10 Dumb Diet Myths

8/21/2019 10 Dumb Diet Myths

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The 10 Dumbest Diet MythsbyTC|12/08/14

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Dietary Myth Busting

Here's what you need to know... Soy protein is practically useless in stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Dextoxifying your liver or "cleansing" your colon with coffee enemas is beyond

stupid. Stop worrying about the growth hormone in milk. You can't starve cancer by eliminating sugar from your diet. You don't have to get all your micronutrients in one day. Instead, you can look

at your nutrition in blocks of two or three days, or even a week.

The "hormone free" label on chicken is unnecessary and misleading. People who drink skim milk put on more fat than those who drink whole milk. Stop being neurotic about fructose. Eating turkey doesn't make you sleepy.

1. Hey, Soy May Shrink My Balls, But At Least It's Good Protein!
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About 15 years ago, I broke the news to the physique world that a few studies

had shown that soy results in testicle shrinkage and lowered testosterone

levels. Still, some people steadfastly clung to the notion that soy protein is at

least a good muscle builder.

They had somewhat of a leg to stand on, albeit a short stubby one that was

covered with scabs. Their reasoning was that soy protein was different from

soy in that the isoflavones implicated in lowering testosterone and the


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shrinking of testicles were removed in processing and none of them were

present in the protein itself.

That may or may not be true, as some reports indicate that the isoflavones are

indeed present in some brands of soy protein. Regardless of which position

you support, recent research gives us an altogether different reason to avoid

soy.

A study at McMaster University found that when it comes to muscle protein

synthesis (MPS), soy is no better than water. The researchers gave 30 men 0

grams of protein, 20 grams of soy, or 40 grams of soy at rest and after

resistance exercise. They then compared the results to a group of men who

had used 20 or 40 grams of whey protein instead.

While 40 grams of soy increased MPS modestly, 20 grams of soy worked as

well as 0 grams of soy. Both 20 and 40 grams of whey, however, increased

MPS significantly. The researchers theorized that whey worked well (and soy

didn't) because whey has a much higher percentage of leucine, the "master

amino" acid for muscle building, than soy.

Related: Leucine Structured Peptides

Likewise, a higher percentage of the amino acids in soy, including leucine, are

diverted towards oxidation, which makes them unavailable for protein

synthesis.

Clearly, if you want to grow muscle, it's best to avoid soy protein until the

unlikely event that some miracle study convinces us that all soy's problems

have been remedied.

2. Your Liver is a Waste Dump! Detoxify It!
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Somewhere along the line, some wild wag of a well-meaning naturopath,

herbalist, or anal fetishist got the idea that our bodies needed periodic

cleanings.

They reasoned that the air, water, and food we breathed or ingested was rife

with toxic chemicals. The naturopath and the herbalist recommended we

occasionally refrain from eating solid foods and instead quaff unappetizing

blends of kale, celery, and turnip to purge ourselves of these toxins.


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The anal fetishist reasoned that we should instead come in the back way and

hose our colons with water, coffee, or cat litter (bentonite) to flush out the

toxins.

Well, they were all half right.

The air, water, and food we breathe or ingest is indeed filled with toxic

chemicals, but the body has a pretty efficient detoxifying system set in place in

the liver, kidney, and spleen. What's more, there is no widely accepted

evidence that juice helps them do their job more efficiently.

These systems do, however, need nutritional support. Paradoxically, fastingdeprives the liver of amino acids (cysteine, glutamine, glycine) that are

important to this natural detox process. Likewise, amino acids make toxins

more water soluble, which allows them to be eliminated through bile.

And the colon cleanse? That's too silly to even begin to address.

3. The Growth Hormone in Milk Caused Junior to Grow Two Heads!


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Stop with the GH phobia, already. Yes, some segments of the dairy industry

use growth hormone to increase milk production and yes, some of it seems to

get into the milk that we ingest. Big deal. Bring it on.

GH is a big honkin' protein molecule and, once ingested, it gets broken down

into its constituent amino acids, pretty much like any other protein that slides

down our wild ride of a digestive system.


