You’re looking in the mirror. Your hands reach for your stomach and find two handfuls of fat. You may decide that you look beautiful just the way you are (and you do boo), but maybe you want to change things up a bit. Start exercising, eat healthily, drink less… hell, you probably know some healthy tips that you picked up over the years. Be careful though, in the world of health misconceptions and fabrications fly around like vultures. What are some of these common misconceptions that have infested your muscle memory?
Low-fat is bullshit
It makes sense, right? If you eat fat then that obviously has to make you fatter. That isn’t how it works though. Humans have been eating fat for centuries and they seem to have done pretty well? The reason why low-fat is a con is because you do not get fat off of fat. The biggest culprit that leads to weight gain is usually hiding in these low-fat food products. Sugar is the true criminal in regards to the murder of your waistline. When your liver cannot absorb enough of the sugar you ingest it decides to store whatever is left as fat. What is even more disingenuous is that low-fat food usually tastes like garbage without fat. What makes everything taste delicious it’s sugar. Most food companies pack these products with sugar for days. Not only is low-fat making going against its name but sugar has been argued to be an additive worse than cocaine. Eating large quantities of something that makes you fat and causes you to crave more. It is amazing how many of these products are the opposite of what they are trying to help with.
Vitamin supplements are bullshit
I’m sure many of you have horrifying memories of having to eat those pink, dull-tasting, bear shaped vitamin supplements growing up. Or maybe you’re weird and actually liked chewing on those powdered lies. We are told that we need vitamins of all kinds to live a healthy and active life. You saw how those pirates got scurvy because they didn’t have enough vitamin C. Let me lay it straight for you. Vitamins are known as micronutrients. What this means is that you only need a small amount for proper growth and development. You can get that from just eating a regular diet. Taking supplements that are basically pure vitamins is just overkill. So what is wrong with taking more than necessary? Well, your body is going to take in as much vitamins that it needs. The excess is then released out of your body into the wild where it continues to be useless to you. Some studies have found that taking too many supplements can be harmful to your health. One way is that it has been linked to cancer (at this point though what hasn’t?). On top of that vitamin C is actually useless at fighting the flu. The dietary lies simply never stop.
Diets are bullshit
I’m sure you are asking yourself “come on! What can be wrong with dieting?” For years it has been the go-to way to lose weight. You diet a bit, throw in a dash of exercise and bada-bing bada-boom you’re healthy now. The problem with diets, according to some studies, is that people often end up gaining more weight with by the end of the diet. There is a myriad of reasons to why this contradictory effect takes place. There is the fact that diets often produce more cortisol than necessary. This is a crucial hormone that is meant to regulate your metabolism, control blood sugar and controls your blood pressure. What a helpful little dude. Dieting often produces stress on the body as you are taking out crucial nutrients. This stress causes the body to release a heaping load of cortisol. Ergo, you end up gaining weight. Of course, there is the problem of humans just being incredibly unreliable. The last time you were on a relatively strict diet how many times did you say “let me cheat a bit. I earned it.” Those relapses often caused you to eat more food than you normally would. This is because your body is trying to return to that original eating pattern you had before you starved yourself. This is a greater problem in more extreme diets such as the ketogenic diet (a diet that means you can only eat 50 grams of carbs a day). Most people cannot commit to these diets for more than a few months and in that time they only lose water weight, not fat. Once the diet is quit people will consume large quantities of food because, how would you not when you have been feasting on the equivalent of two slices of bread a day.
The whole health industry is bullshit
That’s right, I am calling out everybody! The greatest misconception out there is that the health industry actually knows what it is doing. There is a waterfall of studies being poured on to your face every day. Each one telling you what the latest superfood is, the greatest diet, how this food makes you fat, how this hormone will slim you down. The whole thing revolves around pseudo-science. The issue with all these studies and ‘quick tricks’ is that they come from people who have no scientific background in the study of nutrition and health. Many of them are just snake oil dressed up through advertising. You can see this with my previous examples. You cannot even trust the experts in the field. There have been cases of scientists being paid off. The most known being the guy who ignored sugar made you fat (that’s right, this is the guy to blame for low-fat foods). This means there is very little about the health industry you can trust. This industry only cares about one thing and it’s the paper greens baby.
I’m sure after reading this you have one question on your mind “how the hell am I supposed to get healthy then? Must I just accept I will be a blob melded with their couch and then die of heart failure?” The answer is no. The only way to get healthy is to find the best way for you. To do your research and dig through the garbage that is diet forums. Through your journey you will find exactly what you need to be reborn into your new, healthy, not lied to self.
By Jack Van Der Merwe
