More Health Myths

Little health-quips that get thrown around in gyms, gitness centers, aerobics classes, your grandmother's book club meetings, and more. A whisper from an old coach trying to stay in the game. Health myths.

They say you need to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day to stay healthy, have nice skin, and be well-hydrated, 64 ounces total. While it is true that you need to be drinking a good amount of water, why on earth would the decided quantity by 64 ounces? This takes nothing into consideration. Who needs 64 ounces of water? 120 pound sedentary woman? A 220 pound triathlete? No one really seems to know the answer.

Yes, drink lots of water. Being dehydrated (as a lot of people are likely to become if they drink only 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water every day) damages your body by restricting the availability of water-soluble nutrients.

Contrary but similar, oversaturation probably does you more harm than good, actually, as the nutrients in your body should be in certain proportions to your body's level of hydration. While a little bit of fluctuation will hurt no one, oversaturating completely throws things off kilter.

Also, this myth does not take into account the amount of water we get from food. Different people will get different amounts of water from food; One who eats a lot of fresh fruit is more likely to be more well-hydrated than someone who lives off of dehydrated mushrooms and crackers, or something equally ridiculous.
By the time you're thirsty, you're already partially dehydated (estimates range fro 3 percent to 10 percent), and that's not good. Conclusion: Drink water throughout the day, but do not waterlog yourself, or try to use water to stave off hunger for a little longer. All that really does is water you down, quite literally. Being extremely hydrated and having a sodium imbalance is called hyponatremia. Random factoid: "Natrium" means "sodium" in German.

Another myth that I really thought would've been long-since eliminated by now is that of "Carbohydrates make you fat!". Atkins is dead, the glycemic index makes sense of a lot of things, your ancestors loved carbohydrates for millions of years before modern man, in our infinite wisdom, decided we'd try to restrict them and see what happens. Carbohydrates do not make you fat, in the same way that fat does not make you fat, or that, yes, even protein can make you fat. A Calorie is a Calorie, for the most part--carbohydrates are 4 Calories per gram, as is protein. This, appropriately, brings me to the next myth.

"Fat makes you fat". This is essentially untrue, but in practice, it can be that way. While carbohydrates and protein are 4 calories per gram, fat is 9 calories per gram; That's 2.25 times the caloric density in fat of an equivalent quantity of carbohydrate or protein. This can make it easy to ingest far too many calories if you're used to eating very large meals. However, fat does have the very nice quality of satisfying hunger better than protein or carbohydrates. Saturated fat, for one example, causes the stomach lining to produce a hormone that adjusts the levels of leptin (the hormone that affects hunger) so that a feeling of satiety is experienced. Conclusion: Eat fat in small quantities, because, while it does not translate directly to one's becoming fat, it is easy to overindulge on it. The hunger-satisfying effects of fats will not be experienced for 15 or so minutes following consumption, so you could eat a lot of fat in 15 minutes before realizing how full you are and then not being hungry for a very long time. If 15 or more minutes pass and you're still hungry following a meal with a lot of fat in it (or any other macronutrient, really.), eat some more. That is, of course, provided you have the time. If you don't, determining your basal metabolic rate (BMR, not to be confused with Body-Mass Ratio) might be helpful in stopping you from overeating and allowing you to consume the right amount of calories to keep you from being hungry until the next time you get to eat.
Fat is not a bad thing.

"Fruit juice is good for you" is another commonly recited axiom of misinformation. Think about this: What is a fruit? Sugars, fiber, vitamins, and some enzymes. Right? Right. When you're drinking fruit juice, you're drinking sugar, vitamins, and maybe some enzymes. No fiber. Fiber helps reduce the glycemic index of the fruit, and without it, fruit juice will spike your insulin pretty high pretty fast. This is a no-no. If you're going to ingest fruits, ingest them in all their guts and glory.
There are a lot of worse things you could be drinking than fruit juice, though. If given the choice between fruit juice and a Coke, take the fruit juice, for your health. There is also evidence that fructose, the sugar in fruit, is more easily converted into fat in the body. This is something to think about, but nothing to worry about.

"Eggs are bad for you". No, they are not. If you have a certain cholesterol-storing condition, then, maybe they might pose a bit of a problem, but for someone who exercises regularly and is in good health, eggs are awesome. The protein in them is more bioavailable than whey protein, and contains a wide variety of amino acids. Also, eggs are relatively low-calorie, high-protein, and they pack a bit of a Vitamin A kick as well. Studies have shown that consuming the cholesterol in the yolk from eggs can result in a dramatic increase in the body's ability to recover and gain muscle and adapt to a workout.

I'm sure there will come a point in the near future when I must strike down more dietary, nutritional, health-related or otherwise body-ish myths that have been irritating me and should be irritating you. Learn the facts, and do not believe the hype.

Thank you for your time.