8 horror stories about nutrition and why you shouldn't believe them

I want to monitor my diet and be in shape. Will you have to squeeze yourself in everything and give up the most delicious?

Not at all. On the contrary, you don't need to do this. To waste away over a leaf of lettuce is just as harmful as overeating rich rolls. Food abuse leads ​Is undereating just as bad as overeating? to some health problems (diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity), and malnutrition to others (lack of vitamins, hormonal disorders, rapid aging).

Proper nutrition is not a hunger strike, but a conscious approach to food. You will only have to give up what prevents you from being slimmer, healthier and stronger. Here's what to fight:

• Food "trash". Foods that fill your stomach but don't nourish your body - like fast food hamburgers.
• Emotion seizing. We got nervous and imperceptibly “persuaded” a kilogram of sweets. They got carried away by the show and ate a huge packet of chips.
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• Food "for the company". Are you familiar with such thoughts: “I don’t feel like eating, but I don’t just sit there while everyone around is eating something”?
• Biting. We walked past the refrigerator and caught a sandwich. And so eighteen times.
• The habit of finishing everything. You are already full, but the thought "I won't leave food!" Leave. Even if my grandmother said that there is beauty and strength at the bottom of the plate.

But you can definitely forget about sweets and pastries?

And again no! Of course, a store-bought whipped cream cake isn't healthy food. But not the only dessert option. The main harm of sweets is in industrial quantities of white sugar that they contain. It is he who leads Dietary sugars and body weight: systematic review and meta-analyzes of randomized controlled trials and cohort studies to health problems and weight gain. Other ingredients of little use - white flour How Unhealthy Is White Flour?, preservatives, dyes, trans fats. If you replace them with healthier counterparts, you can enjoy sweets without harming the body.

A few examples:

• Chocolate → natural cocoa powder.
• Sugar → stevia, maple syrup, honey.
• White wheat flour → whole grain, coconut, rice flour.
• Meringue, meringue, marzipan → fruits and berries.
• Custard, condensed milk → natural or Greek yoghurt.

Many different desserts can be made from healthy ingredients - smoothie bowls with berries, fruit crostats, chocolate brownies. They will taste good, but they won't (literally) stick to your figure.

The whole salary will go to healthy food, won't it?

Not at all necessary. Farmed meat, quinoa straight from South America, and other bio products from a trendy supermarket aren't the only healthy foods. Healthy food won't cost you more than regular food with a few tricks.

First, instead of trendy superfoods, look at domestic counterparts. For example, flax seeds are cheaper than chia seeds. But at the same time they are not inferior to them in nutritional value: flax contains Seeds, flaxseeds useful amino acids and omega-3. Eating 100 grams of regular buckwheat porridge, you get Buckwheat, unground about 13 grams of protein and lots of B vitamins. 100 grams of imported quinoa has just 1 gram more protein Quinoa, while cereals are 4 times more expensive.

Second, buy local seasonal fruits in summer. In times of abundance, they are cheap. In winter, buy frozen berries instead of imported kiwis and pineapples. Vitamins are stored in them Why Frozen Fruit and Veggies May Be Better For You Than Fresh even at subzero temperatures. And perhaps they will be even more useful. After all, they are frozen at the peak of maturity, immediately after assembly, and are not transported green half the world.

Third, plan your diet, budget for it and stick to this framework. Proper nutrition is a systemic thing, and therefore more predictable. If you give up unplanned snacks, spontaneous dinners in cafes and junk food, some of the budget that went to them will be freed.

Would you have to spend several hours a day cooking?

It all depends on you. If you love to conjure in the kitchen, switching to proper nutrition, you can experiment a lot and try new things. But if you don’t want to play chef, you don’t need to. Cooking healthy food doesn't take longer than cooking regular food. And sometimes, on the contrary, it is faster and easier.

For example, boiling and steaming are common ways to prepare healthy meals. And they practically do not require your participation in the process, unlike frying in oil. Chop a vegetable salad no longer than boil a pack of unhealthy dumplings.

Even if you don't like cooking at all, you can still eat healthy and varied meals at home. MF Kitchen - service for the delivery of delicious and healthy food to your home. MF Kitchen's nutritionists develop a balanced menu for every meal, while our chefs prepare meals using fresh and natural ingredients. All food is carefully checked for quality. You just have to warm up the dish and enjoy healthy lifestyle restaurant food in your own kitchen. The menu even includes healthy desserts.

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It takes iron willpower to diet. Should I start without it at all?

Necessarily! Eating right is not a one-off action, but a lifestyle to which you need to adapt. Our habits are sequences of neural connections in the brain. By about 25 years of age, it is already written in your head What It Takes To Change Your Brain's Patterns After Age 25 basic behavioral patterns. To format them, you need to systematically and regularly repeat new actions. Ignoring the fact that the brain will resist and try to follow the beaten path - for example, to intercept a cookie.

But the good news is, over time, it will get easier and easier for you to stick to new habits. And at the same time, it is impossible to train willpower if you avoid any challenges. Moreover, if you were once tempted by a pizza at a colleague's birthday or could not resist a slice of homemade cake - it's okay. This does not invalidate your progress and does not mean that you are an undisciplined glutton and all this is not for you. Forgive yourself, leave your binge episode behind, and keep eating healthy.

But after 18:00 you will have to starve?

No, it’s not. Nobody remembers exactly where the rule "if you want to be slim - no food after 18:00" came from, but many still continue to believe in it. In fact, we are talking about something else: you should not go to bed with a full stomach. After eating, the blood level rises When To Eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner insulin and sugar levels - this prevents your body from fully recovering.

The last meal should How Long to Wait Before Sleeping After Eating occur 3 hours before bedtime. So if you go to bed before 9pm, you really better not eat after 6pm. For other cases, the time is calculated individually. Another thing is important: dinner should not be heavy, otherwise calories will remain with you in the form of fat reserves.

But you definitely can't do without dietary supplements on proper nutrition?

No, it doesn't work that way. Proper nutrition is about controlling your diet, not cutting yourself off in food and, accordingly, in important vitamins and minerals. Whenever you change your diet, you need to monitor your condition. If you experience lethargy, lack of energy, sleep problems, weight loss, mood swings, hair loss or any other strange symptoms - see a doctor and get a blood test for trace elements. Supplements, herbs and vitamins have a powerful effect on our body, so they should only be taken Can you take supplements without talking to a doctor? when you are sure that we are talking about the lack of a specific substance.

A balanced diet will provide your body with all the nutrients it needs, so switching to proper nutrition alone is not an indication for supplementation. Instead, focus on making your diet varied and healthy.

Will you have to lean on protein and give up carbohydrates as much as possible?

Not really. There is a stereotype that during the diet you need to reduce the intake of carbohydrates: supposedly they are the ones that make us gain weight. But in fact, you need to remember that carbohydrates take different forms: sugar, starch, and fiber. And if the amount of sugar really needs to be reduced, then starchy foods (rice, potatoes, pasta) and fiber (fresh vegetables) should take up 2/3 of your diet, as they say The truth about carbs nutritionists. The reason is simple: carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the body.

The protein intake rate at which they converge Protein Intake - How Much Protein Should You Eat Per Day? doctors, - 0.8 grams per 1 kilogram of your weight. If this value is greatly exceeded, you can get Are There Risks Associated with Eating Too Much Protein? upset stomach, weight gain, calcium loss, deterioration of bones, and other health problems. In addition, as a rule, it is foods with a high carbohydrate content (cereals, vegetables, cereals) that contain the most vitamins and amino acids. So completely abandoning them in favor of protein is the same as depriving yourself of nutrients.