I can't trust people who say...

[ScrabbleGirl]

We've all got them. What are your most hated 'health clichés' or diet myths?

I can never trust anyone who tells me to cut out any kind of fruit, vegetable, or anything that is grown. Sorry. Don't trust you. If it's grown in the ground, I'm cool with it. 

 

I also don't believe anyone telling me about their weight loss if they use the phrase, "I just did (X) and the weight just fell off". It's a lie. Losing weight is work. Telling people it is anything other than that is cruel and misleading. Every time I've heard someone say that it was either a) a lie, or b )they've crash dieted in a completely unsustainable way. Apologies if your weight did 'just fall off', but I've never met anyone for whom this is the case. 

 

What are yours?

[notanartmajor]

Hey now, hemlock grows in the ground and you definitely shouldn't eat that.

[ScrabbleGirl]

I'm not enjoying people asking if I think my husband will be upset and/or unattracted to me because I'm getting stronger (weightlifting) or a better fighter (fencing). Neither his masculinity nor his love for me are so easily threatened. I don't like the implication that men only love those weaker and more dependent than they are, nor the idea that women should cater for that presumed preference, by not getting *too* fit.

Yes! That kind of thing is mind-melting.

 

Hey now, hemlock grows in the ground and you definitely shouldn't eat that.

I really am trying to cut down. 

[Eats-Own-Tail]

i followed susan powter for years.

 

i ate grains, beans and veggies only. for years. i used to wonder why my skin was so dry and saggy at such a young age.

 

then i had a breakdown and moved back to my parents for a while. there i ate normally. and what do you know, my skin perked right up.

 

therfore, rightly or wrongly, i am mistrustful of "grains beans and veggies",

[Amazon Grimm]

I am mistrustful of absolutes.

[Heranje]

People who tell you to cut out an entire food group/nutrient are quickly discounted as unreliable in my book. "Just eat no fat! No carbs! Only carrots! Replace your meals with shakes!" or whatever it is - ratios, moderation and sensible nutrition, people, not magic deprivation cures.

 

"Girls should be careful with strength workouts or they'll get bulky."

 

"Do these exercises to get rid of your thigh/belly/butt/arm fat!"

[Eats-Own-Tail]

susan powter is very big on low fat. at the beginning you eat whatever you like as long as it is low fat.

 

bagels. cakes. sweets.

 

i lost weight, but it took a long, long time. by the end of it i was eating only rice and tomatoes. doh.

 

(actually i was eating only rice and carrots, but i went orange, so i switched to tomatoes.)

[notanartmajor]

I have little sympathy for people who want to skip movements that are "hard," which always seems to mean squats and deadlifts. I mean look, do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be strong?

[Sambalina]

@ Athena - woah, that's some nasty thought patterns at work (theirs not yours!).

 

I will never trust health advice from this friend:

 

Me: Why do you add barley to rice in South Korea?

Him: [perfectly reasonable historical explanation]

Me: Oh ok - interesting! Why do you still do it though?

Him: Scientists say it's healthy.

Me: Oh? Some scientists disagree - how have you decided what to believe?

Him: I dunno. I just trust mass communication.

 

And this is how people end up confused about 'health' and 'food'.

[Kunai]

The only real way that weight "just falls off." is if you are doing something really wrong to begin with.

 

I think the worst advice I got was from an old co-worker who said that I shouldn't be exhausted by the end of my workout.

[minderly]

The China Study!! It drives me NUTS!!!! As a researcher, and mainly a data person...I go cookoo when I hear people talk about this poorly designed and implemented diet myth. Unless you release your raw data and procedures to the community (and they are able to replicate it) then you cannot be trusted!

[Eats-Own-Tail]

what is the china study ?

 

i just had someone tell me that low-carb diets are being seen as increasingly problematic.

 

based on this study: http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e4026

 

well, i dont know. there doesnt seem to be one diet that has no flaws.

[Niwa]

I can't trust people at work, who I see eating out on a daily basis, tell me what is healthy. Your Wendy's diet isn't healthy!

 

Sheesh!

[Remoth]

Those flaman fitness commercials that say you "need" to buy machines to workout with and it shows a guy on an elliptical saying "this is so easy!!!"

Bull****!! If its easy, you're doing it wrong!!!

Another people I don't trust are the ones who tell you the only way to lose weight is to starve yourself.

[minderly]

China study is like if the Paleo Diet said "Oh, P.S. also you cannot eat meat."

 

A doctor fudged his data and report to say that meat causes cancer. I read part of the book and was flabberghasted by how ridiculous this man was.

 

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-china-study-revisited/

 

This article sums up the debunking of the China Study.

 

Link to Wikipedia's description of China Study:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study_%28book%29

 

More articles:

 

http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/t-colin-campbells-the-china-study-finally-exhaustively-discredited.html

 

http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/

[Eats-Own-Tail]

ahh thats really interesting.

 

ive read alot about vegan diets, including raw vegan, and the work of gabrielle cousons.

[minderly]

I  have no problem with Vegan diet or Vegetarians. I just don't like the claim the study makes. Westerners do not have health/heart/cancer etc problems because they have been eating meat. We have poor health education and big corporations like McDonalds ruining health. I just hate when people fudge data, especially about diets.

