2024-01-28 19:45:30
There is a lot of wisdom and myths circulating around food. Some of them are true, others are not, and some are suddenly viewed differently again due to new research results. Who is supposed to keep track of that?
The expert Veronika Albers from the nutritional therapy app Oviva can do this. She knows exactly which assumptions about food are correct and which we should forget. After all, that’s her job. In the Berliner Zeitung she clarifies seven of the most common questions about healthy eating.
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1. Does coffee remove water from the body?
A classic: It is said that you should drink a glass of water with every cup of coffee because coffee removes water from the body and this logically has to be balanced out so that you are sufficiently hydrated.
“The idea is obvious because for some people coffee actually increases the urge to urinate and you have to go to the toilet more often,” says Veronika Albers.
The idea behind it: Coffee causes you to excrete more than you should. However, one has nothing to do with the other. “Coffee can stimulate the filtering function of the kidneys,” says the nutritionist. “In a way, it goes through things quicker. But that doesn’t mean that the coffee removes water somewhere along the way through the body.”
So a false assumption. “That has actually been refuted,” confirms Albers. “Every cup of coffee now counts as part of the drinking volume.”
2. Anyone who eats salad every day lives healthily. Correctly?
“Salad is actually very healthy, which is mainly due to the fact that it has very few calories in terms of volume, but a lot of nutrients and fiber,” summarizes the expert. “The quantity gives you a good feeling of satiety, and the fiber is good for intestinal health.”
The nutrients it contains – vitamins, trace elements, minerals – are important for many body functions, including skin renewal, but also for the nerves. So if you want to stay healthy, you should eat salad more often.
But salad alone is not enough. In principle, any salad is good, but if you otherwise eat ready-made meals, don’t do any exercise, and maybe even smoke, you couldn’t really call it an overall healthy lifestyle.
By the way: From a nutritional perspective, it is better to first rinse the head of lettuce and then chop it up, as Veronika Albers explains: “When cutting, the cell walls are damaged so that nutrients can be flushed out.”
3. Are carrots actually good for your eyes?
The vitamin A contained in carrots “is definitely good for the eyes,” says the nutritionist. “However, it is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means you need a little bit of oil for your body to absorb it.”
And there’s another hurdle: “Vitamin A is in the cell structure and you can’t get it out of the carrot when it’s raw,” says Veronika Albers. “You can only get the vitamin A out through a gentle cooking process.”
This means: Anyone who nibbles raw carrots will consume a lot of healthy fiber and health-promoting phytochemicals including various nutrients, but no vitamin A. You can only get this if you sweat, steam or boil the carrots. The vegetables can still be al dente.
Carrots do not help if you have poor eyesight, but “if you have developed a slight visual impairment as a result of a vitamin A deficiency, you can counteract this. And they are also good as a preventive measure to maintain eye health. It’s not a myth that carrots are good for the eyes,” says the expert.
4. Margarine is healthier than butter – because of the cholesterol!
For a long time it was said that butter raised cholesterol levels, which is why people with cardiovascular diseases in particular were advised to avoid it. The same applied to eggs. And both foods have now been rehabilitated.
There is still a lot of movement when it comes to margarine versus butter, says Veronika Albers, “but it cannot be said across the board that one is healthier than the other.”
First of all, butter is a natural product that consists of 80 percent animal fats – more precisely: milk. “The butter is a very pure product that does not contain many additives and has a good taste,” says the nutritionist.
However, butter also contains a lot of saturated fatty acids, which in turn can have a negative effect on blood lipid levels, although it is of course important to consider how much butter you actually consume. “As a rule, the amounts are not so high that you have to worry about your health,” explains the Oviva expert.
You don’t have to be afraid of butter, just keep an eye on the quantity. If you have cardiovascular problems, you shouldn’t eat butter cakes, mashed potatoes, butter vegetables or roux-based sauces in addition to the butter on your bread.
Margarine, on the other hand, is an artificial product and you should look at the list of ingredients. “If it says that it contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, that’s good and healthy. “Trans fatty acids, on the other hand, which must be identified, are harmful to the body,” says Veronika Albers. “But you also have to look at how much you actually consume.”
However, what is a real fallacy would be the assumption that you would save fat and therefore calories with a half-fat margarine. “You end up paying for 50 percent water,” says the expert. The same applies to yogurt butter. The yogurt reduces the fat content, but it doesn’t make the product any healthier.
“Overall, butter and margarine should only be eaten in moderation,” recommends Veronika Albers. You also have to pay attention to the quantity when preparing the food: “Because they both have one thing in common, a lot of calories.”
5. Honey is healthier than sugar. Or?
One would think that the natural product honey is healthier than refined sugar. But honey also consists of around 80 percent sugar, the rest is mostly water as well as some proteins, enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients – but in very low concentrations.
And so Veronika Albers says: “Honey and classic sugar are both clear forms of sugar, although honey is more of a supersaturated sugar solution that consists of different types of sugar.”
For people with diabetes, it basically makes no difference whether they sweeten their tea with honey or sugar. In terms of taste, however, there is a world of difference between the tasteless, simply sweet industrial sugar and a honey product.
6. Is it true that a digestive schnapps clears the stomach?
“It’s a myth, yes. Alcohol relaxes the stomach muscles and gives us a pleasant feeling, but on the other hand it also delays digestion,” says Veronika Albers. “Alcohol doesn’t clear your stomach.”
Since alcohol is a poison, the body wants to break it down as quickly as possible. To do this, he puts digestion aside. “This means the meal stays in the stomach longer. “With the digestive schnapps we actually achieve the opposite of what we want, namely that the food slides further,” says the expert. “The body always breaks down the alcohol first, then everything else.”
7. Does beer really make you fat?
Alcohol, and therefore beer, has “a high calorie content,” says Veronika Albers. That’s why beer can make you fat. “A half liter contains around 215 calories, a piece of fruit cake around 430.”
Drinking beer doesn’t automatically give you a beer belly – that depends a lot on your other diet and lifestyle, says the expert – but alcohol definitely contributes to the belly.
Aside from the pure calorie content of beer, alcohol consumption has another effect that can lead to weight gain: You get hungry, usually for high-calorie food.
“About one to two hours after drinking alcohol, you notice that you are hungry. This is because the body breaks down the alcohol first. This inhibits blood sugar levels and creates cravings,” summarizes the nutritionist.
Scientists also suspect that drinking alcohol stimulates brain cells that promote appetite. The famous drinking hunger is a completely natural process. You can avoid this with non-alcoholic beer, but unfortunately you won’t gain anything from the drink in terms of calories.
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