Three Wellness Myths to Stop Falling For
Nowadays, it seems like there are more people than ever trying to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do if we want to be healthy.
Gym rats with amazing bodies wearing aesthetic workout gear telling us to not eat eggs, to wake up at 3am, to stop drinking coffee, to never do cardio on a Tuesday, it’s a barrage of information coming from innumerable (and often unaccredited) sources, how on earth can we tell what’s actually good advice?
It’s always important to be critical when taking guidance from others, to discern whether or not what they’re saying is going to work for you, or if it even makes sense.
I’ve looked into 3 wellness tips that I have personally seen fitness influencers push on my For You page, and am going to explain how they’re actually not as beneficial as people want you to believe.
1. Drink Lemon Water Because it Will Detox Your Body & Burn Fat
There’s a theory going round that if you start your day with a glass of warm water mixed with lemon juice, this will detoxify your body and help to burn fat.
While it might be true that drinking lemon juice can aid in digestion (although there’s not enough evidence to say for sure yet), there is absolutely zero evidence that it will burn fat.
As for its use in ‘detoxifying’, in order to remove toxins from the gastrointestinal tract, the body needs fibre, and there is nowhere near enough in lemon juice to make any kind of impact.
If you wanted to drink lemon water in the mornings because you like the taste or it makes you feel good, then absolutely keep doing so, but remember that due to its acidity, it can cause erosion of your teeth enamel, so use a straw, rinse your mouth afterwards, and brush your teeth an hour after drinking it to lessen the potential damage.
2. You need to be Getting 10,000 Steps a Day
If you were to ask around, this is most likely the number of steps that people will say you need to take every day for good health.
But this number representing the optimum amount of steps to take daily only came to the fore as a result of a Japanese marketing campaign from 1964 advertising what was essentially a pedometer.
The device was called a Manpo-Kei, ‘man’ meaning 10,000, ‘po’ meaning steps and ‘kei’ meaning meter, translating to ‘10,000 steps meter’.
However, the actual number of required steps a day varies from person to person, and while it certainly won’t be a bad thing to get this many steps each day, according to Nuffield Health: “If you try to walk 7,000 steps and find this easy, aiming for 10,000 per day shouldn’t be too difficult. If you try to squeeze 5,000 in and find this tricky, you may need to re-evaluate your goals and start off aiming for 3,000.”
3. If You Want to be Healthy, Don’t Eat Carbs
Yes, it is true that eliminating carbohydrates from your diet can cause you to lose weight.
Cutting carbs like bread and pasta from your diet causes your body to break down fat into ketones in order to get energy, a process called ketosis.
But as a consequence of this, you may suffer increased headaches, constipation and fatigue in the short term, and there is not enough evidence to say what the long term detriments could be, because our bodies need carbs, as they provide us with energy and essential nutrients.
Rather than entirely removing them from our plates, it might be a good idea to instead adopt the 80/20 mindset when planning your meals.
This method of eating means that 80% of the time, you focus on eating balanced, healthy foods, and the other 20% of the time is reserved for getting to enjoy foods that aren’t necessarily healthy, but are delicious!
This way of eating is far more sustainable compared to a strict diet like Keto, as with no food forbidden, you don’t feel deprived.
Here’s the link to BBC Good Food page on the 80/20 diet if you’re interested in learning more:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/special-diets/what-is-the-80-20-rule-diet
To wrap this up, I just want to make clear that if you abide by any of these, I’m not going to tell you to stop, because ultimately, if it makes you feel good, that’s great.
The main takeaway I want to emphasise here is to not get bogged down with all the advice that’s pushed onto us, take a moment to stop and really consider what someone is ‘putting you onto’ rather than just blindly accepting and believing them.
Misinformation travels far and fast nowadays, so consume social media mindfully, and critically.