Three Foods That May Not Live up to Their Reputation and Could Wreck Your Workout.
By Anna Bielkheden
With many voices debating the “truth” out here, I recommend doing your own research and determining the risks yourself.
As with anything else, moderation is key to longevity regardless of your diet. I believe our bodies can handle most food products unless we are inherently allergic to them, and as long as we practice common sense.
ONE
Agave Syrup
The hype is:
Agave is a great way to sweeten your food, pastries or drinks without consuming terrifying things like high fructose corn syrup.
The truth is:
Sadly, while there are some rare, clean sources of this product, most Agave is actually worse than your typical sweetener. In fact, unless you find an organic seller who is dedicated to growing and controlling the quality of their own produce, chances are you’ll get your hands on a product so processed and filled with HFCS it bears no resemblance to the original, hyped up “nectar”.
TWO
Coconut Oil
The hype is:
Coconut oil has become very popular among health food enthusiasts the past few years, reason being that it’s supposedly a better source of good fat.
The truth is:
Coconut oil contains 87-87% saturated fats. Advocates defend this fact with saying say that such fats affect the body differently depending on which kind they are. This is accurate to the extent that saturated fat is not one single entity, rather a collection of saturated fatty acids that has various, both good and bad, effects on blood lipids. Coconut oil is said to contain saturated fats of the good kind. Medium-chained acids (6-10 carbons) are thought to have little affect on blood lipid levels, while longer-chain (12-16 carbons) ones produce a negative effect.
Unfortunately, this argument doesn’t work with coconut oil, given that its saturated fats almost exclusively consists of the long-chained lauric acid (12 carbons), which therefore is a negative saturated fat. Clearing that up, there’s really not much healthy left about coconut oil.
THREE
Juices
The hype is:
Juicing will help you lose weight, “cleanse” your body from toxins, rest your digestive system and supply your body with an abundance of vitamins and minerals.
The truth is:
You will lose mainly lean body mass and water if you are using juices exclusively to diet, as most juices lack in important macro nutrients such as protein. As far as cleansing goes, well that’s why you have a liver; and if you want to rid your body of toxins you certainly shouldn’t drink an uncontrollable amount of juice, since you actually risk over consuming certain vitamins and yep, that in itself is toxic. And good luck eating regular foods after juicing for a week or two – the importance of “resting” your digestive system is a fictional notion entirely created by the juicing industry. What your digestive system needs to work optimally is fiber, and that’s one of the main things juice is lacking.