Faculty of Allied Health Sciences > Nutrition and Food Engineering

Diet Myths, Facts and Tips

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nfe fouzia:
Diet Myth
"Potatoes, bread, pasta and rice are fattening"
Diet Facts

Foods high in carbohydrates have had a rough time in the past few years thanks to the success of low-carb diets such as the Atkins diet. But there’s actually no proof that healthy carb-rich foods are more likely to make us gain weight than any other food.

Ultimately, it’s an excess of calories that makes us pile on the pounds – and it really doesn’t matter where those extra calories come from.

In fact, more often than not, it’s the fat we add to carbs that boosts the calorie content, such as butter on toast, creamy sauces with pasta and frying potatoes to make chips.

Read our latest Review of Low Carb Diets
Diet Tips

Go for high-fibre carbs such as brown rice, wholemeal bread, jacket potatoes and wholewheat pasta. They contain more fibre than the ‘white’ varieties and so will help to fill you up. Don’t add too much extra fat to them though, for example, serve pasta with a tomato-based sauce and top jacket spuds with cottage cheese.

nfe fouzia:
Diet Myth
"Food eaten late at night stops you losing weight"
Diet Facts

Many people believe that eating in the evening makes the body store more fat because it is not burned off with activity. In reality though, it’s not eating in the evening that stops you losing weight.

In fact, it’s consuming too many calories throughout the day that will be your dieting downfall! Providing you eat less calories than you burn each day you’ll lose weight, regardless of when you consume those calories.
Diet Tips

Get into the habit of planning ahead and always make sure you have enough calories left for dinner and any snacks you want during the evening. The only thing that will stop you losing weight is if the calories in your evening meal added to the calories you've eaten during the day equal more than the calories you've burned during the day.

nfe fouzia:
Diet Myth
"People inherit being overweight"
Diet Facts

Scientists have been working hard to identify genes that have the potential to make us fat. And it does seem there may be a genetic link – but only in a small number of people.

As a result, most experts agree that while genes may have a part to play, they still don’t explain the recent rapid increase in obesity that’s been seen in the Western world. They believe that while we might inherit ‘fat’ genes from our parents, we also inherit their bad habits such as a poor diet and lack of exercise – and it’s these poor lifestyle habits that have a more important part to play in weight gain.
Diet Tips

Making lifestyle changes such as exercising more and eating a healthy diet will help everyone in the family shift those pounds – so get everyone involved rather than going it alone.

nfe fouzia:
Diet Myth
"Diets don’t work"
Diet Facts

Ultimately, if you take in fewer calories than you need, your body starts to use up its fat stores to get the extra calories it needs to keep functioning properly. Over time, this will result in weight loss.

The key is to follow a moderately restricted diet rather than an extreme diet that bans favourite foods, only allows a limited number of foods or is so low in calories it leaves you feeling hungry.

You’ll be far more likely to ‘give up’ if you follow a diet that has too many restrictions and end up telling yourself that the ‘diet didn’t work’.
Diet Tips

Make sure you follow a well-balanced diet plan that enables you to include your favourite foods, and never try to lose more than 1-2lb a week. To lose 1lb of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume – it’s easy to shift 1lb in a week simply by reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories a day.

nfe fouzia:
Diet Myth
"Dairy products are fattening and unhealthy"
Diet Facts

Dairy products like milk, cheese and yoghurt are actually packed with essential nutrients that help to keep us healthy. As well as being good sources of protein, zinc and some B vitamins, dairy products are packed with calcium, a mineral that helps to build strong, healthy bones – and the stronger bones are, the less likely you’ll be to suffer from the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis, in later life.

Dairy products don’t have to be ‘fattening’ either – there are loads of low-fat products available such as skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, low-fat yoghurts and reduced-fat cheeses.

Switching to low-fat dairy products doesn’t mean you’ll get less calcium either. In fact, skimmed and semi-skimmed milks actually contain slightly more calcium than full-fat milk.

But best of all, research shows that low-fat dairy products can help us to lose weight thanks to the calcium they contain.
Diet Tips

If you want to lose weight, choose low-fat dairy products – aim for three servings each day such as a glass of skimmed milk, 1 small pot of low-fat yoghurt and a matchbox-sized piece of reduced-fat cheese.

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