Healthy eating myths

Who decided you shouldn’t eat after 8pm?

while some food rules are wellintentioned and can be helpful, most are total BS. They’re restrictive, unrealistic, or unscientific – and, often, potentially bad for your relationship with food. The problem is that rules are one-size-fits-all, while we know that healthy eating isn’t. Our bodies, nutritional needs, tastes, cultures, medical histories, food access, budgets and lifestyles all factor into the best food choices for any one individual. So it naturally follows that rigid, generic rules about eating aren’t going to work for everyone.

1. Avoid processed foods

“This rule is incoherent, and not necessarily helpful for making the best food choices,” says registered dietician Marina Chaparro. According to the Food and Drug Administration, ‘processed’ means that the food has been combined with at least one other ingredient, or changed from its natural state (for instance: tinned, mixed, cut or pasteurised). So “unless you’re eating a raw [whole] food diet where you don’t cook anything, you’re consuming processed foods,” Marina explains.

That includes nutrientrich foods such as yoghurt, whole wheat bread, almond butter and smoked salmon, she points out. “Instead of avoiding processed foods, I’d focus on teaching people how to read a label and not generalising food as good or bad.” (Thinking about some foods as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’ is essentially assigning food a moral value, which can make you feel like a bad person for eating something that seems ‘too processed’ or otherwise unhealthy.)

2. Shop the perimeter

If you haven’t heard of this food rule before, here’s the gist: this supermarket shopping principle is meant to steer people toward adding more produce and fresh foods in their diets. Those are typically in the aisles on the perimeter of a shop, whereas other items (such as packaged snacks and frozen foods) tend to be in the middle.

Adding more produce and fresh food to your shopping trolley when possible can be great. However, this rule also implores you to keep packaged and shelf-stable foods out of your trolley, says registered dietician Cara Harbstreet. “In reality, this is an unrealistic way to shop and cook for many people, who turn to the convenience, affordability, and flavour of foods found in the inner aisles,” she says.

What’s more, “If you only shop the perimeter at the supermarket, you’ll miss out on rice, oats, beans and so many other nutritious foods,” adds registered dietician Marisa Moore. It also makes it seem as though frozen fruits and veggies aren’t even worth considering when the reality is that they’re packed with nutrients and often more affordable than their fresh counterparts.

3. Don’t eat after 8pm

Unless eating before bed gives you indigestion, it’s not inherently worse for your body. More to the point is the reality that for many of us, our schedules aren’t conducive to finishing eating by 8pm. “Many people are eating dinner very early and going to bed super-late, so it’s natural to need [food] because your body still needs energy while it’s awake,” explains registered dietician Dalina Soto.

A cutoff time to thwart your late-night cravings for snacky foods may contribute to your late-night cravings, adds registered dietician Vincci Tsui. “The more we tell ourselves that we can’t have something, the more we want it, right?”