The internet hosts a cacophony of competing and conflicting nutrition advice, peddled by folks with widely varying food philosophies. But, as a democratic platform, the web doesn’t filter the worthwhile advice from the faddish nonsense, and it can be hard to know which food trends are worth falling hard for — and which deserve a hard pass. Luckily, there are code words that can tip you off as to which you’re dealing with. Here’s what to know about these terms in order to make informed decisions about your diet:
1. Toxins
Elimination diets and so-called “cleansing” regimens that brand a laundry list of foods as “toxins” should be viewed with suspicion — unless, of course, those foods are actually poisonous the way mushrooms grown in Chernobyl or arsenic-laced jelly beans are. Wheat is not a toxin; if it were, countries like France and Italy wouldn’t both outrank the U.S. in terms of life expectancy by a full three years. Dairy is also not a toxin; people from the Scandinavian countries who consume the most of it also outlive the average American by years.
[See: Here’s How People In 8 Other Countries Stay Healthy.]
Sure, there may be foods that aren’t so good for us — excess added sugar comes to mind — but even then, sugar is not “toxic” in a way that should preclude it from minimal consumption. Fads that brand foods as toxins leave no room for common sense and science; they lump nutritious whole foods like wheatberry salad together with sugary, processed white flour cookies as co-conspirators in a crime to make us all sick and fat. This extreme food faddism produces a relationship with food and eating that’s far more toxic than any of the individual foods demonized by it.
2. Anti-nutrients
A pseudo-scientific smear campaign has been launched against some of the absolute healthiest, plant-based foods in the world, and I’m not having it. People who talk about “anti-nutrients” vilify naturally-occurring compounds in certain whole foods — like phytates in spinach and whole grains, or lectins in beans — and make false claims that these compounds leach important nutrients from the body. In other words, they claim that instead of delivering nutrition to the body, these foods remove nutrients from the body and therefore are harmful. By that logic, I’ve seen spinach, beans, wheat and a variety of other (very healthy) fruits and vegetables get thrown under the bus.
This claim is based on the fact that some nutrients — like iron, for example — are harder for the body to absorb from plant sources than from animal sources due to the presence of such protective plant compounds. But iron, vitamins and other nutrients from plant-based foods are still absorbed to a great extent. And none of these foods actually remove any nutrients from the body or destroy nutrients. In fact, research shows us time and time again that people who eat the most beans, leafy greens and whole grains — in all of their phytate and lectin glory — live much longer, healthier lives than everyone else. Don’t buy into this bunk.
3. Nightshades
There’s nothing particularly scary about a tomato, pepper, eggplant or potato. But when you collectively refer to this family of flowering plants by a foreboding, gothic-sounding name like “nightshade,” it sure is easy to convince people that they’re “toxins” to be avoided. Avoidance of the Solanaceae plant family is core to the “macrobiotic” diet philosophy, though other elimination diet protocols have adopted this principle as well. Shunning these veggies is based on the fact that some distant members of this plant family — like belladonna and tobacco — produce natural “alkaloids” that can act as poisons.
[See: 12 ‘Unhealthy’ Foods With Health Benefits.]
While certain Solanaceae plants contain large amounts of alkaloids, your garden-variety veggies contain very small amounts. Moreover, while some alkaloids can be potent and poisonous, others have actually demonstrated an anti-inflammatory or pain-relieving effect. The science and the nuance, of course, are completely lost when diet fearmongers lump these nutrient-dense staples of the health-promoting Mediterranean diet into the “nightshade” bucket and dismiss them categorically. Bottom line: It’s best not to chew tobacco or eat green potatoes. Now please pass me the ratatouille.
4. Superfoods
Superfood is a marketing term, not a scientific one. Because there is no standard definition of a superfood, anyone trying to sell you a product can — and does — employ the term to bestow mythical nutritional powers on whatever Amazonian berry, ancient Incan seed, powdered leafy green or pulverized Peruvian root he or she wants you to add to your smoothie. Your supermarket is now home to supergrains, superseeds, superfruits and supergreens.
In fairness, most foods marketed as “superfoods” are objectively healthy and rich in health-promoting antioxidants, vitamins and fiber. As such, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to consume them. But the relative healthfulness of a pricey, exotic “superberry” from the Amazon compared to your standard issue blueberry from Maine is certainly up for debate. So if you’re on a budget, you may get more nutritional bang for your buck buying more mundane nutrient-rich foods like local berries, spinach and pumpkin seeds than from minuscule amounts of their pricey, exotic counterparts.
[See: 8 ‘Superfoods’ and Their Alternatives.]
5. Clean
Like superfoods, “clean” eating is a marketing term, not a scientific one. In general, it’s used to describe a food with no artificial ingredients and that’s minimally processed. Some use it to describe plant-based foods, while others will give sustainably-raised animal foods the “clean” designation. I actually like the idea behind “clean” food quite a bit, but because the term is unregulated, any marketer can slap it on anything. I’ve seen highly-processed, cookie dough-flavored, artificially-sweetened protein powders and bars marketed as “clean protein.” This kind of dilutes the meaningfulness of the “clean eating” concept, wouldn’t you say? Here’s a rule of thumb: If a food comes in a crinkly wrapper or the label has to shout at you that it’s clean, it probably isn’t.
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How to Spot Bad (and Good) Diet Trends originally appeared on usnews.com
