Meaningless Nutrition Buzzwords — Just Life Trends
Everyone wants to eat healthily, yet the term “healthy” isn’t defined in any way. Many other food-related keywords used on packaging or by influencers don’t either. These words and phrases are designed to make you feel good (or awful) about your decisions while providing little to no information.
Clean
“Clean” is at the top of the list. It simply means “things I wish to believe are good,”. And it accomplishes this by drawing a line between us and them. These products are clean, therefore do you think they’re…dirty? This is a pointless statement unless we’re talking about an omelet that’s been spilled on the floor.
Inflammatory
Inflammation is a complex, well-coordinated procedure that our bodies utilize to combat disease, heal damaged tissues, and many other things. It isn’t always a negative thing. However, because inflammation is linked to cardiovascular disease, there’s a theory that limiting inflammation, in general, could lower your risk of developing certain illnesses.
Although it’s an intriguing theory with some backing, there’s limited data tying certain diets to inflammation and, as a result, health effects. We can’t truly narrow down the effects of individual foods because a lot of our beliefs about what defines an “inflammatory” food are based on lab studies or population-level research.
Multigrain
There’s really nothing wrong with multigrain bread or anything branded seven-grain, nine-grain, or anything else. Multigrain does not, however, imply whole grain. If you want to add more fiber and whole grains to your diet, seek meals that are made entirely of whole grains, rather than refined flours from multiple different grains combined.
These labels are counting on you to notice the term “grain” and not stop to consider what it implies. The same goes for labels that state how many “grams of whole grain” they contain. Whole grains are a rich source of fiber, however, 30 grams of whole wheat flour (for instance) only provides roughly three grams of fiber
Processed
This is like “clean,”. It is a phrase used to vilify less expensive or more commonly available items while making what is on the speaker’s plate appear more virtuous in comparison.
Even the most scientific attempts to define what constitutes a “processed” food can run into philosophical as well as nutritional issues. Hard liquor is considered highly processed than wine by the NOVA categorization. But does this mean that wine is better for you? It also considers tinned veggies to be processed but not frozen vegetables, among other questionable distinctions.
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Originally published at https://justlifetrends.com on February 19, 2022.