Whole food nutrition
myth
We've all seen stories on the news about a new
miracle food. “Eat more carrots and your eyesight will
improve,” or “Eating raspberries reduces heart disease,
cancer, etc...” and what about the reports on wine and
alcohol consumption? Is a glass of wine good for your
health or bad? It is easy for physicians and the news
media to describe foods as good or bad, but most
nutritionists realize there are no such things - only
good diets and bad diets.Let's learn about the whole
food nutrition myth now.
Regardless of whether the news reports are
based on fact or fiction, what's important to realize is
that no single food will bring you good health or
destroy your health.
Unfortunately people persist in classifying foods as
healthy or unhealthy. Even more confusing is the
terminology used and the implication that a food is
either 'good' or 'bad' based on which term is used to
describe the food. For example, 'starch is bad because
it makes you fat', but 'complex carbohydrates are good
because they contain fiber and take longer to digest'.
Look up starch in a nutrition textbook and you'll
find out that it is defined as a complex carbohydrate.
Here's another one, 'calories are bad because they make
you fat'; 'energy is good because it gives you stamina
to finish your activities'. The reality is that a
calorie is a unit used to measure energy; the same way
inches or miles measure distance.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Classifying a food or
nutrient as 'good' or 'bad' and reducing concepts in
nutrition to the most simple terms is usually not going
to give you a correct answer. These oversimplifications
are not only incorrect, but in the long run detract from
achieving balanced nutrition.
Although nutrition and diet shouldn't be
oversimplified, it also doesn't have to be complex. A
good diet is about choice and choosing foods that are
nutrient dense. The more nutrients you can include in
your diet the more balanced your nutrition will be. You
can achieve balanced nutrition most easily by including
a wide variety of foods in your diet and choosing
appropriate, high-quality supplements
