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Nutritionist Debunks 6 Food & Drink Myths | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Expert nutritionist debunks 6 food and drinks myths, that people will be shocked about.
Richie Kirwan, an expert nutritionist, takes us through 6 common myths, that need to be debunked. While some of these myths can be really well known in the general population, some are really specific and only circulate in online nutrition communities. Those communities often act like echo chambers where people keep hearing the same bad information over and over again until they believe it as fact.
The problem with fake news like that is that it can be really hard to get people to unlearn it, which is often something they need to do to make progress with their nutrition. Hopefully, some of these will help you make better nutritional choices in your day-to-day life.
Right, let’s debunk some nutrition myths.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Lemon water
04:21 - Broccoli v Steak
05:28 - Pink Himalayan rock salt
08:47 - Fructose corn syrup
10:30 - Any more myths need busting?
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0:00
should you be adding lemon juice to your
0:01
water or eating steak to get your
0:03
omega-3 let's talk about that
0:07
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:08
kirwan and today we're going to talk
0:10
about some of the most common nutrition
0:12
myths that i hear
0:14
all the time and i'm going to explain
0:15
exactly why they're all i'm
0:18
going to say a lot in this video just
0:19
saying i'm always astounded by just how
0:22
strongly some nutrition myths hang
0:24
around in people's memories it's like
0:25
people hear something that sounds
0:27
interesting it gets spread around by
0:29
word of mouth or these days by social
0:31
media and then becomes common knowledge
0:34
or something that people just accept as
0:37
fact while some of these myths can be
0:39
really well known in the general
0:40
population some are really specific and
0:43
only circulate in online nutrition
0:45
communities those communities often act
0:48
like echo chambers where people keep
0:50
hearing the same bad information over
0:53
and over again until they believe it's
0:55
fact what's worse is when a small part
0:58
of the myth is based on actual nutrition
1:00
fact that makes it really hard for
1:02
people to know what to believe or not
1:05
and the best way to describe information
1:06
like that is nutribolics nutritional
1:09
information that is mostly pure but has
1:12
enough nutrition truth to make it
1:14
believable that's nutribolics and the
1:16
internet is full of it the problem with
1:19
fake news like that is that it can be
1:21
really hard to get people to unlearn it
1:23
which is often something they need to do
1:25
to make progress with their nutrition
1:27
hopefully some of what we're going to
1:28
talk about today will help you make
1:30
better nutritional choices in your
1:32
day-to-day life right
1:34
let's debunk some nutrition first off
1:36
let's talk about the internet's favorite
1:37
way to start the day a glass of lemon
1:40
water if you were to believe the
1:41
internet you'd think that a glass of
1:42
water with a few slices of lemon could
1:44
cure cancer which it obviously can't a
1:47
quick google search for the benefits of
1:48
lemon water comes up with a huge list of
1:52
claimed benefits from improving your
1:54
hydration i mean
1:56
who would expect that from a glass of
1:57
water right
1:58
to boosting your immune system which is
2:01
based on the fact that lemons contain
2:02
vitamin c which we can get from pretty
2:05
much any fresh fruit or vegetable the
2:07
most common benefit we hear though is
2:09
that apparently a glass of lemon water
2:11
in the morning will help with weight
2:13
loss and you know what that's butch the
2:15
problem is one there's no reason that it
2:18
should help with weight loss lemons
2:20
don't have any metabolism boosting
2:21
compounds and two there's virtually no
2:24
evidence that it actually causes weight
2:26
loss in humans in the first place i say
2:28
virtually because while i was
2:29
researching this video i did find one
2:31
study of the effect of lemon water on
2:34
weight loss i found this one study in an
2:37
obscure journal that i had never heard
2:39
of before that did report weight loss in
2:41
a group drinking lemon water daily the
2:43
only problem is they had absolutely no
2:45
control group no dietary records and no
2:48
exercise records either so it's really
2:49
