There are so many resources educating on nutrition and what's best for our health. With myths and misconceptions abound, it can be hard to know which statements are reliable and evidence-based. Informed choices through a deeper understanding of healthy eating and nutrition labels can help. Let's explore nutrition facts and myths, best practices for information reliability, and the tools to navigate our food-related decisions. Allowing you to build a sustainable approach to nutrition.

Important Education Takeaways

• It’s important to reflect on your personal practices, beliefs, and questions around food and nutrition. Taking time for critically thinking allows you to get to the heart of your choices.

  • Identify your health goals by getting specific in what are you hoping to achieve and how you can get there. Examine what has worked for you in the past and what hasn’t to learn from your successes.

  • Ask yourself why you believe what you believe and investigate where you may have gotten your information.

  • Try to avoid following recommendations that you may have heard about from social media, your personal trainer, a neighbor, or a family member. 

  • Instead, get your information from reliable sources, such as registered dietitians, medical professionals, and quality research studies.

  • Ask questions and get support when needed.

• Misconceptions around diet and nutrition are abundant. When trying to eat for your health, it’s important to stick to the facts.

  • Healthy Fats and Oils.

    • Misconceptions: Conflicting messages on healthy fats and oils can cause confusion. Being unsure of a statement or comparison are great examples, such as: is margarine healthier than butter, is coconut oil healthy, or are seed oils toxic.

    • Facts: Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats can improve your cholesterol levels and improve your overall heart health.

      • Limit saturated fats coming from foods like fatty meats, cheeses, butter, whole milk and tropical oils including palm and coconut oils.

      • Instead enjoy healthy fats coming from olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds and fish.

  • Protein.

    • Misconceptions: We are told to eat more protein, while avoiding eggs and red meat. In many situations, processed meats – deli meats, turkey bacon, and jerky – are toted as ‘healthy’ protein foods.

    • Facts: Prioritize quality, unprocessed protein foods including lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, reduced fat dairy, and plant-based proteins such as beans (including soy), lentils, nuts, and seeds. Minimize your intake of processed meats as much as possible as these are not only high in fat and sodium but are also linked to increased cancer risk.

  • Carbohydrates.

    • Misconceptions: Claims that carbs are making us fatter and sicker have us questioning the health benefits of whole grains and fruits.

    • Facts: Include complex carbohydrate foods as part of a healthy diet. Remember to eat a variety of minimally processed grains such as oatmeal, brown rice, barley, and quinoa while limiting highly processed grain products such as white bread, crackers, and baked goods. Lessen your intake of added sugars coming from sugar sweetened beverages, concentrated sweets, sugary cereals, yogurts, granola bars, etc.

  • Weight Management and Body Composition.

    • Misconceptions: Oversimplified assumptions that eating less and exercising more will help us achieve a healthy body weight. This can lead to feelings of failure and shame when we are “doing everything right.” Underlying factors can be overlooked when trying to achieve optimal health.

    • Facts: When trying to eat healthy, focus on eating a plant-forward, high fiber diet. Incorporate a variety of colorful produce, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices. Plant foods offer heart- and gut-healthy fibers, as well as an abundance of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds.

• Eating real, quality food is important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Choose fresh foods and homemade meals as much as possible while reducing your reliance on convenience items, highly processed foods, and restaurant meals. Preparing your own meals at home gives you the ability to control the ingredients as well as modify the amounts of fat, sodium, and sugar used in your foods.

• Remember that healthy diets and fitness routines look different for each person.

  • Make lifestyle choices that work for you and help you meet your individual health goals.

  • Practice eating with intention. Eat mindfully by listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Eat intuitively by trusting yourself and choosing foods that nourish your body and fuel your needs.

  • Get specific in setting your health and wellness goals.

  • Be realistic and aim to optimize your health at any body weight, shape, or size.

  • Find ways to move your body doing activities you enjoy.

  • Work to create sustainable healthy habits that can last a lifetime.

Recipes

• Recipe of the month: Comfort Harvest Bowl

  • As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.

• Bonus recipe: Protein-Packed Egg Salad

  • From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.

We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).

Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.