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Besides, it's bovineGH and unless one of your parents was an ungulate with

four stomachs that wore a bell around his or her neck, it wouldn't have any

effect on you, anyhow.

4. Cancer Feeds on Gummy Bears!

Back in 2007, some bastard launched an Internet hoax titled "Cancer Update

from John Hopkins." Among other things, it explained that "cancer feeds on

certain foods like sugar."


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It scared the bejesus out of cancer patients everywhere, causing many of

them to eschew sugar. Things got worse in 2012 when the venerable 60

Minutesprogram aired a segment on a doctor who pretty much made the

same assertion.

Anxiety-ridden cancer patients began to purge their cupboards of anything

that might have sugar in it. The trouble is, lots of things have sugar in it, and if

you know anything about cancer patients, you know that one of the main

problems they face is getting enough calories and nutrition, mainly because

they often lose their appetite from chemotherapy.

There are obvious problems associated with not eating, but one of them is

particularly dire. Studies of malnutrition in AIDS patients from the 80's tells us

that once your body weight drops to about 66% of ideal (or cells drop to about

54% of normal), you die, regardless of anything else that's going on with your

body. As such, cancer patients need to eat anythingjust to keep their calories

up.

Besides, cancer doesn't feed on sugar, per se. Oh, it'll surely utilize sugar, but

ever since Adolf Krebs, who discovered the eponymous Krebs Cycle, beganmincing pigeon breasts in his laboratory, we've known that the common

metabolic intermediator of all energy demands is 6-carbon sugars, which

includes allcarbohydrates, not just sugar.

Can you starve cancer cells by dumping all carbohydrates? Maybe, but

everything else suffers before the cancer is starved, so this cancer/sugar myth

is one that needs to be quickly squelched.

Oh yeah, people should probably remember that simply appearing on

television doesn't convey true expert status to anyone. Producers book people

based on controversy and pizzazz, consequences be damned.


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5. Oh No! Giant Chickens With Gyno Are Coming to Get Us!

I suppose it's commendable that well-meaning mommas rummage around the

frozen food sections of grocery stores looking for chicken labeled "hormone

free" or "natural," but it's a waste of momma love.

The "hormone free" label is unnecessary and manipulative since the use of

hormones in poultry is illegal. As far as "natural," it means that there aren't any

artificial ingredients or preservatives in the chicken, but that's true of almost

any bird in any grocery store.


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And as long as we're on the subject of labels, "free range" suggests that the

chickens lead idyllic lives ranging the prairies for grasshoppers and the

meaning of life.

Unfortunately, it only means they have access to the outside, but that could

mean there's a hole in the wall they could theoretically squeeze through, or

maybe have access to a small fenced-in area of concrete that's adjacent to

Interstate 5.

"Farm raised" is probably the silliest of all, since few chickens are raised on

golf courses, sorority houses, or in the back offices of Charles Schwab.

6. Oh No! I Didn't Get My Daily Allotment of Riboflavin!


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I've written about how people who ate only nutrient-dense food could

theoretically eat as much as they want and not gain weight. The "trick," of

course, is that nutrient-dense foods are usually calorically sparse, and if you

fill yourself on low-calorie foods, you'll quash your appetite and you won't gain

weight.

Related: The Eat as Much As You Want Diet
http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/eat-as-much-as-you-want-diethttp://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/eat-as-much-as-you-want-diethttp://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/eat-as-much-as-you-want-diet


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However, I've discovered a sub-sect of people who, despite eating "healthy,"

are still managing to fatten themselves up. They've apparently found a

loophole in my argument and they're exploiting it mightily.

Here's what's happening: They'll have breakfast. They'll order eggs and whole

grain toast with organic butter. And some yogurt. And Granola. Oh yeah,

some orange juice and a bowl of fruit. And bacon. Almost forgot the bacon.

They've embraced the idea of complete nutrition and nutrient-dense foods, but

they've taken it to an absurd extreme by trying to get alltheir nutrients

ineverymeal. As a result, their calorie-intake is off the charts. Despite their

sound nutritional choices, they get fatter and fatter.