hard to say if it actually was the lemon
2:51
juice that caused the weight loss
2:52
another myth about lemons that is even
2:55
more ridiculous is that lemon water can
2:57
help to alkalize the body something that
3:00
is alkaline has a higher ph than neutral
3:02
and is the opposite of an acid which has
3:04
a lower ph than neutral if you remember
3:06
from science class the ph scale is what
3:08
we use to measure how acid or alkaline a
3:11
substance is the first face slapping
3:14
part of this is that lemons are an
3:16
incredibly acidic fruit they're used in
3:18
cooking because of their high content of
3:20
citric acid how is something that is a
3:22
source of acid going to make your body
3:24
more alkaline but besides that you can't
3:27
actually change the ph of your body with
3:29
food our bodies are very finely tuned
3:32
machines and to operate properly the
3:33
body needs to maintain homeostasis that
3:36
means our body works really hard to make
3:38
sure our temperature blood sugar levels
3:40
salt levels and yes our ph stays within
3:44
a very fine range you can't change the
3:47
ph of your body by just eating foods
3:49
that are supposedly more acidic or more
3:51
alkaline that's not how biology works no
3:53
matter what some people online might
3:55
claim there's nothing wrong with lemon
3:57
water and it probably does contain some
3:59
vitamins and polyphenols in low levels
4:01
but believe me drinking some every day
4:04
is not going to transform your body or
4:07
your health now the next myth is one
4:10
that really
4:11
really annoys me as someone who
4:13
researches the benefits of protein on
4:15
health according to some sources
4:17
broccoli is a better source of protein
4:20
than steak well
4:22
that's what the idea stems from the fact
4:24
that for the same amount of calories
4:25
broccoli has more protein than ribeye
4:27
steak this information is probably one
4:29
of the most misleading ideas in the
4:32
nutrition space you see per calorie
4:34
broccoli may have more protein than a
4:37
ribeye steak but that's only because
4:39
ribeye is one of the highest fat and
4:40
therefore highest calorie cuts of steak
4:42
you can buy broccoli's advantage
4:45
disappears as soon as you switch to a
4:47
lower fat and lower calorie stake like
4:50
round or fillet or sirloin because
4:52
they're all much lower in calories
4:54
besides that to get just 25 grams of
4:57
protein you'd need almost one kilogram
5:00
or 10 cups of broccoli
5:02
you could get the same amount of protein
5:04
and half the calories from a little over
5:06
100 grams of lean steak i don't care how
5:08
much you love your broccoli but eating
5:10
that much would be unpleasant on top of
5:13
that the high volume and fiber content
5:15
of the broccoli would make it harder to
5:16
digest and absorb all of the protein it
5:18
contains there are far better sources of
5:20
protein broccoli whether you're a meat
5:22
eater or a vegetarian next up you've all
5:25
probably seen pink himalayan salt for
5:27
sale everywhere and you may have heard
5:30
that it's better than regular table salt
5:32
because it's a great source of minerals
5:34
and apparently that will help you do
5:35
everything from improving your sleep to
5:37
helping balancing your body's ph sound
5:40
familiar well that's good now in
5:43
fairness there is a difference between
5:45
table salt and paint himalayan rock salt
5:47
table salt is made up of more than 99.8
5:51
sodium chloride so it's pretty much pure
5:53
salt pink rock salt on the other hand is
5:55
made up of about 97 to 98 sodium
5:58
chloride what makes up those other two
6:00
percent
6:01
something called trace minerals trace
6:04
minerals mean that the amounts are so
6:06
small that you can barely measure them
6:09
but they probably don't have any effect
6:13
in your body and yes those minerals can
6:15
include beneficial minerals like
6:17
potassium iron and calcium but they can
6:19
also include toxic minerals like lead
6:22
and mercury and even radioactive
6:25
minerals like uranium plutonium radium
6:28
so is pink rock salt harmful no because
6:32
all those minerals are present only in
6:34
trace amounts too small to have any
6:37
effect on health positive or negative to
6:39
be honest if you even tried to get a
6:41
relevant amount of any of those trace
6:43
minerals found in rock salt you'd
6:44
probably suffer from having way too much
6:46
sodium in your body first pink rock salt
6:49
has absolutely no benefits over regular
6:51
table salt it just looks pretty salt is
6:54
still something we need to make sure we
