Hungry Girl is a fun email subscription. However, most of the emails I barely skim, if that. However, one recent email caught my eye. Here are Hungry Girl’s Diet Rumors:
Myth: Carbs make you fat.
Truth: Carbs are not the culprit for your weight gain, excess calories are.
Myth: Large water intake yields instant weight loss.
Truth: Not likely unless you’re replacing calorie-dense beverages such as sodas, juices, and alcohol with water.
Myth: Adopting a vegetarian diet will help shed unwanted pounds.
Truth: Wrong! Vegetarians can eat too much, too. There’s some research that says going vegetarian can actually stimulate weight gain as the carbohydrate-protein-fat proportions become skewed too heavily in the directions of carbohydrate.
Myth: Cutting out dairy can help you lose weight.
Truth: No way, Jose! Put down that copy Skinny Bitch. Low-fat dairy provides an excellent source of low-calorie protein as well as calcium and vitamin D, among other essential vitamins and minerals.
And in other news…coffee & glucose metabolism
Coffee has been touted as a beverage which can decrease risk of type 2 diabetes. Good thing, I am insulin resistant and love coffee! Right? Maybe…
According to recent research recognized by the American Diabetes Association, caffeinated coffee may impairs glucose metabolism. The study discussed below assesses the acute effect of decaffeinated coffee on glucose and insulin levels. This study design was a randomized, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial of the effects of decaffeinated coffee, caffeinated coffee, and caffeine on glucose, insulin, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) levels by means of a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test in 11 men [source].
The study found that some types of decaffeinated coffee may impair glucose metabolism, but less than caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee acutely impaired glucose metabolism in healthy young men as both glucose and insulin were significantly higher after decaffeinated coffee than after placebo. However, decaffeinated coffee did not impair glucose metabolism as severely as caffeinated.
Hm, okay.
I’ll have my coffee with carb-free bacon and eggs.
Kidding…
Mr. Prevention and I are heading to Columbus, Ohio this evening and staying through Sunday. I’m not quite sure what the schedule brings, but I will have laptop in tow.
Question: Do you drink coffee? If so, what’s your coffee order? If not, why not? 🙂
Happy Hump Day!
I drink maybe 1 cup a day if that. When I have it, it’s black with no sweetener. i figure if I’m having coffee, I should be having it because I like bare coffee and not sugar
I love that she points out the “carbs make you fat” myth. I have a really hard time not getting into lengthy debates about it when my friends on a diet discuss the evilness of carbs… Sometimes it’s just easier to let it go…
I DO love coffee but Keith said really I like dirty water because I use about 1/4 scoop of coffe per cup of water…hehe!
Interesting post!!
I drink 1 cup of coffee a day and sometimes don’t finish it. I just add some half and half and I’m good to go!
Great post! I am actually doing a similar post next week about “Urban Food Legends”. There are so many things that people talk about and I think, “Where the heck did you get THAT idea?! False!”.
Regarding the coffee study, I’m really confused and this is one thing that I hate about science! One day I read that caffeine is good for glucose metabolism, then the next day I read it’s bad. UGH!
I used to drink coffee before I got pregnant. Now the smell just bothers me!
I like coffee alright, but I’m no addict. I’ll have it maybe once a week–more if I’m a zombie.
I definitely think no-carb diets are ridiculous. However, cutting out dairy for a lot of people will certainly help them lose weight. The majority of people who eat dairy tend to also eat a ton of fatty cheeses, and simply skimping on dairy can help easily shed calories. As for adopting a vegetarian diet, you have to be smart about it. Sure you can eat pizza everyday and be a vegetarian, but then you’d be better of as a meat-eater!! Some vegetarians also end up the other way with eating disorders. So going vegetarian, one needs to do their research and do it for the right reasons. I’m headed over to check out the website, thanks for the overview!
Nice post nicole…i prefer tea than coffee..
Interesting myths! I love Hungry Girl too, although I also generally skim the e-mails.
The whole “going vegetarian makes you lose weight” thing– SO not true! I haven’t lost a pound since going veg– which is fine, because I didn’t go veg to lose weight, but if someone was doing it for that, I think they might be disappointed!
SO glad about the dairy/carb myths. My two favorite food groups! 😉
I don’t drink coffee (except for the occasional lattes at Starbucks, but those I think of as more “dessert” drinks!), mostly because I just don’t like hot drinks! Well, I drink tea sometimes, but I let it cool off for AWHILE. I kind of wish I did like coffee, though. That way I could get off of the diet sodas!
