{"id":907,"date":"2013-02-26T10:51:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T00:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/?p=907"},"modified":"2013-02-28T09:32:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T23:32:31","slug":"on-nutrition-myth-presumption-or-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/aerobic-fitness\/on-nutrition-myth-presumption-or-fact\/","title":{"rendered":"On nutrition: Myth, presumption or fact?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Barbara Quinn McClatchy – Tribune News Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Belief that something is true without evidence<\/strong> \u2014 such as betting on your team to win the Super Bowl \u2014 is a presumption.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Belief that persists despite evidence to the contrary<\/strong> \u2014 such as refusing to believe your team lost \u2014 is a myth.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Understanding supported by good evidence<\/strong> \u2014 such as realizing the trophy resides with another team \u2014 is a fact.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do these definitions apply to our long-held beliefs about weight loss? A group of researchers looked at the evidence in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here are a few beliefs they determined to be myth, presumption, or fact (along with a few unsolicited comments):<\/span><\/p>\n

Small changes in how we eat or exercise over a long period of time will cause us to lose large amounts of weight<\/strong><\/em>. It’s a myth.<\/strong> Studies show that small changes result in small weight losses and large changes result in larger weight losses. Duh.<\/p>\n

Eating breakfast on a regular basis helps guard us from being overweight.<\/strong><\/em> It’s a presumption,<\/strong> based on a few small studies done several years ago, say researchers.<\/p>\n

Eating more fruits and vegetables will cause us to lose weight or gain less weight.<\/strong><\/em> This is also a presumption.<\/strong> Health benefits abound from eating fruits and vegetables. Yet there is no evidence that we will automatically lose weight if we eat more of these foods.<\/p>\n

Eating breakfast or adding more vegetables to our diet does not help us lose weight unless if we also eat fewer calories<\/strong><\/em>. This is a fact.<\/strong> We can lose weight with any diet strategy if our calorie intake is low enough.<\/p>\n

Setting realistic goals for weight loss is important so we won’t become frustrated.<\/strong><\/em> This is a myth,<\/strong> say these researchers. Really? They explain that more ambitious goals are sometimes associated with more weight loss. To which I respectively argue that “ambitious” goals can also be “realistic” goals.<\/p>\n

Losing large amounts of weight quickly is not as good for us in the long term as slow, gradual weight loss<\/strong><\/em>. This is a myth,<\/strong> believe it or not. According to controlled clinical trials, people who lost weight quickly at the beginning of a weight loss regimen were as successful after one year as those who had lost it slowly from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Our genes do not determine our destiny to be overweight.<\/strong><\/em> This is a fact<\/strong> \u2014 and a challenge, nutrition experts say. Think of it this way, someone once explained: What we inherit from our parents “loads the gun.” But what we choose to do \u2014 or not do \u2014 each day “pulls the trigger.”<\/p>\n

Physical activity improves our health, regardless of what we weigh<\/strong><\/em>. This is a fact.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Barbara Quinn McClatchy – Tribune News Service Belief that something is true without evidence \u2014 such as betting on your team to win the Super Bowl \u2014 is a presumption. Belief that persists despite evidence to the contrary \u2014 such as refusing to believe your team lost \u2014 is a myth. Understanding supported by … Continue reading On nutrition: Myth, presumption or fact?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aerobic-exercise","category-aerobic-fitness","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerobicdancing.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}