There has been a lot of fake news about food and nutrition in recent years. Some associate the miraculous properties of food, and others are too disturbing. Learn more about them in this article.
Fake news is appearing more and more often. Thanks to social media and the internet, there is an avalanche of information that we can get to today. Therefore, there is fake food news that is becoming more common.
The topic of nutrition accounts for more than half (54%) of the fake news found by doctors who participated in the Fake Health News Survey.
In general, they see fake food news as stories that are exaggerated in either the good or the bad sense. This occurs when the benefits associated with a particular food outweigh what is healthy.
Today we will look at 5 fake food news you need to know!
Five common fake food news
A post on Nutrition Today argues that we need to make educational efforts to help consumers recognize scientific misinformation about nutrition. The aim is to make everyone aware of the false claims about “food medicines”, “miracle foods” and “disturbing reports”.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular fake news.
1. Fake food news: Do burnt slices cause cancer?
Acrylamide, with an ingredient classified by the International Association for Cancer Registrations, is formed in burnt bread. It is a carcinogen for humans.
However, for this ingredient to appear, the food must have a reduced amount of sugars and amino acids (mainly asparagine) and be prepared at a temperature above 120 (. Therefore, it is not always present.
Meanwhile, this is not exclusive to bread. It can be the same with potatoes , croquettes, coffee , cereals and more. The European Food Safety Authority expressed its concern in 2015 about the levels of acrylamide exposure through diet.
Although high amounts must be consumed to be a health hazard, it is advisable to reduce acrylamide. You should not cook food over 170 ℃ and the food may acquire a brown color, but it should not be dark brown.
Burnt foods release a substance called acrylamide. Although it should be eaten in large quantities to reveal the dangers, it is best to avoid eating burnt food.
2. Fake food news: can you drink whole milk during a diet?
Is choosing skim milk a good piece of advice when following a diet?
However, the intention was to reduce the amount of calories and fat without taking into account other qualities of food. However, current scientific evidence seems to suggest otherwise, as we see in an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .
In addition, European rules on tackling adult obesity even include the replacement of low-fat milk with whole milk as a strategy to tackle obesity.
3. Fake food news: lemon water has a cleansing effect
This new fake story is not true. It is not purifying, nor should it be.
In fact, we have three organs in the body that are already responsible for “cleansing”: the liver, the kidneys, and the lungs. Lemon is rich in citric acid. This may be the reason for this misstatement.
However, there is no such thing as a really cleansing food!
4. Are you obese if you eat fruit after a meal?
Different fruits have different caloric intake. However, whether consumed before, during or after a meal. the caloric intake of fruit is always the same, There is no scientific evidence that the caloric intake of fruit depends on what you eat.
Also, the evidence suggests that it is easier to lose weight with high consumption of fruits and vegetables. This article supports this to a greater extent. In fact, one of the possible ways in which fruits and vegetables can contribute to weight loss is their possible effect on satiety.
There is no evidence to suggest that the caloric intake of fruit depends on the time when it is eaten. In fact, studies have found that eating fruit can help you lose weight.
5. Does eating five times a day speed up your metabolism?
This idea arises from the fact that when you eat, you can expend energy to absorb and break down food of all its ingredients. This is the thermogenic effect of food.
However, it turns out that the calories used for ingestion are more or less proportional to the amount of food ingested and the type of macronutrients. Therefore, if we consume a diet of 2000 kilocalories in one day, it does not matter whether it is in 3 meals or 5, because the thermogenic effect will be the same.
The Journal of Nutrition has published a study in which the authors concluded that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support the claim that increasing the frequency of meals was positive for weight loss .
Conclusion
There is a lot of fake food news other than the ones we discussed. Therefore, it is best to take the advice of proven nutritionists. In this way we can avoid false claims that can even be detrimental to our health.
