Misconceptions about Health Food - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep. 27)

Hi, I'm Elliot, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today, I'm going to talk about some misconceptions about health food. Misconception number one, people who only eat raw food have better digestion

It turns out your body is pretty good at digesting, regardless of whether the vegetables you're eating are cooked or raw

Some believe that since cooked foods lose some nutrients and enzymes, then raw food must have all the proper enzymes that aid digestion

Some of a plant's enzymes do go away when they're cooked at a temperature over 118 degrees Fahrenheit

but by the time the enzymes in raw food arrive at a stomach, they've pretty much all broken down, so they don't have too much of an impact

Misconception number two, dark bread is healthier than white bread. Actually, a lot of brown breads are made with the exact same white flour that white bread is made with

Sometimes they're dyed with things like molasses or caramel. So if it just says wheat on the package that doesn't necessarily make it any healthier because almost all varieties of bread have wheat in them

If you're shopping for healthy bread what you want to look for is 100% whole wheat or whole grain wheat

This means you'll get the extra fiber that you want and need misconception number three artificial sweeteners promote weight loss

If you look at it logically they do artificial sweeteners like Splenda contain no calories So if you looking to reduce calories in your diet they a good replacement for regular sugar which has around 16 calories per teaspoon But some studies have revealed that artificial sweeteners

are correlated with weight gain in people, though experts still aren't sure exactly

why. For instance, the San Antonio Heart Study observed over 3,500 adults for about

8 years in the 80s. They found that the more artificially sweetened beverages a person

drank, the more their BMI tended to rise. This echoed the results of another study conducted

in the 80s by the American Cancer Society. They followed almost 80,000 women, creepy

and noticed that within a year, more artificial sweetener consumers gained weight

compared to the rest of the women. Misconception number four, if a food label says natural, it's good for you

In the US, pretty much any food can have the word natural on its packaging because the FDA hasn't set any guidelines for the word

According to their website, from a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is natural

because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth

That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives

However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color

artificial flavors, or synthetic substances. And that's why you see products like natural Cheetos

Speaking of natural foods misconception number five agave nectar is better for you than sugar Some people prefer agave to other sweeteners because it considered more natural but it turns out that it actually contains more fructose than any other sweetener including high fructose corn syrup Agave has a fructose content of 55 to 97 but high fructose

corn syrup products average about 55%. This is notable because some studies indicate that fructose

increases the risk of liver damage and cardiovascular disease, although this still

needs to be studied more. Agave also has more calories than sugar. There are 60 calories in a

tablespoon of agave and around 40 in a tablespoon of sugar. Though why you'd want just a tablespoon

of sugar, I have no idea. Misconception at number six, margarine is always better for you than butter

So as a general rule, experts say that margarine is better because it has more good fats than butter

so it contains ingredients that reduce LDL, aka bad cholesterol. And butter actually contains

cholesterol, but if the health content of your margarine is important to you, don't just grab

the first one you see at the store. Some margarines contain trans fat, which is not ideal. Trans fat

actually lowers HDL, aka good cholesterol. A good rule of thumb is to go for tub margarine

rather than stick margarine. Misconception number seven, brown eggs are more nutritious than white eggs. The color

of eggs has little to do with nutritional content. In fact, it's really only affected

by the genetics of the hen who laid it. Some lay brown eggs, and others lay white eggs

Regardless of the color an egg will contain around 70 calories and 6 grams of protein Which brings me to misconception number eight brown sugar is healthier than white sugar Not true Brown sugar is basically white sugar It just that the molasses is removed in the process of making white sugar

But brown sugar includes molasses, so it does have a few different minerals, like calcium

and potassium, but not enough to really be advantageous. It also has about the same calorie content as white sugar

Misconception number 9, local means organic. According to one survey, 23% of Americans and Canadians believe that local food means

the same thing as organic food. That is not true. In fact, the FDA doesn't regulate the word local

on food labels, so that product could be from somewhere like, I don't know, 400 miles away

1,000 miles maybe? 2,000? I can keep going. Misconception number 10, organic foods have

more nutrients. In 2014, research published in the British Journal of Nutrition examined 343

studies of organic and non-organic food. The authors found that vegetables, whether organic

or regular, had around the same levels of most nutrients, like vitamin C and vitamin E

They did note that organic foods contain more antioxidants though, so that's a good reason

to keep eating organic