Myths & Truths About Nutrition

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Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products.

Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNI)


Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries.

Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195)


Myth: Vegetarianism is healthy.

Truth: The annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%) (Am J Clin Nutr 1982 36:873)


Myth: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and soy products.

Truth: Vitamin B12 is not absorbed from plant sources. Modern soy products increase the body's need for B12. (Soybeans: Chemistry & Technology Vol 1 1972)


Myth: For good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl.

Truth: The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. (Circulation 1992 86:3:1026-1029)


Myth: Animal fats cause cancer and heart disease.

Truth: Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils. (Fed Proc July 1978 37:2215)


Myth: Children benefit from a low-fat diet.

Truth: Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive & learning disabilities. (Food Chem News 10/3/94)


Myth: A low-fat diet will make you "feel better . . . and increase your joy of living."

Truth: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide. (Lancet 3/21/92 v339)


Myth: To avoid heart disease, we should use margarine instead of butter.

Truth: Margarine eaters have twice the rate of heart disease as butter eaters. (Nutrition Week 3/22/91 21:12)


Myth: Americans do not consume enough essential fatty acids.

Truth: Americans consume far too much of one kind of EFA (omega-6 EFAs found in most polyunsaturated vegetable oils) but not enough of another kind of EFA (omega-3 EFAs found in fish, fish oils, eggs from properly fed chickens, dark green vegetables and herbs, and oils from certain seeds such as flax and chia, nuts such as walnuts and in small amounts in all whole grains.) (Am J Clin Nutr 1991 54:438-63)


Myth: A vegetarian diet will protect you against atherosclerosis.

Truth: The International Atherosclerosis Project found that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters. (Lab Invest 1968 18:498)


Myth: Low-fat diets prevent breast cancer.

Truth: A recent study found that women on very low-fat diets (less than 20%) had the same rate of breast cancer as women who consumed large amounts of fat. (NEJM 2/8/96)


Myth: The "cave man diet" was low in fat.

Truth: Throughout the world, primitive peoples sought out and consumed fat from fish and shellfish, water fowl, sea mammals, land birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, bears, dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, game, eggs, nuts and milk products. (Abrams, Food & Evolution 1987)


Myth: Coconut oil causes heart disease.

Truth: When coconut oil was fed as 7% of energy to patients recovering from heart attacks, the patients had greater improvement compared to untreated controls, and no difference compared to patents treated with corn or safflower oils. Populations that consume coconut oil have low rates of heart disease. Coconut oil may also be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics. (JAMA 1967 202:1119-1123; Am J Clin Nutr 1981 34:1552)


Myth: Saturated fats inhibit production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Saturated fats actually improve the production of all prostaglandins by facilitating the conversion of essential fatty acids. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)


Myth: Arachidonic acid in foods like liver, butter and egg yolks causes production of "bad" inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Series 2 prostaglandins that the body makes from arachidonic acid both encourage and inhibit inflammation under appropriate circumstances. Arachidonic acid is vital for the function of the brain and nervous system. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)


Myth: Beef causes colon cancer.

Truth: Argentina, with higher beef consumption, has lower rates of colon cancer than the US. Mormons have lower rates of colon cancer than vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists (Cancer Res 35:3513 1975)

 
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Interesting post with some very old citations. I appreciate you trying to share and most of those are correct but others are clearly not. Also, you cannot make statements based on a single article, particularly ones from the 60s and 70s. No flame intended :).
(I have my [censored] in nutrition)
 
Not to rain on your parade, but with all of these citations at least 17 years old, it's hard to give much credence to them. Plus it's easy to prove almost anything with a single study.
 
Newest studies don't mean better, especially in this discipline where most publications has little to do with real science.

I work in healthcare and have a personal interest in this area and can tell you the above post is pretty accurate in exposing the myths.

I'll bet you 90% of general docs will not agree, but it doesn't mean they are correct.

Interesting caveat is the fact that many of those myths were propagated by food industry or pharma industry and fully endorsed by our government under a disguise of pseudoscience. The goal was simple: just to make money (whether on processed food products or cholesterol lowering drugs).
 
Originally Posted By: FXjohn
good luck with your high fat diet then. butter and beef fat are good for you.


If everyone went from high carb diet (so called "low fat" diet) to low carb diet, most cases of diabetes mellitus (type 2) would disappear as well as coronary disease, hypertension, obesity, and other western diseases would decrease dramatically.

If you don't believe me, search for native Inuit diet in early 20th century and their diseases then vs the modern Inuit diet and their current diseases.

There is one little secret: high carb diet is cheap and carbs are abundant due to modern farming, while low carb diet is expensive and there would not be enough low carb food for everyone on earth.
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Newest studies don't mean better, especially in this discipline where most publications has little to do with real science.

the above post is pretty accurate in exposing the myths.

I'll bet you 90% of general docs will not agree, but it doesn't mean they are correct.



+1 to all of that.

MDs only get a few weeks of nutrition "education" at most med schools. They just know what they are fed (pun intended). They are not experts in nutrition, not even close.
 
I’m with you 100% but when I said live on McDonald’s for a month I meant nothing but McDonald’s. Seriously, watch the doc “Supersize Me”. This guy lived on nothing but McDonald’s and had it supersized for every meal for a month.
I've watched it, I know what you are talking about, but that doesn't means other restaurant or home cooking are always better, you have to pick what is good for you regardless of where you go.
 
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