[Starstuff]

I can't trust anyone who claims that all modern ailments are the result of one specific food item. You know, the "If we just stopped eating soy/gluten/saturated fat/grains/sugar/meat/dairy/eggs/[insert "bad" food of choice here], we'd completely erradicate heart disease, diabetes, and cancer!" crowd.

 

Also, claims that paleo is "exactly like how our paleolithic ancestors ate!" will always get an eye-roll from me. Paleo is a great way of eating for a lot of people, but I'm sorry, if you're not getting a substantial amount of your protein from termites and grubs, you aren't eating exactly like our paleolithic ancestors. And that's not even getting into the likelihood that "Grok" ate things like "paleo cookies." (Which is not to say that Grok wasn't missing out, since I've had some damned fine paleo cookies.)

[Remoth]

what is the china study ?

i just had someone tell me that low-carb diets are being seen as increasingly problematic.

based on this study: http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e4026

well, i dont know. there doesnt seem to be one diet that has no flaws.

A 10% decrease? Are you kidding me? 20g lower in carbohydrates and 5g higher in protein increases cardiovascular problems by 5%? When they release stats like these, how can any of us who are on these diets not be dead? I lowered my carb intake by two thirds and increased my protein intake by at least 50%, so I should be having problems anytime now. There are studies out there saying that EVERYTHING is bad for you.

It's like having a kid. You hear all the time how there is a 1 in 15 chance your baby could have this, or a 1 in 8 chance of this... With all these statistics, how are any of us healthy? I call bs on a lot of these stats. Chances are, People who go on these diets are already unhealthy.

[CROW]

I'm on a " I can eat anything diet". Meaning you can stuff yourself with bad stuff and expect no health issues. Sure, you can do that and look good on the outside. On the inside you will have issues.

All-fruit diets, all-something diets.

[Timmy M]

I am mistrustful of absolutes.

 

absolutely 

 

that's the basis of what most people are saying on this i think, no one's the same so just saying 'DON'T EAT THIS AND YOU'LL LIVE FOREVOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!1!' is ridiculous, you can generalise yes, you can try things for a couple of months to find out what does and what doesn't work for you and then you can go from there, i know for a fact that if i eat too much milk or gluten then i feel crappy and don't perform as well, so i don't have them too close to the times i train so it doesn't affect me that much and i still get a bit extra easy calories

Despite what Tyler Durden says we ARE beautiful and unique snowflakes (yet also the same decay organic matter as everyone else) so try stuff but don't be afraid to say, 'that doesn't work for me' as long as you've given it a considered effort

 

know your body, then you'll know what to do with it

[TheSavageBean]

"You're on a diet? Why are you eating eggs!? They're full of fat!!" - every Chinese girl I've spoken to.

 

"You need a carb with your dinner!"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have any rice!"

"Vegetables are carbohydrate."

"No they're not!!"

[obax]

I agree with GrimmThing that I'm mistrustful of absolutes. The only absolute I believe in is that nothing is absolute.

 

And when you get right down to it, I'm generally mistrustful of anything anyone tells me, not because I don't trust people but because what worked for them won't necessarily work for me, for a whole host of reasons. That's not to say I'm not willing to give something that sounds reasonable a try, I just spent the 6 week challenge trying to cut back as much as possible on wheat/gluten because I've heard people say it makes a difference for them. It did for me too, but not a huge difference, and in no way do I feel it's the be-all and end-all of healthy eating. I think it's important to think critically about anything anyone tells you, and then decide for yourself what sounds reasonable and what doesn't based on your own knowledge and experience (which, of course, presumes that you've taken the time to become at least a little informed about how your body works). 

[Pyth]

I agree, only a Sith deals in absolutes.

 

I can't trust people who want to tell me about gimmick diets. My mother kills these. She'll want to tell me about this awesome diet where she eats a certain way for 16 days, then on the 17th day changes her diet from X to Y and the fat just melts off her. I can't trust it because I just can't see how it happens. I can't trust it because it's a stupid gimmick, and well, I'll never say it, but I always think in my head 'If it works so damn well why can't you lose any weight?".

[Nomad Jay]

China study is like if the Paleo Diet said "Oh, P.S. also you cannot eat meat."

 

A doctor fudged his data and report to say that meat causes cancer. I read part of the book and was flabberghasted by how ridiculous this man was.

 

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-china-study-revisited/

 

This article sums up the debunking of the China Study.

 

Link to Wikipedia's description of China Study:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study_%28book%29

 

More articles:

 

http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/t-colin-campbells-the-china-study-finally-exhaustively-discredited.html

 

http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/

 

In the same theme, an Indian health textbook published about six months ago claims meat-eaters "easily cheat, tell lies, forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes" (source: BBC).

 

Standford published a study last year that showed no significant difference in nutrient levels between organically-grown and regular produce and a lot of folks lost their minds trying to show the study couldn't possibly be right. Some researchers said they didn't measure the right kind of nutrients (flavanols vs flavonols). Despite the study being designed to look at nutrient levels only, a lot of folks claimed the study should have taken pesticide residue, agricultural run-off, or whatever their personal wonk was into account. You'd have thought Standford came out with a finding that said "convetional produce is better", rather than the "well there's not enough evidence to conclusively prove organic produce has higher nutrient levels."