Food Fallacies

When talking about healthy eating to guests at Champneys health resorts, nutritionist Ailsa Higgins finds that a common response is, "I know what I should be doing - I just don't do it!" However, there are many beliefs about food which just aren't true. Ailsa gives the low-down.

Myth: A healthy diet should be as low in fat as possible.

Low fat products line supermarket shelves, so you'd be forgiven for thinking that fat is bad news. But fat is essential for every cell in our bodies. You need fat if you want to lose weight, too. Recently an American university reviewed all the weight loss diets that had focused on minimising dietary fat in the last decade, and found they were ineffective. But some fats are better than others.

Try to avoid anything that contains 'partially hydrogenated' or 'hydrogenated' fats or oils. These have been processed to affect their handling and storage properties but research shows they're not good for us. You should keep saturated fat, which mostly come from animal sources, at modest levels. Leading nicely on to the next myth:

Myth: ‘Polyunsaturated’ means it’s good for you.

In the 1980s we were encouraged to swap saturated fat for polyunsaturated fats, in particular, omega 6 oils, like sunflower oil, safflower oil and margarines and spreads made from them.

Actually another family of polyunsaturated fats, the omega 3 family, is very important too, but less available in food. The richest source is oily fish, but linseeds or flaxseeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and green leaves have reasonable amounts too.

These two fats, omega 6 and omega 3, compete in our bodies. So if we get lots of omega 6, it drowns out the omega 3, and that makes us more prone to ill-health. Make sure you get plenty of omega 3 fats from oily fish, linseeds/flaxseeds, walnuts, green leafy vegetables and omega 3 rich eggs, and don't choose products like oils or margarines made from omega 6 rich sunflower, safflower or corn oil and so on. Enjoy olive oil, a monounsaturated fat, which doesn't upset the balance.

Myth: You need to drink 2 litres plain water a day.

Not necessarily. Hot drinks such as herb or fruit teas count. Fruit and vegetables are about 90 per cent water. We lose about 1.5 litres a day, more with exercise or heat, so, as long as you're eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, add 6 to 8 glasses of water or herb or fruit teas and you have more than enough.

Myth: There are 6 units of alcohol in an average bottle of wine.

The size of a unit depends on alcoholic content. When units were first calculated, an average bottle of wine contained 8 per cent alcohol, giving 6 units. But wine has got stronger. A bottle of wine that's 12 per cent alcohol gives a 50 per cent increase in alcohol so you get 9 units from a bottle, and about 10 from a bottle of 13 to 14 per cent wine. In our fashionably large glasses, it makes a unit look very small indeed.

Use small glasses at home and have just one or two units if you’re a woman, no more than three if you're male. And beware huge 250ml glasses now offered at many pubs - a 125ml glass is a 1/6th of a bottle.

Myth: Skipping breakfast helps to lose weight.

This is a big fat fib. Researchers looked at the impact of skipping breakfast recently and discovered two things. First, breakfast-skippers eat more calories over the course of a whole day. Second, they have worse blood sugar control over the whole day, and blood sugar control is absolutely vital for weight management, and health. Eat breakfast!

Myth: A well-balanced diet keeps you healthy.

Many people believe that eating a good diet will keep them healthy, without supplementation. But study after study shows we're not getting all the micro-nutrients our bodies need. Why? When we lived active hunter-gatherer style lives, we ate twice as many calories. Our appetites have shrunk to match our more sedentary lives, but less food means fewer micro-nutrients. A good multi-nutrient is a very wise addition to a good diet. Other reasons for lack of nutrients are down to:

Processed foods and intensively grown foods are depleted in micronutrients. Food 'miles', cooking and storage all reduce nutrients too.

Our lifestyles. Pollution, too much alcohol, intensive exercise, and stress use up important supplies of protective anti-oxidants in the body.

Ageing takes its toll and means we become increasingly low in essential nutrients.

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