Things you need to unlearn about diet

Researchers are learning new things about diet and nutrition that are turning the tables on some of the advice we've been hearing so long, we believe them as hard cold facts. Are you believing one or more of them?

Unlearn this: What I eat influences my body chemistry.

Learn this: This one is not really new news, but I think it's a core truth that we don't really comprehend: What you eat doesn't just affect your body: it literally becomes your body chemistry! And your body tissue, bone, blood, muscles, brain, hormones, etc. And the fuel you run on. The food you eat is disassembled in your digestive system, then reassembled to make you. This is why what you eat is so important!

Learn more: Want it all spelled out scientifically? Here's an 11-minute video from Kahn Academy, explaining the basics of metabolism:

Unlearn these: Eating fat is what makes you fat. Low fat = healthy. Eliminate as much fat as possible from your diet. Saturated fat is especially bad.

Learn this: Your body needs fat! It uses fat from your diet for energy, for making cells and other important parts of your body, and yes, some of it is stored as fat. (However, carbs are also stored as fat!)
     Also, most grocery store products labeled "Low Fat!" have amped up sugar and other unhealthy carbs to compensate for the lost fat; definitely not a healthy move!
   
Learn more: A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which concludes that "there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease."

Unlearn this: Eating high cholesterol foods is bad for your health. 

Learn this: New news, as of Feb. 2015 -- "The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel -- The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee -- has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food." While about one quarter of people may be cholesterol-sensitive, for most of us, medicine is now saying it's not the problem we once believed.
     So how did we get convinced that cholesterol was so bad? Some misunderstandings about how body cholesterol gets made, and its exact role in our circulatory system. Oh, and the fact that in one early, influential study, the researchers used rabbits. Turns out, rabbits are unusually vulnerable to a high cholesterol diet!

To learn more: The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol,Washington Post

Unlearn this: It's all about calories in, calories out.

Learn this: How nutrition affects our health is incredibly complex, so it's too simplistic to say it's all about one thing. But if it were, it wouldn't be about calories in/calories out! And it would be definitely be more about the content of your diet. Over the long term, you will lose more weight, keep it off, and be healthier eating 1700 calories a day of whole, nutrient-dense foods than you will on 1200 factory-manufactured, "low fat" calories a day. And it will be easier, because you'll be more satisfied!

To learn more: Four Biggest Myths About Calories, CBS