{"id":229344,"date":"2025-09-15T18:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/229344\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T18:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:19:12","slug":"the-new-york-times-dispels-the-top-ten-nutrition-myths-according-to-top-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/229344\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times dispels the top ten nutrition myths, according to top experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Patrick<\/strong>
Kentucky Health News<\/p>\n

In an effort to dispel many of the nutrition myths that persist,\u00a0Sophie Egan, with\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times, asked 10 of the top nutrition experts in the United States a simple question: \u201cWhat is one nutrition myth you wish would go away \u2014 and why?\u201d Here\u2019s what they said.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 1: Fresh fruits and vegetables <\/strong>are always healthier than canned, frozen or dried varieties:\u00a0Despite this belief, Egan reports that\u00a0research has found\u00a0that frozen, canned and dried fruits and vegetables can be just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts. That said, Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the\u00a0Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Times that it\u2019s important to read the nutrition labels to look for added sugars, saturated fats and sodium.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 2: All fat is bad.<\/strong> This isn\u2019t true, according to Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, an associate professor of medicine at the\u00a0U.C.L.A. Center for Human Nutrition. Egan writes that Surampudi said that while certain types of fats, including saturated and trans fats, can increase your risk for conditions like heart disease or stroke, healthy fats, like monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, actually help reduce your risk.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kentucky Health News illustration<\/p>\n

Myth No. 3: \u2018Calories in, calories out\u2019<\/strong> is the most important factor for long-term weight gain.\u00a0Egan reports that while there is some truth to this in the short term, \u201cresearch does not suggest that eating more will cause sustained weight gain that results in becoming overweight or obese.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRather, it\u2019s the types of foods we eat that may be the long-term drivers\u201d of those conditions, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at\u00a0Tufts University, told the Times. In particular, Egan pointed to ultraprocessed foods as a leading culprit in weight gain.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 4: People with Type 2 diabetes shouldn\u2019t eat fruit.<\/strong>\u00a0Dr. Linda Shiue, an internist and the director of culinary medicine and lifestyle medicine at\u00a0Kaiser Permanente\u00a0in San Francisco, told the Times that it\u2019s time to bust this myth, adding that \u201ceveryone \u2014 including those with Type 2 diabetes \u2014 can benefit from the health-promoting nutrients in fruit\u00a0like fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants,\u201d Egan writes.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 5: Plant milk is healthier than dairy milk.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just not true,\u201d Kathleen Merrigan, a professor of sustainable food systems at Arizona State University and a former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture, told the Times. In particular, Merrigan stressed that cow\u2019s milk has more protein per cup than plant milks, at eight grams per cup. Further, she said many plant-based milks have many more added ingredients than cow\u2019s milk, like sodium and added sugars.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 6: White potatoes are bad for you.<\/strong>\u00a0While white potatoes are known to have a high glycemic index, potatoes can actually be beneficial for health, Daphene Altema-Johnson, a program officer of food communities and public health at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, told the Times. Egan reports that white potatoes are rich in vitamin C, potassium, fiber and other nutrients, especially when consumed with the skin.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 7: You should never feed peanut products<\/strong> to your children within their first few years of life.\u00a0For years, this was the advice of experts, but now, allergy experts told the Times that \u201cit\u2019s better to introduce peanut products to your child early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the\u00a0Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research\u00a0at the\u00a0Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine,\u00a0gave Egan a detailed description of how to introduce peanut products to babies that don\u2019t have severe eczema or a known food allergy at around 4 to 6 months, and encouraged families with babies that have severe exema to talk to their pediatrician or an allergist about when to introduce peanut products to their infants.\u00a0\u201cIt is also important to feed your baby a diverse diet in their first year of life to prevent food allergies,\u201d Gupta told the Times.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 8: The protein in plants is incomplete.<\/strong>\u00a0Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist and professor of medicine at Stanford University, told the Times that plant-based foods contain all of the building blocks of proteins, called amino acids, but the proportion of these amino acids isn\u2019t as ideal as that found in animal-based foods. \u201cSo, to get an adequate mix, you simply need to eat a variety of plant-based foods throughout the day \u2014 such as beans, grains and nuts \u2014 and eat enough total protein,\u201d Egan writes.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 9: Eating soy-based foods can increase the risk of breast cancer.<\/strong>\u00a0Egan reports that high doses of plant estrogens in soy called isoflavones have been found to stimulate breast tumor cell growth in\u00a0animal studies. \u201cHowever, this relationship has not been substantiated in human studies,\u201d Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the\u00a0Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,\u00a0told the Times.<\/p>\n

Myth No. 10: Fundamental nutrition advice keeps changing \u2014 a lot.<\/strong>\u00a0This is not the case, Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, told the Times. Egan writes: \u201cYes, science evolves, but the bottom-line dietary guidance remains consistent. As author Michael Pollan distilled to seven simple words: \u201cEat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.\u201d That advice worked 70 years ago, and it still does today, Dr. Nestle said.<\/p>\n

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