4 nutrition myths you need to debunk

Food is a very vast subject and surrounded by a series of myths. Therefore, demystifying them is important so that we can improve the way we eat. For this reason, nutritionists Myrla Merlo and Mara Cristina de Sousa Miranda clarify some of them and give tips for eating better.

1. Diet products can be consumed at will

Myth. Diet products are those that do not have one or more ingredients in their composition, such as: sugar (sucrose, honey, glucose) – suitable for diabetics; fat – suitable for people with cholesterol problems; salt – recommended for hypertensive patients. For example, diet chocolate does not have sugar in its composition, but there is a high concentration of fat, harming people with hyperlipidemia.

2. Fats turn into muscle

Myth. Turning fat into muscle is impossible! When you, through physical activity, manages to have muscular hypertrophy (increase in muscle) and, at the same time, lose fat, it is certainly due to independent processes. Adipose tissue (fat) does not have the ability to turn into muscle.

3. Mango with milk is bad

Myth. In colonial times, slave owners spread this myth in order to reduce the costs of milk intake, which was expensive and exclusive to planters. Mango, on the other hand, was a hearty food.

4. Eating chocolate favors the appearance of acne

Myth. Several studies analyzed did not show a relationship between increased consumption of chocolate and the appearance of any kind of change in the skin. What is known is that plasma glucose elevations, which occur as a result of the ingestion of a significant glucose load, can cause an increase in testosterone and a decrease in sex hormones, involved in controlling the secretion of the sebaceous glands, providing the appearance of acne.