Nutrition Myths Busted - Detoxes, Cleanses and Fat Free Foods

Registered Dietitian Abbey Sharp is back with Round 2 of the Nutrition Myth Busters series. There are simply no shortage of food myths and Abbey dives right into the first segment boldly taking on what many believe to be the most powerful truth known to cleansing the body of toxins. She also tackles the idea that taking the food out of fat will keep it from making you fat altogether. Both of these are diabolically clever nutrition myths that Abbey sets the record straight on.

Many people erroneously believe that juice cleanses are by far the very best way to start your diet, or a cleanse of any type. This is nothing more than a really well crafted marketing ploy. While Abbey certainly isn't discounting the nutritional value of a glass of well crafted juice thinking that it will rid your body of all the toxins it soaked up during a weekend bender is nothing short of ludicrous. All of these "Juice Cleanse" type diets are running on the assumption that your body actually needs to be cleansed. News Flash: Your liver, kidneys, and intestines are already doing a pretty stellar job on that front. Yes, it is true people do lose weight from juice cleanses, but that's because they are consuming nothing but water, a small amount of carbohydrates and very few calories. This leaves them devoid of protein, which is essential to muscle maintenance, and since they have consumed so few calories their metabolism may actually slow down.

When you come off of a diet like this and you have lost muscle mass from lack of protein you will not only gain all that weight back, you may end up replacing your muscle mass with fat as well. This is quite possibly the worst way anyone could ever go about dieting and Abbey strongly recommends against it. She recommends sticking to a generally healthy well-balanced diet and you won't even feel the need for any of these crazy cleanses.

The next myth abbeys shatters into a thousand pieces is the fat free foods won't make you fat myth. When it comes to processed foods there will always be a trade off. When you get rid of the fat in a food you have to replace it with something else to retain the flavor. Things like sugar, starch additives, salt, and calories are high on the list. If you compare the labels on two of the same products, one being the fat free and one being the regular, you are going to find very little difference in the calorie count. The main difference is that one has more carbs and one has more fat. For dieters Abbey recommends going with the higher fat content food over the high card food as fat is extremely satiating meaning you need far less of the food before you feel full. Don't make the mistake of being fooled into thinking that a fat-free or low fat food can't make you gain weight. Too much of any one thing is never a good idea.

As always, thank you for tuning in. You can find more information about nutrition myths like these at Abbey's blog, as well as a myriad of additional information fit for consumption by foodies everywhere.

Abbey's Kitchen - Official Blog

00:01 Intro to Nutrition Myths Busted video
00:15 Abbey discusses Nutrition Myths
00:54 Juice Cleanse Diet myth discussed
01:28 Juice Cleanse Diet myth thoroughly debunked
02:13 Fat Free or Low Fat discussed
02:45 Fat Free weight loss debunked
03:09 Nutrition Myths Busted - Detoxes, Cleanses and Fat Free Foods continues
03:19 Abbey expands on the issues that can arise
03:29 Nutrition Myths Busted - Detoxes, Cleanses and Fat Free Foods wrap-up
03:45 Nutrition Myths Busted - Detoxes, Cleanses and Fat Free Foods wrap-up end

[DaxIsAName]

My parents did some meal replacement shake diet and lost a crap ton a weight but then gained it all back because you can't drink those shakes forever. Glad there was some sanity from you back when this was so popular.

[patsycav]

Abbey, , you are amazing and so smart. Please get rid of the background music..if I turn it down, I can't hear what you are saying and everything you say is so important to me. I'm going on 82 and still able to learn from you, and that's what I've been doing. God bless you.

[EliteSimba]

Love the intro and background music!!! Very unique...well done

[kayriley]

Round 2! Thank you so much Abbey. There is an astonishingly large amount of misinformation floating around about fat free and low fat foods.

[nicoleashley]

Love your videos! I know a lot of people who drink shakes and juices, spending lots of money to "cleanse." Thank you for posting this!

[Sierra-clxr]

Abbey I lowkey love ur old intro it gives me nostalgic vibes

[aliciaholloway]

WOW I DIDN'T KNOW THAT, THX ABBEY :-)

[floraclark]

you just saved me from what would have been a long, boring, semi-tasteless juice cleanse. I am forever in your debt. :)

[SuperKidsCostumes]

Science...always makes me feel better when all the bullshit of the world brings me down. Going to have to follow you now.

[freewithbre]

Can you talk more about why you don’t recommend juicing? I normally have celery juice for breakfast (not a big breakfast fan due to indigestion) and I’ve heard you say juice is not an adequate breakfast. What can I add to make it more nutritionally balanced?

[Elizabeth-pcyx]

My mother’s on a cleanse, wich includes no white food, including no milk potatoes tomatoes butter coffee tea bread, only using olive oil, what do you think? She eats less than 1300 calories a day, never eats processed food but can’t seem to lose weight.

[homedogtwo]

I have gone through past, present videos, you have no muscle tone on your arms...what is your diet exactly?