Feb 23 2009
Top 10 Food Facts Everyone Should Know
In honor of the food issue this week at Synapse, I compiled a list of ten essential diet and nutrition facts you might not know:
- “Vitamins” are not the same as whole foods. Instant ramen and a multivitamin is not a healthy meal. There is no substitute for a diet of whole foods rich in vegetables, beans, grains and fish.
- A healthy diet can prevent or even reverse four out of the six leading causes of death in the US. Evidence indicates that diet is more important than genetics in the vast majority of heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes cases.
- The thinnest, healthiest people in the world eat “high carb” diets. But they definitely do not eat the processed, refined carbohydrates that flood Western culture. If you want to lose weight and live longer without disease, eat more vegetables and whole grains.
- You get plenty of calcium. Americans consume more calcium than most countries on earth, yet still sport some of the highest rates of osteoporosis. This debilitating disease is more likely caused by insufficient vitamin D, not enough exercise and/or too much protein. Also, excess calcium is linked to prostate cancer and milk to ovarian cancer. Calcium does not support weight loss either.
- “Fiber” is not the same as vegetables and grains. Fiber supplements do not offer the same benefits as fiber-filled foods, and do not help with weight loss or protect against disease.
- The best sources of protein are plants and fish. It is relatively easy to get complete protein (i.e., all the essential amino acids) from a diverse diet. Protein from red meat offers more risk than reward. (Yes, pork is red meat.)
- Fruits and vegetables protect your vision. Both cataracts and macular degeneration are strongly tied to diet.
- Fats from land animals and factories are dangerous. Saturated and trans fats (not total dietary fat) are associated with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and obesity. Replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat could save your life.
- Fats from plants and fish are essential. Mono- and polyunsaturated fats protect against heart disease, type 2 diabetes and memory loss. In moderation they can also aid in weight loss, since they increase the satiety you feel after a meal.
- You can lose weight on any short-term diet, but you will probably gain back more than you ultimately lose. This is often true even if you stay on the diet. Focusing on long-term health is the best strategy for sustained weight loss, but it requires patience.
What are other common myths about diet and nutrition?
UPDATE: For more information on the health value of oils from fish, please read my answer in the comments section.
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Tags: calcium, cancer, cataracts, complete protein, fiber, heart disease, high-carb, high-protein, macular degeneration, omega-3, red meat, saturated fat, stroke, Synapse, trans fat, type 2 diabetes, unsaturated fat, vitamins, whole grains
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As always, a very well-written post. When you say that oils in fish are essential – are you suggesting that it is essential that a healthy diet include fish, or that oils are an essential part of the diet, and both fish and plants are good sources of these oils?
Fantastic facts there., I did not even know 1 out of the 10. Really insightful. I guess i need to change my diet alot. BTW you are posting some great stuff. Keep up the good work.
@Travis
That is a great question, but I only have a partial answer. Obviously this question is particularly important to vegetarians, and to make a long story short you probably do not have to eat fish, but I am more confident giving diet advice that does include fish.
What I meant from my statement is “both fish and plants are good sources of these oils”, but I was referring to mono and polyunsaturated fats. Specifically, fish are the best source of polyunsaturated fat.
The most important polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 fatty acids. There are several different kinds of these fats, and the most important kinds (EPA and DHA) are only found in fish.
The other kind ALA is found in many kinds of plants (e.g. walnuts and flax), and technically your body can convert these oils to EPA and DHA. However, this conversion happens at a very low efficiency, and it is not clear you can get enough conversion to, say, fend off heart disease or Alzheimer’s disease. Maybe you can, but it is not clear to me and I do not want to recommend a deficient diet.
Vegetarians are generally suggested to combat this issue with supplements (same with vitamin B12), but all too frequently I have seen supplements be revealed as a poor substitute for whole foods. To be honest, although I recommend (and take myself) vitamin D supplements, I make sure not to go too long without eating sardines or going in the sun.
