Think you know the difference between healthy eating myths and reality? You just might, though many people are walking around misinformed. It’s not their fault – so much misinformation is out there on purpose so that you’ll buy certain products and think you’re doing the right thing for your body. BUT the very thing that you’re eating that you think will help could be causing the problem.

I was on Joshua Margolis’ Mind Over Matter radio show today dispelling a few myths. You can listen to the whole show on Talking Alternative Radio.

Here are a couple of common myths:

Fat makes you fat

This is part of the low-fat myth that has Americans getting fatter than ever. We’ve been living under the assumption that cutting fat and eating more carbohydrates will make you thin. Obviously that hasn’t worked out so well since obesity rates are higher than ever for both adults and children.

Sugar and processed carbs make you fat. Many processed foods also use bad fats, the ones that harden your arteries and cause inflammation, which leads to just about every disease imaginable. And this is what we’ve been told is good for us!

Healthy fats helps manage your blood sugar levels, keeping your insulin from spiking when you eat carbohydrates. Fat provides energy, and it is essential in helping in the digestive process. For example, healthy fat with vegetables (think olive oil on salad) helps digest and assimilate the vitamins and nutrients from the plants into your system.

Cutting the healthy fats cuts out vital nutrients – and makes you feel less satisfied. Low fat products usually contain unhealthy fats and added sugar to make them taste better. You would feel more satisfied and eat less if you just ate the full-fat, whole version of the foods that you eat instead of eating processed, sugared products.

A calorie is a calorie

Clearly this isn’t true. You can watch your calories and lose weight, but you won’t have optimal energy – and your body won’t work as well if you’re eating 1200 calories of cake vs. 1200 calories of fruits and vegetables.

Calories are a simple way to measure, but they don’t tell the whole story. It’s the quality of the food that’s important – you can be malnourished and overweight because you’re not feeding your body a variety of vitamins, minerals, healthy carbohydrates proteins and fats.

Milk does a body good

This is a marketing slogan. Low-fat milk is marketed as a health food that promotes weight loss, but it doesn’t actually help you lose weight.  In a weight loss study, out of 49 clinical trials, 41 showed no effects of diary or calcium on weight, two showed an increase in body weight with a dairy regimen, and one showed a lower rate of weight gain. Only five showed weight loss – and not necessarily caused by dairy consumption.

Did you know that farmers feed pigs low-fat milk so that they can gain weight faster? And mother’s milk is a food that’s given to babies to help them grow and put on weight quickly.

What do you think it will do for you?

Another point to consider – many people have an intolerance for dairy and don’t even know it.  Dairy intolerances cause indigestion and bloating, and interfere with digestive process. If you’ve noticed that you feel bloated or gassy after drinking milk or eating ice cream, I urge you to try a dairy experiment – cut the dairy out for a few weeks. See how you feel. When you’re ready, reintroduce a little bit and then see what happens. You might find that life is better without dairy.

Low-fat milk is also a processed food – i.e. it’s not whole and doesn’t have all the nutrients in it that whole milk contains. Pasteurization kills most of the healthy bacteria in raw milk, leaving behind a product that is nutritionally inferior. Finding real milk is difficult, but if you can, try it sometime and taste the difference. Then also notice how you feel after eating it. Some people can eat real milk but can’t tolerate processed, pasteurized milk.

Thanks to Joshua Margolis for inviting me on as a guest on his  Mind Over Matter radio show on Talking Alternative Radio.