the best advices: Food Fiction

 Eggs are Bad for You

We’ve all been told ordering breakfast sunny side up really isn’t so sunny – for our hearts, at least. After all, eggs are one of the richest sources of artery-clogging cholesterol, so they must increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, right? Wrong. According to the famous Framingham Study, it was found that egg consumption was unrelated to blood cholesterol levels or to coronary heart disease. Another investigation published in the Nutrition Bulletin argued that viewing eggs solely in

terms of their dietary cholesterol is to ignore their potential benefits, primarily in areas of

weight loss. Yet another study from the New England Journal of Medicine found an

88-year-old man who had been eating 25 eggs a day for 15 years. Would you believe it,his plasma cholesterol level was normal.

It looks like we’re free to keep scrambling, frying and boiling our favorite henhouse delights.

Avoid Eating at Night or You’ll Gain Weight

Close the pantry, lock the fridge and for heaven’s sake, don’t open the bread box. After 9 o’clock, your metabolism slows down, and you know what that means; the kitchen is off limits! In theory, it makes sense that you’ll gain more during those hours of little activity, but the reality is just not so. Contrary to claims, your body doesn’t process food differently at different times of the day.

Oregon Health and Science University studied night-eating in rhesus monkeys (which are easily relatable to humans), discovering that the late-night snackers were no more likely to gain weight than those who chose to eat during the day. Similarly, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases insists it’s the amount of calories you consume, not the time of day, which affects weight.

In that case, bring on the midnight munchies!

You Must Drink Eight, 8-Ounce Glasses of Water Each Day

You would have to carry around a gallonsized water jug to meet this goal, save for one problem; this number seems to have fallen from the sky. Our bodies do need plenty of water, and depending on your activity level, this 8x8 recommendation may not be far off.

However, according to one investigation done by the American Journal of Physiology, it seems as though this 64 ounces a day

suggestion came from thin air. After a thorough investigation of electronic data, old literature and consultations with several “fluid” nutritionist specialists, “No scientific studies were found in support of 8x8.”

Sorry, H20, it’s nothing personal.

Nutrition Labels are Exact and Accurate

Are you a tireless calorie counter? Well, put down the calculator, because your tallying days are at an end.

Like all things in life, nothing is perfect, nutrition labels included. The FDA allows manufacturers a fairly wide margin of error

on labeling – information can be off by up to 20 percent without fault. That’s the difference between your favorite frozen dinner claiming to contain 500 calories, when it really has 600. Even more startling is that many labels don’t fall within the “legal” range. The Journal of the American Medical Association found that, on average, packaged foods contain 8 percent more calories than their label suggests. For restaurant meals? That number jumps to 18 percent.

We have to wonder, why bother counting at all?