6:56
don't overuse and we certainly can't use
6:59
it to get other minerals apart from
7:01
sodium okay next up have you ever heard
7:03
that grass-fed beef is healthier because
7:05
it contains loads of omega-3s yup you
7:08
guessed it that's both omega-3s are a
7:11
type of fatty acid and one of them is
7:13
called alpha-linolenic acid or ala and
7:16
it's considered an essential fatty acid
7:18
because we can't make it in our bodies
7:20
and need to get it from our food to be
7:22
healthy but when we eat ala which is
7:24
produced by plants it needs to be
7:26
converted to more active forms in the
7:28
body the active forms are fatty acids
7:30
called epa and dha unfortunately humans
7:33
aren't very good at making epa and dha
7:35
ourselves so it's probably a better idea
7:37
to get it pre-formed from foods like
7:39
oily fish but anyway back to beef it is
7:41
definitely true that grass-fed beef is
7:44
higher in omega-3s compared to regular
7:46
beef which is often fed grain in fact
7:49
some studies have shown 11 times more
7:51
ala four times as much epa and twice as
7:54
much dha in grass-fed beef now that
7:58
sounds really impressive
8:00
but
8:01
10 times almost nothing is still not a
8:04
lot you see in terms of the amount of
8:05
fat you get in a portion of beef it's
8:07
not a good source of essential fatty
8:09
acids meaning you need to eat a lot of
8:11
it to change your body's levels of
8:13
essential fatty acids to give you a
8:15
better idea of what i'm talking about
8:17
a 100 gram portion of salmon could have
8:20
two grams of combined epa and dha to get
8:23
the same amount of epa and dha from lean
8:26
grass-fed beef you'd need to eat over
8:28
six kilograms of meat now do you see why
8:31
it's not a great source of omega-3s
8:32
grass-fed beef is probably healthier
8:35
than conventional beef for a number of
8:36
reasons but omega-3s is not one of them
8:40
save your money and either eat fish or
8:42
take an omega-3 supplement
8:44
next okay you might have heard that high
8:46
fructose corn syrup is far more
8:48
fattening than regular sugar well this
8:50
one is actually total blood too you see
8:53
there are some people that say that
8:54
fructose in sugar is a major problem for
8:56
health you see fructose is metabolized
8:58
differently from glucose the other
9:00
monosaccharide in table sugar one thing
9:02
that is different is that fructose may
9:04
be more easily converted to fat in the
9:06
liver a process called de novo
9:08
lipogenesis but that's not going to
9:10
cause weight gain unless someone is
9:13
eating more calories than they need in
9:15
fact we have a lot of evidence where
9:17
people are on high fructose diets and
9:19
don't gain weight as long as they don't
9:21
eat excess calories it's because of
9:23
fructose that people assume high
9:25
fructose corn syrup is even worse for
9:28
health than regular sugar high fructose
9:29
corn syrup is made industrially by
9:31
fermenting corn it's super cheap and
9:33
that's why it's become so popular as an
9:35
ingredient so much so you can see it in
9:37
the ingredients lists of many processed
9:39
foods these days the thing is
9:41
high fructose corn syrup doesn't really
9:43
contain much more fructose than table
9:45
sugar table sugar is already 50 fructose
9:48
corn syrup on the other hand usually has
9:50
a maximum fructose content of 55
9:53
not a big enough difference to have a
9:55
major effect on health or your waistline
9:57
the real issue with both sugar and high
9:59
fructose corn syrup has to do with how
10:01
much of it people eat today we eat a lot
10:04
more processed foods these days and they
10:06
often contain a lot of sugar or high
10:07
fructose corn syrup along with fat now
10:10
there's nothing inherently wrong with
10:12
processed foods but
10:14
many processed foods especially ultra
10:16
processed snack foods are just super
10:18
easy to overeat and that's what leads to
10:21
weight gain you shouldn't make high
10:22
fructose corn syrup a big part of your
10:25
diet and the same goes for regular sugar
10:26
too they both have the same effects on
10:28
health and weight gain right so there
10:31
were six really common nutrition myths
10:34
that we've debunked today were any of
10:35
them surprising
10:37
let me know in the comments below and
10:38
let me know if there are any more myths
10:40
you'd like me to debunk and remember to
10:41
like and subscribe to the my protein
10:43
youtube channel for more great
10:45
evidence-based information
10:47
[Music]
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