None of the other promising supplements (e.g. vitamin C and E) have panned out to be good ways to combat disease, and I don’t know why being a vegetarian would give you an exception to this rule.
Granted, vegetarians tend to be healthier than most people, so maybe they don’t need all those vitamins as much.
For me though, I try to eat oily fish 2-4 times per week, specifically for the oil and the vitamin D. I take 1000IU vitamin D supplement, but do not take a fish oil supplement.
I wish the answer were more clear for all of us, but this is where the science is at this point.
About the calcium, I’ve read that caffeine leeches calcium out of your system. True? I’ve also read, like you wrote, that excess protein does the same.
Wow, you weren’t kidding about a detailed response!
I find the issue of fish to be very tricky – I love fish, but I worry about the mercury levels in my favourite fish (Atlantic salmon), farming practices, and the sustainability of eating “fresh” fish from either ocean while living in the middle of the continent (if I still lived on the coast I would eat fish on a much more regular basis).
You have a great point about vitamin D – as I may have mentioned before, here in southern Canada we only get enough sunlight to create our own vitamin D for about half the year, and that may put us at increased risk of MS. Perhaps cod liver oil should make a comeback in our society…
Are vegetarians at increased risk for Alzheimers? I can’t imagine that heart disease is much of a concern for most healthy vegetarians. I would expect that a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes is one of the key health reasons for switching to a plant based diet.
Excellent list! You’ve taken all the key factors of what I consider to be a healthy diet, and compiled them into an easy to digest ten-point list. This will be useful for recommending to others who want to change their diet but don’t know where to start…
One myth is that red wine and chocolate are “good” for you. I consume both, but I think they’re only truly “good” for you in small doses…moderation shouldn’t be overlooked.
Another thought is that not all vitamins/supplements are created equal. Some multi-vitamins are worthless…and even between individual supplements the quality can vary greatly. There are also some supplements that require another to be taken simultaneously for better absorption. Proper absorption is huge…just cause you take the supplement it doesn’t mean you body automatically absorbs the goodness. Of course, it’s better to get that goodness from whole fruits, vegetables, and other foods anyways.
A+ on this article, keep up the great job.
Great article idea; I couldn’t even get past #1 though without needing to comment:
““Vitamins” are not the same as whole foods. Instant ramen and a multivitamin is not a healthy meal. There is no substitute for a diet of whole foods rich in vegetables, beans, grains and fish.”
I have an intuitive feeling that this is true, but I just wish I could understand why it isn’t; the fiber part I get, but ya know, why do we need to eat beans? Why can’t we just extract all the healthy stuff out of spinach, put it in a pill, and be done with it?
Your #5 was a little confusing about the fiber; at first it almost reads like you can’t get enough/proper fiber from vegetables and grains. Don’t fiber supplements actually cause colon cancer?
@Michelle
At very, very high doses caffeine can have a deleterious effect on calcium excretion. But normal amounts of caffeine (<2-3 cups of coffee) have no effect on bone density or fracture risk.
Protein can certainly leech calcium from bones. For normal intakes of protein this is not a big problem, however with the popularity of low carb, high protein diets this is a serious concern. Also, animal protein is significantly worse than plant protein for bones, so you herbivores out there have nothing to worry about.
Animal protein consumption is more correlated with osteoporosis than is calcium intake.
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@Travis
Fish is very tricky, I completely agree. For you (adult male), mercury is not something you need to worry about too much. It is certainly unsafe for the developing brain, and can be toxic to an adult brain in very high doses. But the amount in, say, tuna fish eaten a couple times a week is unlikely to do you much harm.
Farming practices and sustainability are a whole different can of worms. If you like salmon, wild Alaskan is caught sustainably, and is an excellent choice.
These things are a concern to me as well, so I choose wild Alaskan salmon or sardines and anchovies the most often. Remember too that you don't need to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits. The small amount of fish in sushi can go a long way.
Cod liver oil can be dangerous because of the high vitamin A content, which can be toxic.
