Nutrition Questions and Dietary Fads

[katyseagull]

Do you ever think certain nutrition claims are ridiculous? I don’t know why but I seem to be the world’s biggest skeptic.

Sometimes I get fed up with all the different studies I read about in the news regarding nutrition and diets. I suspect there’s a lot of misinformation being given to the public. The media can report anything with regard to nutrition and people will buy it every time, no questions asked.


At the moment, here are a couple commonly accepted beliefs that bother me,

1) Why do healthy young people need vitamin supplements? In today’s culture don't we get enough vitamins in the food we eat? I’m really curious how the scientists determine our daily requirement and if taking too many supplements could actually be harmful. (One of you scientist types please explain to me how they would go about calculating daily requirement for the average citizen.)

On a related note, do I really need to be controlling my free radicals? My mom thinks I should. She’s totally sold on this antioxidant idea.

Wow, check out this article I just stumbled on when I googled antioxidants.

antioxidants a myth?


"If it turns out that antioxidants in food work because they generate health-promoting quantities of free radicals, that would be an ironic turnaround. It may also explain why supplements and extracts don't seem to work or may even be dangerous: the doses are too high, and produce too many free radicals. "


Now that’s some good science stuff right there.


2) On a completely unrelated note - Why do people still promote the idea that we need a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day? Is there some reason to believe we are all walking around dehydrated or something? Is this a myth or is this factual? I have a friend who is always telling me that she needs to drink more water, that she's probably getting dehydrated. Why do people think this?

I have plenty more examples of common practices that I believe must be myths but I'll have to save them for tomorrow.


So are there any fads or dietary practices that you think are silly? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Blarg]

Everybody's biology is different. Most people supposedly have a need for one or two vitamins or minerals. The next guy's needs will be different. Things like stress and exercise and alcohol may deplete nutrients. So it's silly to paint everyone's needs with the same brush.

[pryor15]

all i know about the water thing is when i drink water during the day, then drink at night, i'm not hungover the next morning, and that's good enough for me

[Blarg]

On the dehydration thing, I've known many women who tell me they have kidney problems because they don't drink enough water, and that their doctor repeatedly tells them they're in real trouble if they don't. I never see them drinking water, too.

Oddly, I've never had a guy tell me he has this problem.

[ChipWrecked]

I am on a water kick right now because a young guy on the day shift has kidney stones [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
2) On a completely unrelated note - Why do people still promote the idea that we need a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day? Is there some reason to believe we are all walking around dehydrated or something? Is this a myth or is this factual? I have a friend who is always telling me that she needs to drink more water, that she's probably getting dehydrated. Why do people think this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Water is very important to the proper functioning of your body, and it is important to replace your normal daily loss of water.

As with most things, the specifics vary from person to person and is largely influenced by your environment, how active you are, and how much water is in the food you eat.

There are health effects to not drinking enough water, so to provide some guidance, we end up with a rule that likely is helpful to the "Average" person.

In general, if you are not drinking enough water, your body will tell you.

Good article on this topic

[Sniper]

Kellog's under pressure from child advocacy groups has voluntary announced stricter nutritional guidlines for advertising to kids.

"The Kellogg Co. said Wednesday that it would phase out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium. Kellogg also announced that it would stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the nutrition guidelines."

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]

There are health effects to not drinking enough water, so to provide some guidance, we end up with a rule that likely is helpful to the "Average" person.

In general, if you are not drinking enough water, your body will tell you.



[/ QUOTE ]


I read the article. I would agree that if you're an active person and involved in any type of sports you would want to make sure you are hydrated. No argument here. But some of us are pretty inactive and sit at computer's all day. I can't really see how we would be in danger of being dehydrated.

On the other hand, preventing kidney stones is a very good reason why one might want to drink a lot of water. Now there's a reason that actually makes sense to me.


Ok check out this article. I skimmed it this morning and found it rather interesting.



Do we need 8 glasses of water a day?


It's debunking the 8 glasses of water a day thing. Not saying that people shouldn't keep doing what makes them feel good, I wouldn't want that (especially for people like Pryor who have found that water helps them prevent headaches.) But this article suggests that the 8 glasses rule was a pretty arbitrary amount with little scientific foundation.

this article needs to exist is to contradict his absurdly pervasive and unjustified idea that “chronic dehydration” is some kind of epidemic. It is probably not. There may be such a thing as “chronic dehydration”, but the weight of expert opinion is clear: if it exists at all, it is not serious, and easily cured in any event.




p.s. I hope someone read the article I linked above on antioxidants. It was pretty fascinating and slightly troubling.

[Sniper]

katy, the article that you link to, debunks the "chonic dehydration" being an epidemic claims, but it does conclude by stating that drinking water does matter and does provide benefit. Just don't worry about it too much.

I also agree with Pryor that drinking lots of water when you are drinking alchohol helps prevent hangovers.

I'll take a look at the antioxidant issue later.

[dcasper70]

[ QUOTE ]
In general, if you are not drinking enough water, your body will tell you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately, most people don't recognize the signals the body sends, or attribute them to other causes.

I used to be a high caffeine guy. Three big cups of coffee by 10 am, mountain dew & cola's through the afternoon. When I felt worn down & tired, caffeine was my answer.
I switched to water when dieting about 5 years ago, and within a month I felt far more energized than I ever had during the caffeine days. No longer having that post-lunch fatigue wass the most noticable change.

These days when I don't drink enough, I can feel it and I understand what my body is telling me. If I never switched to water, I wouldn't know to attribute those feelings to dehydration.