Feel Free to Ignore This Nutrition Advice
Inside: Some nutrition advice is wrong, misguided, or just plain silly. You are hereby encouraged to ignore these seven ill-advised nuggets.
The world is full of nutrition advice–dispensed by dietitians, doctors, personal trainers, bloggers, moms at the bus stop, and complete strangers in line at the grocery store.
Some of it is good (eat more leafy greens!). Some of it is bad (avoid fruit, it’s too sugary!). And some pieces of advice gets passed around so much, nobody stops to consider whether they actually make any sense.
Here are 8 pieces of nutrition advice you can officially ignore:
1. Only shop the perimeter.
If I only shopped the perimeter, I’d eat fruits, vegetables, fish, milk, meat, eggs, and cheese. And donuts! (The bakery happens to be on the perimeter of my store too.) If I avoided the middle aisles, I’d never again buy beans, lentils, brown rice, whole grain pasta, olive oil, nuts, nut butters, oatmeal, canned tomatoes, whole grain bread, spices, frozen fruit, flaxseed, dark chocolate, or cereal. And we’d never floss again either.
Obviously, the intention of this advice was to encourage people to eat more whole, unprocessed foods. But though a lot of highly processed foods live in those middle aisles, so do a lot of healthy staples.
2. Avoid ingredients you can’t pronounce.
Many people are seeking out products with simpler ingredient lists. That’s all well and good, but there are lots of ingredients with lengthy or scary-sounding names that aren’t harmful, like acetic acid (vinegar) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Sodium bicarbonate sounds like a harmful chemical, but it’s actually baking soda. You’ll spot lactobacillus acidophilus, on the label of some yogurts– a mouthful of a name, but it’s a strain of beneficial bacteria that’s good for the gut. Some products are also fortified with nutrients that are important for health but happen to have confusing names, like cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) and calciferol (vitamin D).
3. Only buy organic.
It’s much more important to buy and eat fruits and vegetables than whether you get organic or conventional. Researchers haven’t found evidence that organic produce is healthier in terms of nutrition or that eating organic is better for long-term health.
What is known for sure: Diets rich in fruits and vegetables are good for everyone. Even the Environmental Working Group, best known for its Dirty Dozen list, says “EWG always recommends eating fruits and vegetables, even conventionally grown, instead of processed foods and other less healthy alternatives.” So buy the produce you can afford and serve it often.
4. Schedule ‘cheat’ days.
I’m not a fan of the term “cheating” when it comes to eating. Ditto for the phrases “I was good”, “I was bad”, or “I’m on a diet”. A diet so restrictive that you need to spend an entire day eating all the foods you’re normally not allowed to have is not sustainable in the long term. It sets you up for failure, which makes you feel bad about yourself–and drives you straight toward the very foods you’re trying to limit.
It’s okay to plan a special eating occasion, like a trip to the ice cream shop with your kids on the weekend. But not because you’re “cheating” or “being bad”.
Get More: I Went on a Diet. Here’s What Happened.
5. Switch to sea salt for less sodium.
By weight, sea salt and regular table salt contain similar amounts of sodium. Varieties of sea salt that have large, coarse granules may have less sodium per teaspoon simply because you can’t get as many granules in the measuring spoon. While we’re at it, brown eggs aren’t any better for you than white (they’re just laid by a different breed of hen). Ditto for white sugar and brown sugar (brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added to it).
Get More: Is Salt Bad for You? Here’s the Surprising Truth.
6. Don’t eat anything white.
This seems to be something people are hearing from their family doctors, who are probably suggesting that they cut out bread and pasta to lose weight. But it’s not great advice. It’s true that pigments that give color to plant foods have health-protecting qualities. But white fruits and veggies actually have beneficial compounds in them too, including foods some people think of as nutritionally wimpy like white potatoes (they’re actually high in vitamin C and fiber) and even celery (it’s got a decent amount of vitamin C and folate).
And though white bread and white pasta have less nutrition than their whole grain counterparts, they certainly aren’t devoid of nutrients. So if your kid is stuck on white bread and pasta, rest assured they are still getting nutrition on their plate.
