Skipping breakfast or skipping breakfast altogether?
Dr. read it. Elephant. Daniel Arnett
No, I didn’t particularly like spinach when I was a kid – especially because it usually ends up on the plate as a warm fragrance from the freezer. But I wanted to be as strong as Popeye. As is well known, the cartoon character squeezes a can of spinach before every exertion, because it contains a lot of iron and builds muscles as hard as steel. Even with green porridge! Even then, in 1982, a scientist explained that everything was a watershed error: spinach contains ten times less iron, instead of just 0.035 grams (0.0035 grams per 100 grams) – much less than liver sausage or chocolate.
“The Truth About Our Food” is the name of the book just published by British author and King’s College epidemiologist Tim Spector (64), which of course also mentions Popeye’s tale. Above all, Spector gets to the core of new food myths. Today there are fewer dietary rules than bans: fats, meat, salt, gluten, alcohol, coffee and sugar should be avoided! But is this true? Does this keep the body fit?
Spector generally rejects fixed-rate claims. He writes, “Assuming that our bodies are identical machines and respond to food in exactly the same way is the most common and dangerous nutrition myth.” Therefore, diet guides with accurate instructions are an impostor to him, but his book does not come out as an absolute truth either, rather it puts common thought patterns into perspective and shows other aspects.
And he immediately arranges on the morning table: “Some of the ideas that surround breakfast are so deeply rooted that hardly anyone asks.” This is the belief that it stimulates the metabolism and that those who do without it eat more during the day and become fat. “Although there is no evidence for these claims, they have been repeatedly presented as scientific facts,” Spector wrote. His conclusion: “Breakfast may actually be the most important meal of the day — but it certainly isn’t for all of us.”
From this individual point of view, he also does not believe in counting calories, since energy consumption varies from person to person. He makes a visual comparison: “Imagine that you intend to go on a short 250-kilometre trip for a week and that your car – like your body – does not have a fuel gauge.” You will assume an average value and hope that the gas is sufficient. But the vehicle is more likely to remain on track or the tank is full.
In an intelligent and enlightened way, Spector challenges common myths about diet and emerges as a level-headed scientist who doesn’t pretend to eat wisdom with spoons. But in the end he couldn’t help but give some instructions. He writes: “Stay away from nutritional dogmas and so-called facts,” because: “Remember: you are not average when it comes to nutrition.”
Tim Spector, «The truth about our food. Why almost everything we’ve been told about nutrition is wrong.” Dumont
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