Top 7 Nutrition Myths That Really Need To Die

At one time, I believed all of these.

Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, or just stay healthy, the most important aspect of your diet is simply the number of calories you consume each day. Next in importance is how these calories are divided up between protein, carbohydrates, and fat. And, if you are looking to build muscle, there’s your pre and post-workout nutrition to consider.

Additionally, to maintain good health, you should eat mostly natural, minimally-processed foods, and avoid ultra-processed and sugary foods as much as possible. You also need to limit your consumption of saturated fat and salt. Apart from that, though, everything else is pretty much incidental, and much of what is often taught as good dietary practice is simply irrelevant and useless. Some of it will make absolutely no difference to you, and some may actually hold you back from achieving the results you want.

So, to help clarify the situation for you, here are seven of the most common nutrition myths that just won’t die.

Myth 1: You Should Eat Six Small Meals per Day

You’ll often hear it said that you should eat five, six, or even seven small meals per day, rather than three larger ones.

The reasoning behind this is that, because digesting food burns calories, if you eat more often, you will “raise your metabolism” and burn more calories over the course of the day than if you eat less often.

However, the reality is that eating smaller meals burns a smaller amount of calories, compared to eating larger meals, which burn a proportionately larger amount of calories. So, as long as your total calorie and nutrient (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) intake is the same, it will make no difference how many meals you eat per day. Eating three meals of 800 calories is exactly the same as eating six meals of 400 calories.

So, how many meals should you eat each day? That’s entirely up to you. If you can’t eat very much in one go, and then you get hungry again quickly, you might want to have five or six meals per day. But, if you find it inconvenient to prepare food so often, and you always feel unsatisfied and hungry after a small meal, then eat three or four larger meals per day. Or cut it right down to two meals if you wish.

Whichever method is easier for you to stick to is the one you should use.

Myth 2: Fat Makes You Fat

Many people believe that eating fat will make you fat, because it’s, well — fat. But it doesn’t work that way. It’s excess calories (wherever they come from) that make you fat, not fat per se.

Fat is much higher in calories than either protein or carbohydrate, however, so it is easy to eat too much of it, and that could easily make you fat. And it’s also true that dietary fat is more easily converted into body fat than protein or carbohydrate. But, ultimately, if you are not eating a calorie surplus, you will not get fat by eating fat. And, in fact, you do need some fat in your diet to maintain optimum health, as fat has many important functions in the body.

Try to stick mostly to the healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, though, and don’t eat too much saturated fat. Artificial trans fats should be avoided as much as possible.

Myth 3: Low-Carb Diets Are Best for Losing Weight

Once again, it’s not carbs that make you fat, it’s excess calories. And low-carb diets are no better for weight loss than low-fat diets — on average.

Some people do respond better to low-carb diets, however, but others respond better to low-fat diets. So do whichever works best for you.

Generally speaking, though, if you are very active, carbohydrates are an important source of energy, and if you work out regularly you need your carbs to ensure optimum performance, as well as to help with recovery, and to keep your hormones properly balanced.

Refined carbohydrates and sugary foods do cause problems, though, as they are a very poor source of nutrition, and they are also absorbed very quickly, causing a rapid spike in insulin. This then forces blood sugar levels right down, so you get an energy surge followed by a slump. And this causes cravings for more of the same types of food, so you end up eating far more than you otherwise would have done. So stick to low glycemic, complex carbs, most of the time.

Myth 4: You Can Only Digest 30g of Protein at a Time

This myth ties in with the “eat six meals per day” myth. The belief is that you can only digest a maximum of 30g of protein at any one time, so you must eat frequently to keep your muscles fed.

But, actually, digestion is a very slow process, and the larger the meal, the longer it takes to digest. So if you eat 50–60g (or more) of protein in one sitting, it will feed your muscles for several hours.

There is, of course, a limit to how much protein you can assimilate, but this is more of a daily limit than a single meal limit, and you can keep your muscles fed very well with 3–4 meals per day.

Myth 5: All Calories Are Equal, Whatever Their Source

A calorie is simply a unit of energy, so in that respect, all calories are the same. But it’s not as simple as that, and although, as I’ve said, the most important aspect of your diet is the number of calories you consume each day, next in importance is how these calories are divided up between protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

The reason for that is not just because you require a balance of the different nutrients, it’s also because your body handles calories from these macronutrients in different ways. For instance, although all digestion takes energy, and therefore expends calories, protein digestion burns the most calories, followed by carbohydrates, and then fat.

Then, once absorbed, carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy, and they tend to be used for that purpose, with any excess being stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. So carbohydrates tend not to get stored as body fat to any great extent.

Fats have many roles in the body, including making up cell membranes and producing hormones. They can also be used for energy, but excess dietary fat is easily stored as body fat. And protein is primarily used to build and repair tissues, but it still contains calories, which can be used for energy. And, again, any excess can be stored as fat, if your total calorie intake is too high.

So, to say all calories are the same is not accurate, because the different macronutrients all go through different metabolic pathways and have different effects on the body.

Myth 6: Dairy Is an Essential Food Group

Many people will tell you that dairy must be part of a healthy, well-balanced diet. But that’s not the case. There’s nothing wrong with having some dairy if you tolerate it well, but it’s certainly not essential, as all the nutrients contained in dairy products (including calcium) are easily obtained from other foods.

Full-fat dairy is high in saturated fat, though, and this drives cholesterol production in the body. So, it’s better to opt for lower-fat dairy, most of the time.

Myth 7: You Should Drink Eight Glasses of Water per Day

Water is essential to life, and it’s important to consume enough fluid each day. But it doesn’t have to be eight glasses, and it doesn’t have to be plain water.

The idea behind “eight glasses a day” comes from a 1945 US Food and Nutrition Board recommendation to drink 2.5 liters of water per day. However, this was not based on any research, and also, the recommendation stated that much of the water intake could come from food sources.

Individual fluid requirements can vary considerably, depending on your activity level and the climate you live in. And tea, coffee, juice, and other drinks all help keep you properly hydrated. Also, many foods contain a substantial amount of water.

As a general guideline, if your urine is clear to pale yellow in color, you are probably well-hydrated. But, if it is dark yellow, it may be a sign that you are becoming dehydrated (although other factors can affect your urine color, such as certain foods and vitamin supplements), so you should probably drink more.

So, those are my top seven nutrition myths that just won’t seem to go away. There are many more, of course, and all most of them will do is make your life more complicated. Or, they may even make it more difficult for you to achieve your goals. But, now you know about them, you can do something to change that. Thanks for reading.