Against preconceived ideas about food

[Article updated on 19/09/2023]

Food is an area with many ideas for best practices. They are all different from each other. We would almost get lost there. As a result, you no longer know who to believe or even what to do to have a better diet.

Above all else you may think about your health. But more commonly you are looking for solutions for physical and psychological well-being. Wanting to lose weight and finding an image with which you will be reconciled and uninhibited.

Weight loss diets are all around us. We talk about methods among certain nutrition professionals, we deliver dishes that will make you lose 10 kg in a few weeks, we sell you pills supposed to burn fat. We also talk about dietary rebalancing. Perhaps finally to gently rename the word “Diet”. The latter has been less considered since studies have been able to show its deleterious effect.

If 95% of weight loss or dietary rebalancing diets fail today, it is because the miracle method does not exist. However, common thoughts persist and even seem to seem like a supreme truth that one absolutely MUST stick to in order to achieve a weight loss goal. You’ve heard at least one of these thoughts. Here are some explanations to sort out fact from fiction.

Do starchy foods make you gain weight?

The most common thought is that starchy foods make you gain weight. Appreciated in the form of bread, of pasta, of rice, potatoes or dried vegetables it will be enough to ban them or reduce them from our plates to lose weight. Well that’s false!

Starches, or the family of cereal products, are our fuel. They provide us with our energy, carbohydrates. The body is able to use them as and when needed. They are determined according to the type of activity we have, our size, our gender and our age. Maybe your plate contains only starchy foods?

In this case, the best way to act would be to diversify the content of your dishes. This will allow you to eat something other than energy, such as fiber, vitamins, minerals… To do this, you just need to add green vegetables, which will bring tastes, textures and colors to your meals.

In addition, be aware that 80% of snacking between meals is due to insufficient intake during meals. Carbohydrates at each meal allow you to hold on and snack less if you don’t want to eat between meals.

Should you avoid eating fatty foods?

Fat is the lipids that our body needs every day. It provides us with energy, participates in the synthesis of hormones and the absorption of certain vitamins. In short, fat is life!

It is true that there are different types of effect on our health depending on the quality of it. There are two main families of lipids: unsaturated fatty acids and saturated fatty acids. And a parallel family, trans fatty acids. On the other hand, once again, it depends on the quantity we consume. Within the first family you will find oils, fatty fish, nuts, avocado… while the second family is represented by cheese, meat fat, butter, cream… Trans fatty acids are the lipids which have been heated to very high temperatures and certainly the most harmful for our health.

Eat everything, cheese, oil, butter, nuts. Of course, while still enjoying the pleasure of eating them. In addition, you will be more satisfied with fatty foods, which means that you naturally eat less of them than other types of foods. On a daily basis, when you eat cheese, you eat one or two pieces, not a whole plate. Like the oil that you do not measure by the glass but by the spoon. Therefore, butter on your morning toast, oil for cooking and seasoning, some oilseeds for snacks and cream on your favorite dishes and to vary the pleasures.

Should we ban sugar if we want to lose weight?

Chocolate, candy, cookies, sugar hidden in industrial foods. It is everywhere and you want to chase it out of your daily life. But nothing helps, it comes back into your life just as quickly and sometimes in greater quantities. Here, I am not talking about the sugar naturally present in foods such as fruits and starchy foods, but about the sugar that we add to preparations.

There is white sugar, the most commonly used, brown sugar, whole sugar, Rapadura. But also sweeteners such as agave syrup, honey, maple syrup. In any case, know from a point of view of calorie intake, all are equal. On the other hand, from the point of view of quality there is a difference. In addition, some have a higher sweetening power, like agave syrup for example. That is to say, you will need to use less to get the same taste result as with refined white sugar. The least refined sugars (Rapadura, wholemeal, etc.) also provide some minerals.

Do you see yourself cutting out your pleasure foods throughout your life? Obviously you tell yourself that it is only time to rebalance and that once you have found your figure to your liking, small intakes of sugar from time to time will not do any harm. Think again. If you stop eating a food that you like for a period, you will benefit even more from it when you start again. Your consumption may increase to compensate for the withdrawal period. In conclusion, the best way to consume sugar is different for each person. Some will like to eat chocolate every day, have sweet biscuits for a snack or even have a handful of sweets every evening… This contributes to their nutritional balance and more precisely to their emotional needs.

Why can these thoughts be harmful to your eating behavior?

You have understood, we are human and need not only to nourish our body but also our mind by maintaining pleasure each time we eat. If your diet is guided by this type of injunction (example: I like biscuits, I would like to eat them as a snack but it is not good for me), are you eating it with pleasure?

Do you eat dark chocolate because you prefer it to milk chocolate or because your thoughts tell you that it is better for your figure and health? Be aware that milk and dark chocolate contain the same number of calories and that milk chocolates can be of good quality.

If you think you are in this situation and your diet is not healthy on a daily basis, get support from a caring professional and, above all, be careful of “weight loss specialists”. Here you have some keys to spotting these speeches.