Diet and nutrition are some of the most talked about topics amongst men and women today. While this indicates that we are all focused on our wellness and well-being, we still see more of us being overweight more than ever before.
It could be that people are falling victim to a number of different myths about healthy eating. Misinformation is rampant in the diet sector and it can be hard to sort fact from fiction.
The first of these myths is that a calorie is just a calorie, and that losing weight is a simple matter of ‘calories in’ versus ‘calories out’. Calories are one thing to consider but different foods have different effects on the body, and our metabolism, blood sugar, hunger and hormones all have an effect on how we react to the foods that we eat. Eating 100 calories worth of broccoli does not have the same effect on your body as 100 calories of sweets!
Food that contains protein, healthy fat or fibre makes your metabolism work well and keeps you feeling fuller for longer, whereas food with starch or simple sugars will make your blood sugar spike and make your energy crash, leading to further eating. Therefore you should concentrate more on the food you eat than on the exact calorie content.
Going gluten free is also another common diet method. Some people are allergic to gluten, but some others think that by avoiding gluten they can shed the pounds, however that is simply not the case. Only six percent of the population has gluten sensitivity and fewer are actually allergic.
The reason that people lose weight by eliminating food from their diet that contains gluten is that these foods are coincidentally the kind of food that people tend to overeat, such as pasta, bread, crisps and so on. So basically, what you are actually eliminating from your diet is not gluten but overeating!