Month: August 2018
Diet & Nutrition Myths Debunked
1. Sugar Causes Diabetes
The most common nutrition myth is probably that sugar causes diabetes. If you have diabetes, you do need to watch your sugar and carbohydrate intake, with the help of your Registered Dietitian, to properly manage your blood sugar level. However, if you do not have diabetes, sugar intake will not cause you to develop the disease. The main risk factors for Type 2 diabetes are a diet high in calories, being overweight, and an inactive lifestyle.
2. All Fats are bad
It’s a long-held nutrition myth that all fats are bad. But the fact is, we all need fat. Fats aid nutrient absorption and nerve transmission, and they help to maintain cell membrane integrity – to name just a few of their useful purposes. However, when consumed in excessive amounts, fats contribute to weight gain, heart disease and certain types of cancers.
3.Brown Sugar is better than White Sugar
The brown sugar sold at grocery stores is actually white granulated sugar with added molasses. Yes, brown sugar contains minute amounts of minerals. But unless you eat a gigantic portion of brown sugar every day, the mineral content difference between brown sugar and white sugar is absolutely insignificant. The idea that brown and white sugar have big differences is another common nutrition myth.
4.Brown Eggs are more nutritious than White Eggs
Contrary to a widely believed nutrition myth, eggshell color has nothing to do with the quality, flavor, nutritive value, cooking characteristics, or shell thickness of an egg. The eggshell color only depends upon the breed of the hen.
5. Avoid seafood to lower blood cholesterol
I still can’t believe it, but I heard this nutrition myth from my own doctor! In fact, the dietary cholesterol found in seafood and other meats has little effect on blood cholesterol in most people. Saturated fats and trans fatty acids are the most important factors that raise blood cholesterol.
6.Avoid carbohydrate to lose weight
The key message that many low-carb diets convey is that carbohydrates promote insulin production, which in turn results in weight gain. Therefore by reducing carbohydrate intake, you can lose weight. Unfortunately, this is just another nutrition myth.
7. Avoid nuts as they are fattening
Yes, it’s true that nuts are quite calorically dense. Fifteen cashews, for instance, deliver 180 kilocaleries! On top of that, it is very tough not to overeat these tasty snacks. But if you can restrain yourself from overeating them, nuts can be a part of a healthy diet.
8. Eating for 2 is necessary during pregnancy
Energy requirements vary among individuals. Unfortunately, the idea that pregnancy is an ice cream free-for-all is a nutrition myth. It is generally recommended that pregnant women increase their daily intake by 100 kcal in the first trimester and 300 kcal in the second and third trimesters. An extra snack before bedtime consisting of a fruit, a serving of milk or yogurt, and a few biscuits is often enough.
9. Skipping meals can help lose weight
Many people think that by skipping a meal, they will be eating less food and therefore lose weight. As we now know, this is a nutrition myth. People who think skipping meals means weight loss do not understand how our bodies work.
If you skip a meal, your body will think that you are in starvation mode and therefore slow down the metabolism to compensate. You then tend to overeat at the next meal. Often, skipping a meal and then eating too much at the next one means that you have a higher total caloric intake than if you just ate more frequently throughout the day. A better approach is to eat smaller frequent healthy meals and snacks to keep your blood sugar balanced.
10. Red meat is bad for health
I often hear people saying that they do not eat red meat. When I ask why they don’t, or even what they consider to be red meat, the answers vary dramatically.
It is a nutrition myth, however, that red meat is altogether bad for your health. Instead of excluding red meats, choose leaner cuts of beef and pork. For beef, choose eye of round, top round roast, top sirloin and flank; for pork, choose tenderloin and loin chops.
Cycling Training Nutrition
Ok, I’m not going to bore you with in-depth details about what ratio of carbs to fats and protein you should eat, you can read an article on that next if you find yourself wanting more details and facts about the number crunching side of good nutrition.
Now, some of you might be doing cycling training so that you can lose weight. Still, you need to remember, if you are doing almost any kind of sports training, to get in shape, lose weight, or both, you need to eat enough to support your physical activity. What I am saying is it isn’t good to under eat. If you aren’t doing any physical training, then eating less is a perfectly fine way to lose weight, however, when you are doing sports training you need to eat a surplus of calories to make it really pay off. Your body will need those extra calories to build muscle, and to give you the energy to participate in the activities involved with whatever you are doing.
The next big thing you need to do is to eat healthy. You don’t need to eat healthy all of the time, or buy 100% organic food. (It’s great if you can, but a lot of people can’t afford it). None the less, you need to pay attention to what you eat before and after any kind of training you do for cycling.
So, what’s healthy food? Generally speaking, fruits, veggies, and water do the trick pretty well. Most other stuff that isn’t widely known NOT to be a healthy food to eat works alright most of the time too. Just make sure you stay away from things like: alcohol, soda, pastries, and other junk foods before workouts. One of the main reasons to do this, other than those foods being bad for you, is that many of them, like soda or alcohol, will have a soporific effect, or other negative impact on your training, which can add up to be a severe detriment to your progress.
In general, you should avoid consuming any of the above mentioned foods entirely while on a cycling training routine, or a cycling training program. It’s very important to have a good exercise program for your sport, but you won’t be able to make the progress you want with your cycling training program unless you have good nutrition to back up your efforts.
To recap:
1) Make sure you eat enough, food is your body’s energy source, no food, no energy.
2) Make sure you drink enough water! Your body uses more water than normal while performing any kind of strenuous physical activity, and if you don’t drink enough water, you may feel tired, dizzy, and experience headaches.
3) If you really can’t live without your junk food, don’t eat it before or after exercising, and I mean several hours before or after. (Like 3-5 hours).
4) Eat healthy whenever you can. This means fruits, veggies, organic food, and water as your primary source of liquids.
Don’t forget to make a good cycling workout routine/training program. If you don’t have enough experience to create one for yourself, there are many top quality guides and programs already on the market.