I do not know if vegetarians are at a greater risk of Alzheimer's, I'm not sure it has been looked at. But certainly people that eat the most fish compared to red meat are healthier.
As you point out, vegetarians are protected against heart disease and diabetes, so the need to lower cholesterol with omega-3 oils is probably not a factor. But if I were vegetarian, I would certainly try to find a way to get DHA and EPA. I am fond of my brain
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@Matt
Great points!
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@Mike
You have hit on a very interesting point. There are a lot of theories out there about why supplements are never as good as whole foods, but they are all unproven.
Most people scientists assume that there is a synergistic effect that makes a whole food more than the sum of its parts. Maybe all the nutrients work together in a delicate balance, and require other foods as well. I imagine this will be the subject of much future research.
Right now we don't have an answer to "why", but the great news is we don't need to know why to enjoy the benefits of whole foods. Who wants to take foul tasting supplements when you could eat a delicious summer tomato instead?
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@Anon
Sorry for the confusion. My point is that supplements are ineffective, but fruits and vegetables are good. I have also heard that fiber supplements cause colon cancer, but have not actually seen the research. I sort of doubt it is true.
Darya, Nice article. I finished reading a book about the power of nutrients in whole foods. Nature built them in such a way that they are MEANT to interact with the other nutrients from the same foods. Which is why whole foods are so vital.
-Nate
Thanks for the list Darya! Its always good to have reminders about this stuff, drive home the points about eating fresh/local/organic. I like how you break down the principles to easily understood concepts, like #8,#9. One i didn’t know was #2, that most of the top killers in the US can be prevented by diet; great article!
Your veggie photo are absolutely fantastic, lively and fresh! Enjoying your posts!
@Nate
That is certainly a compelling theory. It will be interesting to see what science uncovers.
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@Karin
You hit the nail on the head! The amazing thing about all the science is it points us toward a single, delicious, relatively simple way of eating that is compatible with nature. What more could we ask for, really?
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@Meg
I really appreciate the compliment on my photos! I worked hard to improve them over the past 2 months and it is wonderful to have my readers notice =D
I think with president obama talking about preventitive
medicines that people are really relooking at diets and
nutritions as part of that principle.
We may be reaching that point where americans start to live
healthier lives.
I still can’t believe we’ve come to a point where it’s necessary to educate the public that real foods are better than refined garbage and supplements. I’m a Registered Dietitian, and sometimes the amount of ridiculous misinformation that the media/modern medicine/modern quackery spreads is just boggling. KUDOS to you for saying everything I want to say.
I’ve seen research about the selenium content in fish being protective against potential mercury. (Also, another great reason to eat nuts, right?) — what are your thoughts on this?
Thanks Cassie. I haven’t seen the selenium data myself, but generally I am not terribly worried about mercury. I don’t eat much tuna or swordfish, but still mercury seems like a minor contaminant for mature adults considering all the other stuff we are exposed to daily. That being said, if I were pregnant I don’t think I would count on selenium to protect a developing child from mercury poisoning. So basically I think that it may be a small factor, but probably not a large enough one to change my behavior in any way. Others may feel differently.
For vegetarians looking for omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, avocado is a great substitute to fish! It’s mostly monounsaturated fat, with lots of vitamins and minerals (Vitamin K, Folate, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Potassium, etc etc). I’m surprised no one mentioned avocado before when discussing the fish/vegetarian problem!
Thanks Karen, but while you’re correct that avocado is monounsaturated fat, it does not contain abundant omega-3 polyunsaturated fat like fish does. It is much closer in composition to olive oil. Moreover, omega-3 fatty acids from plants are largely ALA, not the beneficial EPA and DHA found in fish. While the body can convert ALA to DHA and EPA, the conversion efficiency is very low. This may explain why fish eaters tend to be healthier than vegetarians. http://summertomato.com/fish-eaters-and-vegetarians-have-less-cancer/
I thought they had EPA and DHA too. Sorry about that!
Thanks for the information! : )