I saw this Yahoo! article yesterday talking about how water was this “magical elixir” to help you lose weight. But like you said, that’s only if you go from drinking a lot of high-calorie stuff to only drinking water. I don’t even drink JUICE (sometimes, very rarely). Studies have shown that drinking very cold ice water does result in a VERY small caloric depletion because your body uses energy to warm up the water, but it’s not nearly enough to cause any weight loss.
Coffee is nasty to me. I’m almost positive I hate it because when my sister started middle school (and I started 4th grade), my mom had to get up earlier to drive her, so for some reason it became my chore to wake up even earlier, as in 5 AM, and make her coffee. Apparently I’m great at it. 😐
But it’s not that I just like really sweet or creamy coffee or anything like that, because I even hate coffee/mocha-flavored desserts. I hear there’s some health benefits and some not-so-great effects to drinking it but it doesn’t worry me since I avoid it all anyway. 😛
Great myths debunked. Have a safe and fun trip to OH.
Just so you don’t get too confused, this is Melinda from nutrition, food, travel and more, but I have a new wordpress for a side project I am putting together and I am therefore logged in to that account and I know my name is coming up different today.
Very interesting about the coffee! I drink coffee about 3 times a week, usually as a special treat. I probably shouldn’t admit this (but I trust you 😉 ), but I take my coffee with skim milk and Splenda. (Horrible, I know!) I’m working on switching it to honey…and trust me, honey with coffee is really an acquired taste. 😉
I’m not a big coffee drinker. I save it for desperate times like when I have to work at 6:30am for multiple mornings at a time. That way my triple espresso skinny latte really gives me a punch!
I don’t drink coffee, the only real reason being I don’t really like how it tastes. But I absolutely love how it smells!
I don’t drink coffee. I’ve tried to like it so many times, but I just hate the way it tastes! But LOVE the way it smells!!
I think it’s good that you just skim the Hungry Girl emails most of the time. I know the girl has become something of a sensation but her reliance on artificial sweeteners and low fat foods is kind of disturbing to me. I think anyone making a habit of eating the foods she tends to recommend would be consuming a lot of foreign fabricated ingredients.
Anyway, don’t mean to rant. Even though the diet myths unveiled list is interesting enough, I just found Hungry Girl to be a bit of square peg round hole addition to Prevention RD.
Interesting myths and facts! I love coffee. I think I’ve been overdoing it a little lately though. Need to go back to more water, less coffee…
I love reading about health myths and truths. Its so crazy how we are “led to believe” so many untrue things by various industries!
Nope, not a coffee drinker. I just don’t like the taste. Occasionally, I’ll get a frappachino type drink.
I drink so much coffee, not sure what to think about all that. I agree with you on those diet myths…especially the dairy. xo
I also read that chugging water won’t make you lose weight unless, and I’m paraphrasing, it makes you eat less. So, yeah, that didn’t really work for me.
I drink coffee with a little maple syrup and milk. After 7, it’s strictly decaf.
I drink decaf coffee. Even the littlest amount of full caffeine coffee makes me sick. =(
I drink coffee almost every morning, and get cranky if I don’t. I’m actually drinking one right now, and it has cured my headache! See! Miracle! haha!
I…have a bit of a loathing towards Hungry Girl. I just hate the way she categorizes every good as “fattening” and “non-fattening”. There is more to food than calories, and more to life than fitting into a size 4!
I go through love spurts with coffee… I’ll love it for a while and drink it every morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Then I’ll wake up one morning and be over it (like now). I haven’t had a cup in a few weeks and have no desire too. Weird, huh??
Have fun in Columbus! 🙂
I always get so sick of hearing diet myths–if people could just eat a balanced diet in moderation, there would be much less diet hype 🙂
Loved this post Nicole! I usually only have one cup (okay travel mug!) of coffee on week days, and two coffee cups over the weekend – just a little bit of creamer in mine! 😀
Safe travels!!
I feel the same way about Hungry Girl. I read the daily newsletter to find out what “day” it is (ex. National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day)!
I drink coffee if I feel like it. It’s not an instant need in the morning. Sometimes I drink it black (after a workout) and sometimes I get a Skinny Hazelnut Latte – depending on my mood!
thanks for these food myths….love coffee with some soy creamer 🙂
Great post chickie! I love coffee with FF Milk and 6 packets of splenda =)
Tried coffee as a kid, didn’t like it so never tried it again.
Just wanted to say that I love this post and love those myths! So glad you shared
Tried to leave ya a comment the other day, and couldn’t so I came back to try again 🙂 And success! PS no idea Byetta came from that lizard! Learn something new everyday!