What they've neglected is that you don't have to get all your nutrition in every

meal. It's like the old beans and rice thing practiced by vegetarians. Rice is

lacking in the amino acids lysine and threonine, so you had to eat beans with

it to make a complete protein because beans had the lysine and threonine

that rice lacked.

Well, it's true, but you don't have to have them in the same meal. You can eat

your rice and have some lysine-containing food later on in the day.

You don't necessarily even have to get all your micronutrients in one day.

Instead, you can look at your nutrition in blocks of two or three days, or even a

week. While there are daily requirements for many vitamins, many others are

stored for later use.

As an extreme example, the daily requirement for Vitamin B12 is about the

size of the period at the end of this sentence. However, the body recycles

some of the Vitamin B12 and stores can last between 5 months and 30 years

before any kind of deficiency would become apparent.


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Eat your nutrient-dense foods, but there's no need to get every macronutrient,

vitamin, mineral, phytochemical, or antioxidant in every meal, you fat bastard

in the making.

7. Whole Milk is What They Used to Kill Rasputin!

For years, America has treated whole milk as if it were a liquid medium used

to transport Ebola virus. People thought it made you fat, raised your

cholesterol, and hardened up your arteries, so they chose skim milk or even

non-fat milk, which is sort of the Coors beer of milk, i.e., colored water.


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Surprisingly, though, a lot of evidence has surfaced that shows that those who

drank whole milk (and ate high-fat dairy in general) were less likely to get fat

than those who ingested lower-fat versions.

The studies seemed legit and significant, too no three-person pool of test

subjects conducted by some business with skin in the game. One tracked

men who ate high-fat dairy over a 12-year period and the other was a meta

analysis of 16 studies. Both showed that a high-fat diet was associated with a

lower risk of obesity.

The yet-to-be validated thinking is that high-fat milk contains some bioactive

substance that may alter the metabolism in a way that helps use fat and burn

it for energy. Of course, this "bioactive substance" may merely be conjugated

linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that's long been known to be a fat burner.

As far as the heart-health concerns, few people realize that in addition to

containing saturated fatty acids whose role in heart disease is now thought

to be minimal to non-existentwhole milk contains oleic acid, which is the

heart-healthy fatty acid that makes olive oil so highly prized by nutritionists.

Of additional concern is the vitamin paradox presented by skim or non-fat

milk. Milk contains fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. However, when

you eliminate the fat from a milk product, you also end up taking out most of

the fat-soluble vitamins, which then have to be added back in.

However, unless you're ingesting some fat with your milk, have recently

ingested some fat, or plan on soon ingesting some after you finish your glass,much of the vitamins in it flounder around your intestines, waiting in vain to be

picked up and distributed to the body as opposed to suffering the ignominy of

being excreted into the toilet bowl.
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If you're a calorie counter, you may want to continue with skim or non-fat milk.

Others might want to give whole milk another chance.

8. Of Course You're Fat and Have B.O. and Acne! You Ate Some Fructose!

The human body prefers glucose as its energy source. However, it quite

readily accepts fructose, too.


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When ingested, the fructose is shuttled to the liver (unless you're really energy

depleted) and then diverted to liver mitochondria, which either package the

fructose as glycogen for short-term use or store it as fat.

While this process is reversible, it's not a good thing for liver health or function

if it continues for any length of time. Some scientists have even gone so far as

to call fructose "alcohol without the buzz."

Unfortunately, the fact that fructose can be stored as fat and that it's

potentially damaging to the liver have caused a disproportionate fear of

fructose, a condition I call "fructose derangement syndrome."

The research just doesn't support the fears. John Sievenpiper, a nutritionist at

St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, looked at 41 studies using humans

and noted that when people ate the same amount of calories, whether it was

from fructose or some other carb source, they gained the same amount of

weight.

Related: More on the bad rap against fructose

And, you can easily make an empirical observation and see that despite the

mass avoidance of all things fructose, national obesity claims have continued

to rise.

