Dr. Nancy Snyderman debunks ‘Diet Myths’

Dr. Nancy Snyderman takes on diet myths both big and small. Ever wonder if muscle really weighs more than fat? If you can eat after 8 p.m. and not gain weight? Do you feel confused over the true meanings of low carb, low cal, reduced fat, low fat? Do you wonder, as so many of us do, if carbs really are the enemy? Throughout the book Dr. Snyderman explains the history and underlying meaning of these myths — and the truths behind them.

Myth 1: Your weight is your fault
Myth 2: Your body shape doesn’t matter
Myth 3: Calories don’t count
Myth 4: Carbs are bad for you
Myth 5: Carbs are good for you
Myth 6: Diet drugs are a magic bullet
Myth 7: Dieting is all you need to lose weight
Myth 8: Supplements will make you thin and happy

Introduction
Very few of us are ever entirely happy with our weight, and I hate the feeling of putting on a few extra pounds. But I’ve found some healthy and acceptable ways to get down to a healthy weight— things that really work. If you’re like I once was — tired of going on and off diets and up and down in weight — I’m going to help you get and stay naturally fit while eating anything you want, not depriving yourself, and appreciating the wonderful body you have.

How can I make such claims? I am a veteran of the diet wars, a doctor, and a reporter. Between medical school, my internship, and my residency, getting pregnant for the first time in my thirties and the second time in my forties, and doing live television, I’ve done it all: I’ve starved myself, and I’ve pigged out; I’ve binged, dieted, skipped meals, and lived to tell about it.

I subsisted on vanilla wafers and black coffee while serving my residency in pediatrics. I relied on graham crackers and peanut butter during my surgical training. I’ve been on liquid diets and protein diets — one week this diet, the next week that diet. I’ve exercised in sauna suits, and I’ve dieted on carrot sticks. There are times when I spent so much time poking my head in the fridge that my nose got frostbite. Add what ever you’ve done to this list, and I would understand. But finally, when diet became a four-letter word to me, I said, Enough is enough. I started making friends with food. So now I have an easy rule. I regard food as fuel. I eat foods I like — even some things that might not be so good for me. As a result, I find it easier to lose weight — I just eat a bit less and exercise a bit more and it falls off.

I’m not a member of a health club — it’s just not my thing. I prefer walking, hiking, or biking outdoors to keep fit. I watch my weight, but I’m not obsessive about it. And I wouldn’t deny myself something I really wanted. Every week, I try to enjoy something from each of my four favorite food groups: the chocolate group, the ice-cream group, the pizza group, and the chips group. But most of the time, I choose healthy foods. Do I have a perfect body? Far from it — but I know I’m healthy. Making friends with food, with diets, and with your body isn’t easy. And a big reason is that most of us have been following certain “rules” for losing weight all our lives. These rules come and go. We are fascinated by them; we follow them. We throw out everything we’re doing and embrace the latest rule. If it doesn’t work, we blame ourselves for messing up. The truth is that these rules are largely “myths,” misinformation that is often considered to be true. Nutrition is a fairly new science and it’s pretty boring stuff unless you are a dietitian. But the most important thing we all need to remember is it is always changing.

That constant change generates loads of myths, many of which I’ll explode in this book — myths like calories don’t count, carbs are bad, and you can’t keep pounds off. How do such myths start, and why do they continue? Some myths are holdovers from our mothers and grandmothers, such as “Bread crusts will make your hair curly,” or “Gum takes seven years to pass through the digestive system.” Others come from fad-diet promoters who use only part of accurate nutrition statements but don’t tell you the whole story. Most are interested in making a buck, not in helping you lose weight or keep it off. Other times, the media report news based on incomplete research or the half-truths these diet promoters provide. Tips on how to eat and exercise, stemming from the latest pronouncements by anyone wearing a lab coat or looking good in Lycra, have often been made on very weak data. In all fairness, they may have been the best guess at the moment. But you hear them repeated so many times that you forget they were rough guesses in the first place and come to believe they represent hard facts.

When I began my career as a medical correspondent in the 1980s, I was frequently concerned that one day I would run out of medical subjects, including nutrition, to talk about. Back then, I had no way of foreseeing the bewildering and conflicting flood of diet advice that would continue to pour in week after week. Americans have been bombarded with all kinds of conflicting nutrition news: whether it’s about cholesterol and heart-healthy diets or lack of fiber as a cause of cancer, whether it’s the latest “miracle” supplement or the dangers of sugar and food coloring, or even whether vegetables are as healthy if they’re store bought as they are when purchased at the farmers’ market. One day, the supplement vitamin E is magic, an antioxidant hedge against heart disease. Then, just as vitamin companies saturate the market with capsules, research shows that vitamin E takers could be more susceptible to heart attacks than those not taking the supplements.

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It can seem as if every food poses a risk for cancer — and that every food contains cancer- fighting agents. Several years ago, health experts promoted a low-fat diet for everyone. Then came the high-protein diet in which promoters said fat is fine, but you need to steer clear of carbohydrates. Eggs used to be bad; now they are good. Butter used to be bad; now we know it’s better than margarine. There is so much misinformation and confusion about what to eat. It gets to a point where there is nothing “safe” left in the refrigerator but the ice maker. As for the shape we’re in, we get fat over the course of years, but we want it off by next Thursday. Hardly a week goes by without some expert somewhere issuing a new report declaring that a certain diet or pill or surgery is the latest magic bullet for weight loss. After being a doctor for more than thirty years, having reported on thousands of diet and nutrition stories, and being a professional dieter myself, I can tell you this:

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