nutrition

What’s in a Food?

Separating nutritional fact from fiction

Laura Berger, MS, RDN, LD, is a Westerville dietitian with a knack for cooking and a passion for helping others reach their own health goals, too. This issue, we asked her questions about which common health beliefs still hold truth. We’re hungry for answers and Berger is serving them up hot!

Nutrition science is constantly evolving with new studies released daily on the best diets to tackle everything from diabetes to weight loss, cancer to dementia and all the other chronic health issues in between. Many people have preconceived ideas based on what the media, previous diets or their friend next door have told them is “good” or “bad.”

Some ideas are true while others die hard, like the low fat craze of the ’80s. It can feel impossible to keep up with the everchanging terrain of the nutrition world, so today I’ll touch on a few questions I often hear from clients to help clarify what the latest scientific research suggests.

Are carbs bad for you?

First, we need to understand that carbs, or carbohydrates, are an extremely broad group ranging from high-fructose corn syrup to cauliflower. People are often surprised to learn that most plant foods – vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds – and dairy milk contain carbohydrates. All carbohydrates break down to sugar, but the important distinction is how the carbohydrates are absorbed and processed in your body.

The more fiber-dense and less processed the food, the slower it will be broken down into sugar. It’s the fast breakdown of sugar that causes the spike in blood glucose and is most dangerous because it causes a rapid release of insulin, which can be inflammatory and responsible for weight gain, inability to lose weight, hormonal imbalance, fatigue, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

Our bodies are designed to eat carbohydrates in their whole food form to prevent those rapid rises in blood sugar. I encourage people to shift from eating excessive amounts of grains, such as pasta, bread and baked goods, and added sugar, which is hidden in many processed and packaged foods and beverages, and replace those foods with more vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, fruit, and some whole grains.

Generally, the issue with carbohydrates is having too few unprocessed carbohydrates in relation to carbs from added sugars and refined flours. Calorie for calorie, sugars and processed carbohydrates are not the same and lead to myriad health issues.

Is it better to eat egg whites and not egg yolks?

The idea that you should eat the egg white and not the yolk is not strongly supported in the scientific literature. Eggs and their yolks are, in my opinion, a great food that is low in calories and contains protein, iron, zinc, vitamin D, selenium and several B vitamins.

It was once believed that, because egg yolks contain cholesterol and saturated fat, they should be avoided as they could contribute to high cholesterol and heart disease. However, further research has shown that this is not the case because dietary cholesterol, particularly from unprocessed sources, does not directly cause the elevated cholesterol diagnosis you get from your doctor.

The bigger concern is what you are eating with your eggs throughout the day. Sugars and processed foods that lead to high insulin and inflammation are the greater issue when it comes to high cholesterol and heart disease. Limiting natural sources of fat and protein only creates cravings for more carbohydrates and sugar foods. Unfortunately, the food marketing industry demonizes real whole foods to sell processed foods in their place.

I recommend consuming eggs with plant foods such as vegetables and avocado instead of bacon, sausage and cheese. Those plant foods have a more favorable impact on lipid levels and provide additional benefits. If a person is looking for added protein, they can use the whole egg. One to three eggs per day as part of a whole food, low sugar diet is very appropriate.

Is it true that it doesn’t matter what you eat as much as the number of calories coming in vs. calories going out?

Quality of calories is everything. The diet world promises all the flavor and none of the calories but leaves people hungry, tired and nutrient deprived. Calories come from carbohydrates, fats and proteins but need to be nutrient dense. That means that food should provide some benefit to the body and contain vitamins, minerals and fiber, not just nutritionally empty sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Women especially begin hitting a plateau where calorie counting just does not work for them anymore. Why? Because metabolic function requires nutrients, not just energy to perform and help you lose weight. If you continue to force your body to burn energy without providing the right vitamins and minerals to support that energy production, metabolism slows down over time. Cutting calories doesn’t put focus on food choice, which is a very important component to supporting metabolism and disease prevention.

Inherently, we all know that 100 calories of broccoli are better for us than 100 calories of cookies, but if you put that information into a diet app it will show the same amount of energy for both sources. However, your body processes that energy very differently due to its insulin response and the makeup of the food.

Food quality is everything and a whole food, unprocessed diet will always win out over just cutting calories and still eating unbalanced amounts of junk food. It is important to eat to your energy needs. You may see some results by merely decreasing calorie intake, but it likely won’t give you long-term health, weight loss, improved energy or satisfaction.

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