But let's apply some logic to the situation. The most "potent" fructose blend

the much-dreaded high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has a fructose content

of about 55%, while the remaining 45% is glucose. Compare that to sucrose,

or table sugar, which is a blend of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.
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That means that if you were to eat 100 grams of HFCS a day, which is a little

over the amount you'd ingest in three cans of Coke, you'd be getting 5

moregrams of fructose than if you ingested an equal amount of sucrose.

That's small potatoes, which, coincidentally, contain a relatively high amount

of fructose, at least in comparison to most other vegetables.

9. Don't Eat Turkey and Drive!

The way most people talk, you'd think the holiday turkey was made of dark

meat, light meat, and Ambien. Others, supposedly more knowledgeable,


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believe turkey makes you sleepy because it contains the amino

acidtryptophan, which is a precursor to the relaxation, feel-good hormone,

serotonin.

Yes, turkey contains tryptophan, but so do allcomplete protein sources.Besides, tryptophan is a large, clumsy amino acid that has a hard time

squeezing its molecular frame through the doggie-doors of the blood brain

barrier.

When tryptophan is ingested as part of a complete protein, some of the other

smaller, more nimble amino acids get to the blood brain barrier first and block

tryptophan's clumsy attempts to get through.

Now, if you were to ingest tryptophan on its own, it'd be a different story. With

no competition, it might manage to squeeze through the barrier in large

numbers and do its serotonin thing. But the notion that turkey makes you

sleepy is horseshit, or rather turkey shit.

What's likely making you pass out into the leftover puddle of gravy on your

plate is the enormous, fat and carb-laden, 3,000 calorie meal you just ate as

an homage to gluttony, not to mention grandpa's special holiday drink, which

is just shots of Wild Turkey whiskey.

10. Regular Salt Will Make Your Head Explode!


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I'm not going to talk about how the link between sodium intake and

hypertension is tenuous at best. Instead, I'm going to discuss something far

more insidious and it has to do with what the "salt is bad" myth has done to

most of us nutritionally.

You're aware that the body needs iodine, right? The body uses it to synthesize

the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. If there's not enough iodine in the diet, you

might develop thyroid nodules or even a monstrous, freak-show goiter on your

neck.


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However, a milder deficiency might make it hard for you to stay lean, or

saddle you with mysterious fatigue, depression, some unexplained

autoimmune disease(s), a psychiatric disorder, fibrocystic breast disease, or

even cancer. Other less serious problems might include dry skin orconstipation.

If you live by an ocean, you probably get plenty of iodine (provided you eat

locally grown foods). However, the farther away from the ocean you live, the

harder it is to obtain enough iodine.

Luckily, in 1924, the smart people at the Morton Salt Company started adding

iodine to their salt. That pretty much took care of all iodine deficiency in the

U.S. as people in Kansas got as much iodine in their diet as people in

Massachusetts.

But then came the doctors. They started telling people to restrict their salt

intake, lest they develop high blood pressure and invite heart failure. People

listened. As a result, they started to develop iodine deficiencies.

But there are other factors, too, that make it statistically probable that you

have an iodine deficiency. For one, chemicals in drinking water like chlorine

and fluoride compete with iodine for the same receptors in the body. Then

there are the people who exercise a lot, as they excrete a lot of precious

iodine through their sweat.

What you're left with is a society where, by some estimates, up to 74% of its

adults are deficient in iodine.

What many of you need to do is to start using iodized salt again. Don't think

that you're off the hook because you get plenty of salt when you eat out or you

eat lots of canned food or Doritos. Restaurants or processed-food

manufacturers don't use iodized salt.


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Likewise, the sea salt and pink gourmet salt from the Gobi Desert that your

cosmetic and deodorant-avoiding naturalist girlfriend use contain only meager

amounts of iodine.

Get thee some old fashioned Morton's Iodized salt and keep a shaker on the

table and use it liberally (provided you don't have sodium-related

hypertension, of course).

10 Dumb Diet Myths

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