Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Following last week’s quick quizzes on carbs and fibre – today I want to know if any of these foods contain water? # bread # milk # pumpkin # lamb # tofu # broccoli # apples # olive oil # butter # salmon # bananas # rice # hazelnuts # chickpeas # sultanas Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll post the answers tomorrow. Photograph by Wester under the terms of a creative commons license.

Read more 21 April, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

• Eating more vegetables: The Go for 2&5 campaign is aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. I particularly like their weekly healthy eating email – a quick, regular reminder of the practical ways you can eat more fruit and veg. Sign up here. * Root vegetables: In the Northern hemisphere root vegetables are in season. In the Guardian this week, Nigel Slater has a great column discussing different ways of using carrots, kohlrabi, parsnips, etc: The Root Master ...

Read more 07 March, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

A friend just sent me this image, scanned from a magazine. h3. Apparently Diet Coke is now healthy. Because it contains vitamins and antioxidants. Two products. One provides “a little plus for your vitality and wellbeing”, while the other is for “today’s hectic lifestyle”. Although there’s no information (I can find) on their website about what exactly is in these drinks. Who do they think they’re kidding? h3. This leaves me speechless.

Read more 14 February, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

There are some foods which seem surrounded in confusion, myths and half-truths. Soy is one of these and I’ve seen it labelled as toxic, birth control for babies and likely to turn you gay. I’ve already written some posts about the confusion over soy. Another food surrounded by dodgy claims is canola and Melanie of Dietriffic has written a myth-busting post: is canola oil healthy? One of the most persistent charges against canola states it was first produced by genetic …

Read more 02 October, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

One of the big claims made against soy is that it’s chockablock full of substances which block the uptake of essential nutrients. Goitrogens mean you can’t use iodine, while other compounds prevent the absorption of B12, vitamin D, protein and other nutrients. Soy eaters are apparently putting themselves at grave risk of deficiencies and illness. What the soy detractors neglect to say is, these anti-nutrients are broken down and destroyed by cooking. Yes, they’re present in raw soy beans, but …

Read more 17 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

It’s a beautiful sunny day in Sydney. I’m just back from having a morning coffee at my local cafe, where the barista told me something interesting: people are more likely to have skim milk in their coffee on hot days. I’m not sure if this coffee change is Sydney-specific, but it does fit in with other, more health-aware behaviour changes I notice at this time of year: * September to November is one of the busiest periods for me in …

Read more 15 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

While I’ve posted about the healthiest type of chocolate, I’d hate you to think I was part of the current Nestle campaign to turn chocolate into a health food. Yep, Nestle, one of the big chocolate manufacturers, has launched a campaign encouraging health professionals to promote dark chocolate, because of its antioxidant properties. The “switch to dark” campaign shows chocolate spilling out of medicine bottles, under the byline “anti-oxidants never tasted so good”. Do I need to say that, while …

Read more 08 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Choice has an excellent article busting some myths about exercising. Much as in the food arena, there’s a lot of confusing information available about exercise. Many common misconceptions centre around burning fat and calories and the Choice article looks at many of these, including: * Exercising three times a week is enough * Low-intensity exercise burns more fat than high-intensity * Walking one kilometre burns the same number of kilojoules as running one kilometre * “I’m slim and healthy, so …

Read more 03 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Kicking off Q & A Thursday today is a question from a friend: bq. What’s the healthiest chocolate? Ah chocolate, it’s such a popular food. There’s nothing more likely to grab a newspaper headline than when a group of researchers find something good in chocolate. h3. What’s chocolate made of? The basic ingredients of a chocolate bar are cocoa solids, fats like cocoa butter and sugar, although some brands have a list of ingredients as long as your arm. ...

Read more 30 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

In the world of food and health marketing “natural” is a well favoured world. Labels claim “natural goodness for the whole family”, “made from natural ingredients” and “fresh and natural”. There are “natural living” eggs and supplements promoted as the natural way to health. In a Choice survey 86% of people were influenced by the word “natural”. But, in the labelling world “natural” doesn’t actually mean anything. While it gives the impression that food is unprocessed and doesn’t contain artificial …

Read more 29 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

In last week’s Q & A Thursday, I included a link to a podcast interview with Barry Glassner. He’s the author of two books: The Culture of Fear and The Gospel of Food. One of Barry’s central ideas is that we worry about the wrong things. For various reasons, we get topics out of perspective and end up worrying about big scale problems and not seeing the day-to-day risks. I see this every day in the health arena: * where …

Read more 21 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Vanessa has also asked whether drinking water during a meal makes the food more difficult to digest ? This is a common idea in health circles and particularly relates to protein digestion. Your stomach contains hydrochloric acid, which is needed for the first stage of breaking down protein. Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids. These curl, twist and clump together to form all different shapes and configurations. Hydrochloric acid is needed to uncurl and untwist the …

Read more 12 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Vanessa has asked about food combining – is it: bq. better to eat fruit as it’s own meal or snack – rather than in a dish or along side a meal – because it digests quickly compared with other foods? The food combining approach to diet was first promoted by Dr William Hay in the 1920s. His eating plan – the Hay Diet – is still around today. In the Hay Diet all foods are seperated into three groups – ...