7. Don’t eat anything processed.
So much advice about processed food is unrealistic, like “avoid anything in a package”. As if! Unless you live on a farm and spend all day in the kitchen, that’s impossible. Fact is, most foods are processed in some way, including plenty of healthy staples, since processing includes canning, freezing, and chopping.
A more accurate and helpful way to think of foods is the degree of processing they’ve undergone. Ultra-processed foods have more ingredients like dyes, stabilizers, and emulsifiers, and contain very little intact, unprocessed foods (like chicken nuggets, soda, and boxed cereal). They tend to be high in calories, low in nutrients, and associated with some health risks. So it makes sense to eat fewer of them.
Get More: You Don’t Have to Avoid Processed Foods. Here’s What to do Instead.
Love this! This advice drives me nuts too. I totally agree with you on “cheat” days. I wish that term wasn’t so popular.
Heather–thanks!
“Avoid processed foods.” To do this, you’d miss out on bread, bagged shredded carrots, canned beans, 100% juice, pasta…not to mention ice cream. I mean, how is that living?!?!?!
Elena–YES!!!!! Agree agree agree.
I couldn’t agree more with disliking these statements! I laughed out loud at a few of them 😉
LOVE this post! You hit the nail on the head with these. There is no “one size fits all” advice when it comes to nutrition, but I find that people rely on ideas like these as sound nutrition advice. Thanks for sharing!
my all time favorite is ‘everything glutenfree is healthy’.
Amen sister!!! This is a great post with terms I cringe at hearing every day!
oh my, I have so many of these, not sure where to start! I don’t like “avoid anything white,” “eat this in moderation,” anything having to do with paleo, bulletproof, or primal; “carrots are loaded with sugar,” “a calorie is a calorie…”
I could go on and on! 🙂
Anything that calls itself a “detox” drives me nuts!!
Great post! Do some people really think brown sugar is healthier than white sugar? That made me chuckle a little. 🙂
Can I just say Amen? From a fellow dietitian, thanks for spreading a little common sense. Here’s a link to a similar rant from my blog.
http://plant-your-plate.com/2015/04/18/think-inside-the-box/
Loved this list! As a future RD, I’ll admit I’ve been known to recommend “shopping the perimeter” and I’m definitely going to stop saying it now as you’re absolutely right. I also hate “cheat days” and completely agree that it sends the wrong message about how we’re supposed to view foods.
Good list! I would add:
“Do a juice fast. It’s so good for you.”
More like it’s a good way to send your blood sugar to both extremes. Is there any science anywhere supporting the need for your intestines to “rest” or “take a break”? (I don’t think so because I keep asking to see it and not getting it.) Also, you know what’s good for intestines? Fiber! You know what juice doesn’t have in it?
“Try a cleanse. The Master Cleanse is the best!”
Sure, I’ll ignore all of science and my RD friends, and drink what amounts to glorified pepper lemonade. But first, tell me what exactly I am “cleanse” ing? What specific toxins is this ridding my body of? Also, how does drinking syrup, lemon, and pepper water keep my muscles from getting cannibalized when my body realizes I’m not taking in any protein.
“You’re vegetarian? That’s not healthy, you don’t get any protein.”
News flash: plants have protein. Also peas, beans, and other non-animal foods.
“I’m going to on the vegetarian diet because it is super healthy.”
Diet Coke and Fritos are healthy? Hey, I’m all for making healthy eating choices, but no one label includes only healthy things while excluding unhealthy things. Instead of a label, especially a “diet,” why not make specific food choices that support your body? (The natural extension of this is to change the word vegetarian to any other thing used to create generic food rules: paleo, macrobiotic, the name of any diet, the name of any weight loss company eating plan…)
agree with all of these plus some! Great post!
Spot on!
I hate hate hate hate the term “clean eating” because it goes along with that “good vs. bad” thinking when it comes to food. A donut, although not the healthiest choice is not “dirty”!
