With so much information at our fingertips from the news on TV and online, it can be overwhelming to try to distinguish fact from fiction. For example, how many times have you heard or been told that sugars are bad for you? Well, the truth is that not all sugars are bad. But, depending on your source you may have heard a different opinion. Let’s get started and bust six common food myths:
Myth: Eggs cause your cholesterol to rise.
Fact: Our bodies generate and create their own cholesterol, so rarely do we need any help with getting more or less through food and diet. Saturated fat and trans fat are the bad fats that impact our body’s cholesterol levels, leading them to rise above regulated levels. Eggs are rich in vitamins and minerals that are good for you and have a relatively small amount of saturated fat that, when eaten in moderation, should not cause any increase to cholesterol levels. Go ahead and keep eggs in your meals.
Myth: Red wine is the only alcohol that is good for me.
Fact: Red wine is known to have heart-health benefits due to an antioxidant called resveratrol, which is naturally found in the skin of grapes. While red wine has a higher concentration of resveratrol, due to the longer fermentation process, white wine also has benefits of this antioxidant. In addition, alcohol has been show in recent research studies to raise good cholesterol (HDL) and help reduce the risk of heart disease. In order to reap these benefits, alcoholic beverages must be consumed in moderation (one to two drinks a day).
Myth: Adding salt during the cooking process contributes to high sodium in food.
Fact: Dumping salt on your finished meal to add flavor is not a healthy habit. High levels of sodium leads to high blood pressure and a host of issues such as stroke and heart disease, which all could be regulated if the average person kept sodium in the 1.5 teaspoon range daily. On the other hand, adding salt to your boiling water when cooking vegetables can actually help retain nutrients in foods such as broccoli. So get your salt shaking (no more than 1 teaspoon) into your pots and keep it off your dining table.
Stay tuned next week as we bust the final three myths.