Read more 12 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

A friend asked me this question during the week – is banana bread healthy? Don’t let the use of the word “banana” fool you. Banana bread is not a health food, it’s cake. A slice of banana bread from a cafe or grocery store contains: * 1,400 kilojoules * 6g of fat * 30g of sugar(source:Choice). In contrast one small banana is about 350kJ. If you make your own, you can control the fat and kilojoule content to some extent. ...

Read more 12 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Next question is from Joanne: bq. What is your opinion of soy? I’m a fan of soy and have at least two serves a day of soy products. To me, it is a valuable source of complete protein and, in its fortified forms, of calcium and B12. However, some sources are critical of soy; among their claims is that soy contains anti-nutrients and dangerous levels of phyto-oestrogens! Soy is one of those topics that keeps on coming up. I’ve blogged …

Read more 12 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Fiona asks: bq. Cow’s milk. Nutritionally beneficial? Or only beneficial for baby cows? While cow’s milk is sometimes painted as the nutritional equivalent of an anti-christ, I don’t have a problem with it, as long as you can tolerate it . h3. Nutritional breakdown Nutritionally, cow’s milk is made up of the following: * 87% water * 3.3% protein * 3.8% fat * 4.6% carbohydrate * No fibre And 100ml of milk also contains: * 120mg calcium * 158mg …

Read more 28 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

We’re starting today’s Q&A Thursday with a curly one – does drinking coffee affect your absorption of other nutrients? This is actually a tough one to answer and at the moment there’s conflicting evidence. In the early 1980s a study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which found a cup of coffee could reduce the absorption of iron from a hamburger by 40%. Concern has also been expressed about coffee affecting the absorption of magnesium, zinc, potassium, ...

Read more 14 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

• I’ve been reading and re-reading this post from Passion For Health . It perfectly encapsulates something I see every day in clinic. We are more knowledgeable about health and diet than we’ve ever been. The majority of people I come into contact with know what they need to do to eat well and be healthy and yet so many just don’t have the wellbeing and vitality they want . If that’s you read this post. * *Green vegies, ...

Read more 19 May, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Sometimes when I see the advert for McDonald’s food, particularly that photo of the Big Mac, I find myself thinking “you know, that almost looks healthy”. Don’t worry, this insanity only lasts a moment, but the whole burger looks fresh and home-made. The bread seems to have substance and body, there’s a noticeable volume of vegetable and the meat looks juicy. So, why is it, when you buy the Big Mac it actually looks like this? It’s all …

Read more 10 May, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Following the recent court case highlighting msleading claims about the nutritional content of Ribena, GlaxoSmithKline have withdrawn the vitamin C statement from it’s packaging. As John Sayers, Manager Consumer Healthcare in Australia says on their website: bq. “Recently you may have heard about some issues relating to Ribena “ready to drink” products. We stated that some Ribena products contained a level of Vitamin C that was incorrect. The testing method used to determine the level of Vitamin C was unreliable …

Read more 08 May, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

I saw this article, _ food facts and fiction _ , in the Sydney Morning Herald last week and it’s finally up on their website. Paula Goodyer answers some of those basic questions about diet and nutrition, for example is spinach a good source of iron, does broccoli prevent cancer and does sugar cause diabetes? As Paula writes: bq. Healthy eating should be simple to do but many of us still take our information from our friends, mothers and …

Read more 20 March, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Through a variety of circumstances and shopping errors I’ve ended up with over three dozen eggs in the house. They’re all lovely fresh and organic, but Richard is away and I’m thinking that’s a LOT of eggs to get though by myself. I HATE wasting food, so expect a few egg recipe posts over the next couple of weeks! Fortunately I’m a great admirer of the egg, they’re such a perfect little nutrition pack, easy to use and highly adaptable. ...

Read more 08 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Last week was Australian Continence Week – did you know that 67% of pregnant women experience problems with incontinence= during pregnancy and 1 in 3 women have incontinence problems following childbirth? Also incontinence is the second leading reason why elderly people have to move to nursing homes. If you combine an incontinence problem with mobility issues, then it can be hard to cope. Incontinence also affects men, although less often than women. One of the biggest myths is that there’s …

Read more 18 August, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths

Potato chips are a better snack than biscuits I saw the report of this misconception in the weekend herald – because they’re made from a vegetable, potato chips are a better snack. While biscuits are in now way an ideal snack, potato chips are worse. They’re chock-a-block full of fat, with a 50g packet containing about 15g of fat and just over 1,000 kJ. Most plain biscuits are lower than this, a fat free yoghurt is about 400kJ, while …

Read more 18 July, 2006