I’m also shouting Amen from the rooftops. The “only shop the perimeter” has bugged me forever along with basically every other “gem” peeps have posted in the comment section. Another one that bugs the heck out of me is to “put down the salt shaker” when it comes to reducing sodium. When in fact the vast majority of sodium in our diet comes from packaged/fast food/overly processed foods vs. salt we use in cooking where just a little can really enhance so many foods like veggies.
Amen!
I laughed out loud because these all ring true for me, too. I hear all of these a great deal. The other one that drives me nuts is “clean” eating, which is such a strange term and has no solid definition, but people have decided it sounds good. My other current fave is: paleo is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.
I love your posts!
I suppose most dietitians still recommend low-fat dairy, but it does make me a little nuts. I’m glad to see the tides turning back to whole milk: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/02/12/275376259/the-full-fat-paradox-whole-milk-may-keep-us-lean
Great list!!!
I had a patient tell me the other day that she switched to brown sugar so that her oatmeal would be healthier, rather than using white sugar. I had to explain that there’s basically no difference sugar-wise. She thought that since it was “brown” sugar, that meant the same thing as “brown” rice– being a whole grain.
I hear all the time– “don’t eat any type of fruit,ever! Especially bananas!” and “dont eat carbs after 2pm!”
This fat-free obsession drives me nuts. I honestly have no room in my life for fat free milk. And most of the “low fat” options include high sugar or chemically modified replacements. Our bodies need fat. No, don’t eat high saturated fat all day, but do you know what a bowl of Cream on the Top yogurt can do for your day? Splendid. Nuts are full of fat and so good for us. If anything, cut carbohydrates and bump up protein AND fat.
Anything “paleo” or “primal” makes me crazy. Do they think cavemen really ate as much bacon, sausage and eggs as they wanted? Do they not realize that cavemen only lived to be in their mid-30s?
Also, the plethora of college-aged bloggers out there giving “health” and “nutrition” advice.
I’ll take my advice from someone with an RD, PhD, or MD, thanks.
This is great! I loved everything you said and all the comments too! Another I hear is that coconut oil is SO much better for you than butter. While coconut oil has some cool things about it, it’s still a saturated fat and like butter should be used in moderation anyway. It’s also more expensive, so if you’re trying to eat healthy on a budget, I say skip it.
Perfect! You have dared speak truth to the insufferable foodie cult. I would add one more bit of popular food nonsense that drives me crazy — “buy organic food because it is healthier” – what a load of dung. Organic is no more or less healthy, but it does distinquish itself by costing about twice as much as it should. I am amused by fools who get in line to be ripped off by organic food snake oil salesmen. Keep up the good, honest work Sally!
What drives me nuts are products that say they are healthy because they are low fat but full of sugar. That’s how they make low fat stuff palatable! At least for me, the normal level fat is healthier than the heaps of sugar in it. I spent years trying to lose weight with low fat but now as a diabetic, I’m losing weight eating full fat levels products – real food – but focusing on low carb/low sugar. It’s hard but for once, it’s sustainable and working – my diabetic test levels (H A1c) is so low it’s out of the diabetic range and I’m down 75lbs without being hungry.
Any recipe claiming to be healthy because it uses Splenda instead of sugar.
And the idea that you can’t get fat if you don’t eat fat. I know this is an older idea which has been completely debunked on its face, but a lot of people are still obsessed with low fat and non fat foods.
Spot on! Agree with all of these! especially the processed food ones, healthy food is not synonymous with unprocessed food, sorry!
Love this! Yeah… “I’m going began to be healthier” or “Paleo because it’s what my ansestors ate so it must be what’s best for me” or blood type diets for weight loss/control, or just clean eating in general, as if that’s not a diet in and of itself.
One of my pet peeves is the debates around “nitrates and nitrites” or that bacon and sausages cause cancer. There’s good reasons to limit bacon and sausages and other cured meats, but sometimes “uncured” products are worse for you than cured ones … There’s a lot of ignorance and misinformation surrounding the “curing” process and the methods of curing… maybe a future blog post for you to tackle?