10 Myths About Eating Healthy

The way we look at nutrition is constantly changing (rather evolving), leading to more confusion
about what is healthy and what is not. With so much information out there, there are a lot of food
myths and villainizing of good foods happening constantly. This World Health Day, we want to make
sure you get your facts right and start eating healthy, for real. How many of the myths are you
believing and deceiving yourself with? Keep reading and be surprised!

1. Low Or No Carb Diets Are Good For You

Reality: The ‘fewer the carbs the healthier you are’, stands true only if you are a heavy consumer of
refined and processed carb-rich foods like pasta, doughnuts, and white bread. Eliminating good
carbs from whole grains, quinoa, millet, fruits, vegetables, and beans means missing out on fuel,
fibre, and essential nutrition that provides you with energy. Drop the processed foods and start
looking for fibrous carbs like whole wheat, black rice, quinoa, etc. The trick is to choose your carbs
wisely instead of eliminating them. Everything has a Healthy Alternative, and in the case of carbs,
there are plenty out there!

2. Eating A Late Dinner Is Unhealthy

Reality: It’s not about when you eat, but rather what you eat. Eating a heavy dinner that has more
calories than your body needs will be unhealthy for your body even if you eat dinner at 6:00 PM. The
reason why eating late is generally seen as the cause for weight gain and health problems is because people who eat late are more often than not hungrier than usual, and hence end up overeating. If
you keep your diet in check even at 11:00 in the night, you can go to sleep feeling as healthy as ever.

3. Eating Fat Will Make You Fat

Reality: This myth has been going around for the longest time. Consuming fried foods and junk food
which have high levels of saturated and trans fats can not only make you fat but also cause health
problems. However, eating foods like olive oil, nuts, and avocados which have a lot of healthy fats
(which your body needs) can aid weight loss because they regulate your appetite. Also, they help
regulate the hormones and assimilate all the vitamins from the food. You need fat in your body,
what you don’t need is saturated and trans fat. So add those avocados fearlessly to your diet.

4. Nuts Are As Bad As Junk Food

Reality: Unless you are nuts, you must never give up on nuts. Junk foods like chips have added
preservatives, salts, and trans fats which are not only unwanted by the body but are also zero on
nutrition. Nuts, on the other hand, are high in calories but are also high in nutrients like protein,
calcium, and zinc. When consumed in small quantities between meals, nuts can even help in weight
loss by reducing hunger pangs which ultimately lead to less ‘binging’ and healthier eating. Grab your
almonds, Brazilian nuts and hazelnuts from the Healthy Alternatives exclusive selection and go
nuts! Okay, we’ll stop with that pun now before it drives you nuts. Oops.

5. Chocolates Are Bad For Your Body

Reality: Oh, how you want to believe that a balanced diet is literally dark chocolate in both the
hands. And it is! Full of antioxidants and yummy to eat, adding a piece of dark chocolate to your diet
can offer a lot of health benefits. Unlike milk chocolate, dark chocolate is primarily made of cacao
which has nutrients like zinc, magnesium, and iron. Since it has flavanols it improves the overall
blood circulation and health of the heart as well. Get all the benefits with the L'Exclusif selection of
dark chocolates.

6. Juice Detox Boosts Metabolism

Reality: Drinking juices is never a bad idea because it fills you up with essential vitamins and
minerals. But most commercial and packaged juices are void of proteins – the thing that truly boosts
metabolism. You need protein to jumpstart your metabolism and steady your blood sugar levels, and
that’s not possible when you rid yourself of all other meals and survive only on juices for a detox
week. A healthier way to do this would be to replace one meal a day with juice, and add a scoop of
Greek yoghurt or your favourite protein powder to your drink.

7. Less Calories Means Less Weight Gain

Reality: Stop counting calories. Eating 100 calories worth of French fries, cupcakes, and chocolates is not the same as eating 100 calories worth of vegetables, fruits, and pulses. The number of calories don’t matter – what matters is where you’re getting the calories from. Healthy calories that give you
the vitamins, proteins, and minerals you need will in fact aid weight loss by helping your metabolism
and overall health. Eat your heart out, but eat healthy.

8. Natural Sugar Is Better Than Added Sugar

Reality: Sugar is sugar is sugar. When broken down to a molecular level, the sugar in a fruit is the
same as the spoon of sugar you add to your coffee. How our body breaks the sugar down depends
more on what comes along with the sugar – dietary fibre, vitamins, proteins, etc. So if you have a
fruit then yes, the sugar will be healthier but not because the sugar is healthy, but because it’s
combined with other nutrients in the fruit. When you squeeze out the juice and drink it, or eat
maple syrup or honey or agave syrup, your body will react to that sugar the same way it would react
to all the sugar in a bottle of coke.

9. Salads Are Automatically Healthy

Reality: We hate to break your bubble, but just picking a salad at Subway doesn’t make you healthy.
All the add-ons piled on top of the greens can make the sugar, fat, and calorie content just as high as
the foot long sub you’ve been resisting. If you truly want a healthy salad, make sure you watch out
for what’s being added as the dressing. Creamy, bottled dressings; cheese; bacon; sweetened dry
fruits, etc. are a big no. Look out for salads with leafy greens, lean proteins (nothing fried), small
serving of healthy fat like avocados, and an oil based dressing (preferably olive oil) on the side.

10. Microwave Radiation Is Dangerous

Reality: ‘Radiation’ may directly take your mind to the horrors of the nuclear power plants, but in
reality it simply refers to energy that travels in waves and spreads out as it goes. Microwave, radio
waves, and energy waves are all types of radiation. The microwaves used to cook foods are many,
many times weaker than the x-rays and gamma rays that we generally are warned about. The
changes that occur in microwaved food as it heats are due to the heat generated inside the food and
not because of the radiation of microwaves. Microwave cooking is no different than cooking your
food on a stove or an induction. What you should take care of is the containers you use to heat your
food in the microwave. Certain plastics, even if microwave safe, can leech harmful compounds into
your food. So pop that left over food into the microwave without worries and save the extra utensils
you’ll use to reheat your food on a stove.

At Nature’s Basket, we don’t fool around. Get the best of healthy foods from the store now!

There’s one last myth we need to break before you go on your ‘factually correct’ health regime –
‘healthy food is expensive’. We’ve all said this or heard this, right? Wrong. Eating Healthy On A
Budget Is Possible and you can read exactly how. No more excuses to skip the healthy diet!