I am on a weight loss program, I shouldn’t be eating rice, chapati, dal but eating those processed, packaged and preserved foods like oats, brown bread, soy milk etc is absolutely fine. These are the fair lines of my clients who I encounter at my clinic for the first time. Because of our urge to achieve that ideal body image, we fail to understand the difference between myths and reality. We want to stay fit, yet many of us are making food mistakes that deprive our nutritional reservoir and makes the weight loss journey a strenuous job.

Let’s have a look at the list of myths we are surrounded by and are putting our morale down in shedding off that extra pounds:

• Myth 1: Making Carbohydrate as the villain of the story

  Glucose (the simplest form of sugar) is the only fuel on which the brain functions. Eliminating carbs from the diet and increasing protein and fat intake as in Ketogenic or Atkins diet will yield results but only for that short span of time. Moreover, your concentration level and thinking capacity might decrease due to lack of power to the brain cells. Hence taking them off your diet list is the biggest blunder you could make.

• Myth 2: Choosing Brown bread over Whole wheat bread

  Yes, you have heard it right. Those brown bread which you think are a healthy alternative in regard to whole wheat or multigrain bread are nothing but caramelized. They might have hidden sugar and artificial colors to yield that brown taint. The smartest move that you could make is choosing the latter and looking out for ingredients to avoid eating those white bread with Maida.

• Myth 3: Counting calories and not the source

  We often think that eating that fiber biscuit is far better than eating a calorie enriched banana. This is where we are going wrong. Loaded with natural sugar, vitamins, minerals and fiber, a banana is considered more nutritious than a fiber biscuit which has undergone processing and is loaded with preservatives. The mantra to this is keeping a check on the portions that you consume in a day or week.

• Myth 4: You need a detox plan to break that stubborn weight

  Following that detox plan and living only on fruits or vegetables can never be fruitful in the long run as the body is deprived of essential macronutrients like protein and fat. Those detox pills or liquids sold in the market cannot eliminate the harmful invaders faster in comparison to your built-in crew (the liver, kidneys, and colon). The best to strategy is following a balanced diet, proper exercise and not smoking.

• Myth 5: Eating fat will make you fat

  The kind of fat that you are eating makes a huge difference. Monounsaturated fatty acids that are present in your almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds, fish etc are essential for your hair, skin, movements of your joints, the building of your hormones etc. They help in decreasing the level of bad fat (LDL) in the body and increasing the level of good fat (HDL) in the body. So next time you wish to go fat-free, think over it.

Words of Wisdom:

With the internet booming with such vast information, it is difficult to make the right choices of food. One should always follow an authentic site or take help of a nutritionist to eliminate such dilemmas for a healthy body and living instead of the following something blindly.