming. Metabolism, energy and blood sugars are also affected by long periods without eating. Small, regular meals is what the human body is designed for. Whilst I don't advocate drinking dairy milk, I have not seen any evidence that it causes osteoporosis! (Stats can be manipulated to support any debate)
www.healthyeating.net.nz
Alison, I disagree with your idea of what the human body was "designed" for. For starters the human body is the result of millions of years of evolution. Proto-humans were hunter/gathers and pretty much lived from feast to feast with a whole lot of famine in between. Perhaps as a "nutritionist" you should learn a little more about human physiology.
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