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Are eggs bad? Let's separate the false myths from the reality
Are eggs bad? Let's separate the false myths from the reality

Video: Are eggs bad? Let's separate the false myths from the reality

Video: Are eggs bad? Let's separate the false myths from the reality
Video: The Shocking Truth About Eggs | Dr. Mandell 2024, March
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Did you know honey isn't a better sweetener than white sugar? What the fats of egg aren't they harmful to health? And that frozen vegetables contain the same amount of nutrients, if not more, than fresh ones?

Didn't you know? Hold on, in a few days a new scientific discovery could reverse the situation.

We still remember when red meat was good and dark chocolate bad, red wine was good for health and pasta made you fat.

The good thing is that today we know a lot more about the effects caused by food on our body.

We know, for example, that not all "light" foods are good for you, not all low-calorie diets make you lose weight, eating without salt makes us feel confused, meat is not necessarily carcinogenic, saying that all fats are harmful is only part of the story.

Wait a minute, do we really know all these things?

Let's go back to the false myths of nutrition to dispel, and the Guardian helps us to clarify.

Are light foods good for you?

Diet at home, diet to go
Diet at home, diet to go

Relationships with your partner on the third day of a diet based on super-light, fat-free and zero-carbohydrate foods - basically flavored with pureed air - get complicated due to his obvious bad mood. Don't worry too much, it's not necessarily your fault and the relationship isn't necessarily in crisis. He's probably stressed out by all that tasteless food.

Let's take the light mayonnaise. The most famous ones promise to cut as much as 60% of the fat compared to the classic supermarket mayonnaise. Hurray: the Eden of calories. But what happens to the taste?

If I can't eat a mayonnaise that tastes like mayonnaise, I might as well not eat it at all. The taste is plumped up, sweetened by the massive presence of sugars and sweeteners that certainly are not good for your health.

And low-fat convenience foods aren't good for you either. Apart from the fact that having a high glycemic index they satiate little, but to favor the cutting of calories, good fats, fibers and mineral salts are drastically eliminated, carrying important nutritional values. They are low in calories, but empty of most of the benefits.

If you have any doubts about the true nutritional values of something called light, don't buy it. Eat the version with normal calories and nutritional values, maybe eat less, but don't deprive yourself of the taste.

How important are calories?

We like to assign report cards to everything, and by now we divide the food between good And bad, foods to eat or avoid.

Calories are the method of measuring the amount of food we eat each day.

From a scientific point of view, a calorie is the energy that allows one cubic centimeter of water to raise the temperature by one degree centigrade. Relating the concept to our body, everything seems perfectly sensible: the more it burns, the more calories we introduce and vice versa.

Too bad our body is a machine, but it doesn't burn everything we eat like a Bunsen burner in a chemical laboratory.

In reality, our body does not absorb all the nutrients from food. For example, if we eat almonds, not all the energy of the almonds is absorbed by our body. This happens because part of the calories we need to assimilate nutrients such as good fatty acids.

Then there are foods with negative calories - that is, they produce a limited calorie intake for which the body uses equal if not more calories to assimilate the nutrients. This category includes cucumbers (16 kcal of mineral salts and diuretic effects), celery (16kcal of fiber) and tomatoes (18kcal).

In summary: a low-calorie diet, if necessary, is the right start to lose weight. But it must be checked so that the right nutrients are provided.

The 140 calories of a can of Coca Cola are different from the same amount provided by broccoli: while the first contains only sugar and satisfies little or nothing, the other seconds will be rich in fiber and minerals, as well as satiate us longer.

Should we decrease the salt, yes or no?

salt
salt

The defect of salt is that it contributes to raising blood pressure. This is because it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which produces adrenaline, and therefore of consequent hypertension.

Now: whether it is pink salt, Himalayan salt, salt from the Baltic Sea or from the Cervia salt flats, the code name will always be simple sodium chloride.

Salt makes the food good, tasty, the perception varies from person to person, as well as the tolerated levels. But the salinity of a dish is the first thing you notice, and also the first that makes you turn up your nose.

The mechanism that regulates the relationship between salt and blood pressure is very complicated.

To simplify, it is good to reduce the overall salt intake without focusing on individual foods, by introducing foods rich in potassium (which helps lower blood pressure) such as mushrooms, spinach and bananas.

Are fats always enemies?

