On this World Diabetes day, let’s break the 5 myths we have about Healthy Food.

1. Eating heavy breakfast aids in losing weight.

The biggest myth about healthy eating is that if you want to lose weight as an adult, you should eat heavy breakfast in the morning. Lets take a closer look on the truth behind this.

Eating breakfast in the morning boosts your metabolism by activating the thermogenesis process in the body. Therefore, having breakfast helps you to be healthy by aiding your digestion process but it does not create calorie deficit in your body. But heavy breakfast is a big NO-NO if you need to lose weight faster. Breakfast is necessary but forcing yourself to have all the food for the day’s energy is not justified. If you are already feeling peckish when you come out of bed, you should give your body the energy it needs.But don’t force yourself to eat when you don’t feel like eating. Choose healthy foods with less calories for breakfast and keep your spoons down when you are full.

Secondly majority of people believe that eating more food in breakfast protects you from frequent hunger pangs and you tend to eat less during the day. But having a nice breakfast helps to digest food more quickly and you start feeling really hungry a couple of hours after you have your breakfast.If you regularly eat large portions, your stomach gets used to it and you feel hungry if you eat small portions of food.

Try having 2 small portions of meal with a interval of 2-3 hours instead of gorging up a sumptuous meal.

2. Natural sugar is healthier than added sugar.

Really Sorry to say! There is no such thing in the world called Healthy Sugar.

Our body does not differentiate between organic sugar, natural sugar or pure sugar. Consuming large volumes of sugary food, starchy veggies and sweet fruits have the all the same impact on our health leading to obesity, diabetes and increasing risk of heart diseases. The added sugar which is the common sugar that we eat and add to our foods is a combination of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

All the type of sugars have some percentage of glucose and fructose in them. While glucose is responsible for increasing your blood sugar levels, consuming large quantities of fructose is associated with health risks like increased LDL and Uric acid increase.

But, having said this, sugars are not altogether bad for your health .The World Health Organization recommends that sugars not be more than 10 percent of your calorie intake. The American Heart Association wants women to consume less than 100 calories and men to consume less than 150 calories of sugars in a day.

Be it any form of sugar everything in excess is bad- it’s the quantity that makes all the difference.

3. Margarine is a healthier substitute of butter.

Most of us enjoy a blob of butter on our baked dishes, pasta or loaf though we feel guilty and confused of not sticking to a healthy diet. Most of us have substituted our butter spreads with margarine considering this as an healthy option as compared to butter.

Let me clear out your myth , Margarine is as unhealthy as butter. Butter is associated with high levels of saturated fat that are associated with increased risk of heart diseases. Due to this most people switched to margarine as a healthier option. Though margarine has very less saturated fat as compared to butter, it contains high level of Trans fats which raise the level of LDL (bad cholesterol) and lower the level of HDL (good cholesterol).

Therefore replacing margarine with butter does not lower your risk of heart disease in any way possible. Margarines which are in a solid form contains higher volume of trans fats has a worse effect on health as compared to butter. Your goal should be to limit the intake of saturated fats and avoid trans-fats altogether.

Healthier option should be dipping your bread in olive oil instead of coating it in butter or margarine.

4. Salads are always healthy.

Salads have always been associated with healthy eating. While healthy eaters might see such salads as the healthy option, they can contain the same calories as a plate of pasta or a large mac burger from Mc Donalds.

Before starting with any salad just ask yourself few questions – What’s in your salad? What toppings are you loading them with? Are you finishing up all the greens or you are just searching for the croutons or macaroni inside your salad?

Salads with lettuce, green veggies and nuts – GOOD!! But there are so many ways you can go wrong with your salad and end up consuming a lot of calories and saturated fats. Salads can be covered in fatty meat and bacon bits, loaded in butter and cheese, mixed with croutons and macaroni and dripping with thousand island or mayo dressing. These unhealthy add-ons on your salads make them way too high in calories,and it increases the saturated fat and salt over your daily limits.

There are few tips to make your salad healthy.

1. Opt almonds or walnuts for crunchiness instead of croutons, bacons and fried noodles.

2. Push aside the creamy dressings, cheese and butter and opt for olive oil.

3. Instead of fried chicken and pasta opt for grilled chicken or lean meat.

4. If you are not fond of raw veggies you can boil them and consume them with a pinch of salt and a spoon of olive oil.

Salads can be a very healthy choice for a meal, but keep in mind salad does not always mean it is healthy. Have a check on the ingredients and dressings.

5. You can eat as much as you want as long as it’s healthy.

“I always eat healthy foods. Why I am not losing weight?”

The answer is simple : Control your food portion

So all the fitness freaks out there, there is a term called as balanced diet which you might have heard in your primary school. You should be eating all the nutrients within permissible quantities to be fit and healthy.

Lot of weight-watchers eat a lot of healthy foods during the day and in this process they end up consuming more calories than they can actually burn.

The healthy food that we eat—fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and nonfat dairy products do have a lot fewer calories per bite than the less healthy food that’s full of fat and sugar. When you load yourself up with healthy foods like fruits, oats, quinoa, avocado, nuts, greek yogurt, you must be aware that you are not consuming “free” calories”.

Please don’t assume that you can eat any portion size as long as you’re eating only healthy foods. To be honest, even fruit can add up to those extra calories.

For example a quarter of a watermelon,would cost you about 350 calories.

Oats might be healthy, but that doesn’t mean you should overeat it.

Whatever you eat keep a watch on your calories!!!