5 Healthy living myths you need to know about

There's lots of conflicting information out there about how to stay healthy. From carbs to veganism, we take a look at the top healthy living myths you need to know about.

How to stay well

Your health and wellbeing is nobody's business but your own, right?

That might have been true once, but health and wellbeing is big business these days. And where there's profit to be made, lots of people can benefit by persuading you that certain products or lifestyle choices can keep you healthy.

If you'd like an example, you need only to think of the enormous boom in protein-based products over the last couple of years. Once the mainstay of the exclusive world of bodybuilding, now protein powders, snack bars and energy bites are ubiquitous.

It's not that we need more protein, or that we have suddenly become aware of its role in our bodies.

Rather, the reason for the sudden explosion in protein products can be traced back to combination of marketing and social media. In the late 2000s, protein companies began advertising to a broader audience, beyond their loyal segment of bodybuilders.(1)  Around the same time, social media took off, and we had an extra reason to gain lean muscle - to look good on our grids.

Luckily, protein in itself can be a very healthy addition to your diet, and plays a key role in building muscle mass. But there are also lots of products available, and not all of them are focused on health. Many contain lots of sugar, fat and artificial sweeteners alongside their protein content.

So, as you can see, we have good reason to be sceptical about health claims.

With that in mind, we've taken the five most common claims we've heard to see if there's any truth to them.

“Carbohydrates make you fat”: False

Perhaps one of the most widespread health myths, the idea that 'carbs are the devil' came about with the advent of fad diets such as the Atkins diet. The theory was that, by stripping away your source of carbohydrates, the body would rely on its fat stores for energy and you would lose weight.

However, many people who follow the diet don't find it effective, or immediately put the weight back on once they come off the diet.

The reason? Carbohydrates are a key building block of our diet. Everything from baked beans to baked cakes provide a source of carbohydrate. Plant foods are predominantly carbohydrates.

By this logic, if “all carbs are bad", then so are vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. Yet we know that these foods are some of the healthiest and most beneficial for our health. Cutting them out of our diets would be a major mistake.

The real question is how many calories you're taking in.

If you are in a calorie surplus, meaning you are consuming more calories per day than you burn off, you will gain weight. Likewise, if you're burning more calories than you eat, you'll lose weight.

Carbs are not evil

Carbohydrates often come under fire as they provide a lot of calories. However, not all carbs are created equal.

Sugary, processed foods are high in simple carbohydrates like sugar. Your body can easily absorb them and gets a sudden 'sugar rush' when you eat them, which can cause problems with glucose regulation in your blood. They're also typically low in healthy nutrients such as fibre. This combination makes them unsatisfying to eat, and you quickly crave more.

On the other hand, vegetables and whole grains contain carbohydrates, but they're more complex structures which take a while for your body to break down. Because of this, you don't experience a sugar spike. These foods provide a steady stream of energy which keeps you going throughout the day, and reduces any sugar cravings. So, choosing the right carbs can help you maintain a healthy weight, and won't cause you to get fat.

“Microwaving foods makes them less nutritious”: False

Microwaves are both convenient and quick, but they've developed a bad reputation over the years when it come to nutrition. So much so, that microwaving food is sometimes referred to as 'nuking' it!

This term probably comes from the fact that microwaves cook food using microwave radiation. The tiny waves of energy transmitted by your microwave cause the water molecules in your food to spin incredibly rapidly, creating heat which cooks the food.(2)

While all forms of cooking slightly reduce the nutritional value of food, your microwave does not cause any extra damage or degradation. It's simply another way of cooking. And, according to Harvard University, it's quite a good one:

“ The cooking method that best retains nutrients is one that cooks quickly, heats food for the shortest amount of time, and uses as little liquid as possible. Microwaving meets those criteria. Using the microwave with a small amount of water essentially steams food from the inside out. That keeps in more vitamins and minerals than almost any other cooking method and shows microwave food can indeed be healthy. But let's not get too lost in the details. Vegetables, pretty much any way you prepare them, are good for you, and most of us don't eat enough of them. And is the microwave oven good or bad? The microwave is a marvel of engineering, a miracle of convenience — and sometimes nutritionally advantageous to boot.”(3)