Debunking these myths are as crucial and knowing your way around wellness
The most damaging myths circulating on the internet about living, dieting and wellness.
Gluten-Free Diet is a Blessing: By religiously adhering to a gluten-free diet, we skip out on wheat, cereals, rye, barley etc. and subsequently deprive ourselves of complex carbohydrates, fibre and plant-based nutrients required to balance diet. Maintaining such a diet is equivalent to splurging on gluten-free food while at the same time giving up on healthy food ingredients. Following a gluten-free diet is only mandatory for those with celiac diseases and other medical conditions.
Carbs are Unhealthy: Carbs are the genesis of body’s energy, and our bodies definitely need certain types of carbohydrates to digest, promote weight loss, maintain heart health, sharpen memory skills, regulate blood and cholesterol levels and prevent nauseating symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, mineral deficiencies and prolonged weakness. Dieticians recommend healthy intake of carbs and nutrients for complete wellbeing.
Multivitamins is Key to Health: Multivitamins and myths surrounding them flood social media and ‘nutrition’ blogs and perhaps the most common myths are—they can make up for poor diet, they are ‘natural’ and ‘safe, protect cardiovascular health and supplements help to regain energy. Diet fads have too many adults hooked on to some multivitamins. Well, nutritionists opine that unless someone has malabsorption disorders or visible side-effects of vitamin deficiency, the relevance of consuming multivitamin supplements is questionable. Only registered dieticians are equipped to scrutinise diet to deduce if we are lacking in vitamins.
Eat High-Protein Diet: People at loggerheads with high-carb vouch for high-protein diet often without taking into account its perils. While protein is required for cell repairmen and regeneration, excess protein in diet can, however, lead to kidney malfunction and cardiovascular diseases. This is where most of us tend to go astray with diet plans. Nutritionists do not recommend stuffing protein into our diet since it may lead to dehydration, increased risk of cancer, foul breath and loss of calcium. Daily intake of protein should be stipulated based on person's weight, physical activity, health and age.
Starve to Lose Weight: The concept of ‘starvation diet’ is immensely harmful and culminates in malnutrition, deteriorating memory prowess and lethargy among a host of other pathos like loss of lean muscle mass, and loss of strength and bone density. The better way to reduce calories is judiciously, probably best by consulting a dietician first, minimising fatty food and switching to a low-calorie diet. Starvation is rather a radical step and often pushes you to over-indulge and over-eat calories than you would have otherwise!