The war begins in the fifties of the last century. The excess of fats that are deposited in the arteries causes the main heart diseases. It is also noted that the peoples of the Mediterranean - that is, those who consume less butter and more olive oil, rich in unsaturated fats, are less prone to dysfunctions of the circulatory system.

The food industry's response to butter is the introduction of trans fats, in the seventies, made in the laboratory and semi-solid at room temperature. They are fats that lent themselves well to the processing of baked goods because they are cheap and guarantee leavening and softness.

The problem seems to have been solved: hip hip hooray, the food industry seems to be safe.

Too bad only for that peak of heart attacks and strokes between the eighties and nineties, with subsequent incrimination of trans fats. Yet it is not yet mandatory to indicate the quantity and nature of trans fats on the label. The usual suspects are: baked goods, take away food, and margarine sticks.

On the other hand, a total return to butter is not even desirable, given the high saturated fat content. Even eliminating them completely is not desirable: as we have seen, light products contain sugar and carbohydrates in quantity.

The ideal solution would be to eat food with a moderate content of unsaturated fats - olive oil, dried fruit - because they help keep cholesterol levels under control and fight stress and depression.

Processed meats: cancer yes or cancer no?

Red meat
Red meat

The WHO alarm about processed meat has had an impact on our daily life. Excessive consumption appears to be seriously linked to degenerative diseases such as cancer.

But do different processed meats affect the same way? Does a sausage have the same danger as an Iberian ham?

The reality is that we don't know with absolute certainty. There is evidence linking the abuse of processed meats to the development of colon cancer. The main culprits are improper and prolonged cooking. Better to keep the daily meat intake within 70 grams per day and medium cooked.

Nor is it certain that the fault lies entirely with processed meats: usually, high consumption of this type of meat is associated with improper lifestyles and other deficiencies.

A diversified shopping cart, with fish, dried fruit and legumes would be good not only for your health but also for your pockets. Not to mention that taking meat off the table for a few days a month is also good for the environment, given the percentage of oxygen needed to produce it.

The gluten-free craze

Labels scream gluten-free relentlessly. The surge in people with hypersensitivity to gluten and celiac disease in the last decade is probably due to the excessive refining of cereals and increasingly artificial production techniques.

Eliminating gluten is essential for celiacs, who otherwise incur in the destruction of the intestinal villi; should be limited in cases of hypersensitivity, heralded by fatigue and abdominal pain.

But is it necessary to eliminate gluten from the diets of those who do not have particular problems?

A large portion of the population buys gluten-free products for no apparent reason. But gluten-free products are intended for those who suffer from hypersensitivity and celiac disease; for those who do not suffer from ailments, gluten-free bread, pasta and baked goods do not bring any benefit. In addition to costing more, they are high in refined sugars.

Trend lovers, if they are not celiac, would do well not to eat gluten-free products. For celiacs: if time permits, try to do things yourself and not buy them. You might find yourself small chefs.

Cholesterol: understand and control it

Hard-boiled eggs, do not shell the hot egg
Hard-boiled eggs, do not shell the hot egg

Cholesterol is one of the food demons of the 21st century.

To check it, you must actually first understand what it is.

Cholesterol is a substance that cannot dissolve in the blood. Usually, it "travels" along with proteins and fats, contributing to our body's chemical reactions. Unfortunately, these trips do not always have an easy time and "bad" cholesterol has a habit of sticking to the walls of arteries and veins, forming plaques.

Hence, the onset of cardiovascular diseases and disorders.

The "good" cholesterol, on the other hand, helps to carry waste away from the arteries. This small simplification would be enough to understand that the simple wording "blood cholesterol level" is inappropriate.

In general, a high level of bad cholesterol is combined with a low level of good cholesterol. But the good news is that profiles can easily be reversed by changing lifestyles, rather than taking pills to regulate them.

But what are the foods rich in cholesterol?

Unlike the common perception, foods like eggs contain normal cholesterol percentages (and besides, it is evident that you do not eat only eggs, right?) And can be eaten without problems a couple of times a week.

On the other hand, excesses of refined sugars should be avoided: the liver responds by transforming excess sugars into triglycerides and bad cholesterol. Reducing the amount of alcohol is always advisable. The priority must be given to unsaturated fats - therefore to olive oil, dried fruit, whole foods.

In addition, lifestyle is essential: eating slowly reduces blood sugar spikes, avoiding overstimulating the liver, and physical activity helps to further regulate blood cholesterol levels.

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