To a healthier and more potent lifestyle- Busting myths

Thanks to the food world filling up with trends, fads, and stacks of misinformation, it’s become increasingly hard to find reliable nutrition information. How many times have we dropped our plans of hitting the gym just because of people propagating that once we stop working out, pounds of fat get added to us?

We personally conducted a survey where people sent us their top health myths and queries and well, guess what? We’ve got all your doubts covered! Here we have the very knowledgeable and renowned nutritionist of our city,

Dr. Deepa Agarwal bust all your common myths and help you in becoming healthier.


 

Fizza Asks : Does a rice diet makes you fat?

Deepa Answers: White rice and other starchy carbohydrates have a bad reputation when it comes to weight loss. You will often find it on lists of forbidden foods lumped in with things like pastries and cookies, which are nothing more than empty calories. As with so much else in life, it’s not that simple.

Rice alone won’t make you fat unless you exceed your daily recommended caloric allowance day after day and pair it with fried foods or high-fat sauces. If you choose whole-grain rice and watch your portion sizes, you won’t have to cut rice out of your diet to lose or maintain a healthy weight.

Kumal Asks: Tea on an empty stomach lands you with acidity. Is this true?

Deepa Answers: Heading for that freshly brewed cup of tea or coffee first thing in the morning can do you more harm than good. Drinking coffee on an empty stomach increases acidity, which in turn causes heartburn and indigestion throughout the day.

Drinking tea on an empty stomach can suppress the secretion of gastric juices and reduces bile and acid in the stomach. It can also reduce your appetite.

Salah Asks: Plucking out grey hair will induce more grey hair growth. Myth or Fact?

Deepa Answers: Plucking grey hair will not cause three or more grey hairs to grow back in its place. However, plucking is not an advisable activity because it can destroy the hair follicle and possibly lead to bald patches. Overall, the real truth behind greying is that it is dependent on multiple factors.

While further studies need to be done, reducing stress and smoking will not only potentially decrease your chance of greying prematurely, but also have other positive health benefits.

Does Eating chocolate gives you acne?

Deepa Answers: It’s an old wives’ tale that chocolate causes/worsens acne and has yet to be proven by science. Caffeine in chocolate is a major culprit. Science says that dark chocolate does not cause acne, but if you eat a lot of sweets, sugary foods, processed foods, or fast foods, all things can contribute to acne/problem skin.

I would say that eating dark chocolate will not affect your acne unless you’re allergic to something in the chocolate, allergic to chocolate, or if it’s high in sugar. Sugar can wreak havoc on your skin and greasy/processed/fast foods can be hell on your skin as well.

 

Nishat Asks: Is it true that Once you stop going to the gym, you’ll gain weight faster?

Deepa Answers :When you are gymming, you gain some extra muscles. Say that now you suddenly stopped exercising. Your daily movements/activity has reduced. So your body does not need those extra muscles that you have developed.

Those muscle will start to go off. Now this is the process that makes you look ‘fat’. Suddenly your toned up muscles will loosen up which in term will loosen your skin a bit and this is what makes you look  fat/chubby. On top of that, we tend to eat more when we exercise and even if you suddenly drop your exercising to zero, your eating quantity will still not go down immediately but will take time. But now since you have stopped exercising, the extra food quantity going in will be turned to fat. So, becoming fat is not because you have left the gym, but because you have left the gym and your food intake is still almost the same.

Pranjal Asks: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Clarity please.

Deepa Answers: Apples have a good claim to promote health. They contain Vitamin C, which aids the immune system, and phenols, which reduce cholesterol.

They also reduce tooth decay by cleaning one’s teeth and killing off bacteria. It has also been suggested by Cornell University researchers that the quercetin found in apples protects brain cells against neuro-degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease.

Raza Asks: You need to drink 8 glasses of water everyday. Do you?

Deepa Answers: The body is about 60% water, give or take. You are constantly losing water from your body, primarily via urine and sweat. To prevent dehydration, you need to drink adequate amounts of water.

There are many different opinions on how much water you should be drinking every day. Health authorities commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, which equals about 2 litres, or half a gallon.

This is called the 8×8 rule and is very easy to remember. However, some health gurus believe that you need to sip on water constantly throughout the day, even when you’re not thirsty. As with most things, this depends on the individual. Many factors (both internal and external) ultimately affect your need for water.

 

Is Organic food  better for the body?

Deepa Answers: Organic limits the type of pesticide, not the use of it. Often the naturally derived pesticides aren’t as effective and need to be used more often. At first I thought it might be better for your health.

Then I found it wasn’t, according to lots of studies. But I still was glad it was there because it doesn’t use pesticides. Then I found out it uses more pesticides. Now I think it’s horribly overpriced food. Synthetic pesticides are specifically designed to be harmful to pests and nothing else.

Birds, beneficial insects, soil biomes and even people are affected more by organic pesticides at staggering rates. But we buy into it because we believe in the internet age.

Is Coffee  bad for health?

Deepa Answers :For years, doctors warned people to avoid coffee because it might increase the risk of heart disease and stunt growth. They worried that people could become addicted to the energy that high amounts of caffeine provided, leading them to crave more and more coffee as they became tolerant to higher amounts of caffeine.

Experts also worried that coffee had damaging effects on the digestive tract, which could lead to stomach ulcers, heartburn and other ills. All of this concern emerged from studies done decades ago that compared coffee drinkers to non-drinkers on a number of health measures, including heart problems and mortality. Coffee drinkers, it seemed, were always worse off.


Contact- Dr.Deepa Agarwal

Nutriclinic (5pm to 6.30pm Monday to Saturday)

98, Sardar Patel Road, Opposite to Parade Grounds, Secunderabad, Telangana. India, 500003

Phone: 9940220005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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