Health Trends That Are Actually Bad for You

The search for the newest health trends and best ways to lose a few pounds and become fitter in the process finds us on the looks out here, there and everywhere for the hidden secret to better living. And as this search has come hand-in-hand with the rise of online retail and a large-scale internet lifestyle, we’ve found our search grow from what we might see in magazines and on TV to online and through the knowledge and influence of self-professed health professionals, only with less qualifications than their offline contemporaries. There’s lots of the things that the internet has improved as we approach a brave, new world. Health trends isn’t one of these things.

What’s Wrong with Some of These Trends?

Not all things that go online are truth, just the same as they’re also not all false, but the readily available information at the click of a button enthuses people to make any information readily available - even if this information isn’t strictly correct.

Blogging is really exciting and it has given everyone a voice, but at the same time, it has given people the ability to say what they want, regardless of whether it is factually true. The same as this, marketing teams and businesses across the globe love to grasp onto any kind of trend that can sell things or that can become prominent cultural milestones, and healthy living is one of the most prominent trends within itself.

The problem with the trends themselves is the accuracy within them. People will regularly preach about what worked for them in regards to the best ways to lose weight, forgetting to mention that everybody is different biologically, and that there will have been a combination of factors resulting to their weight loss and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are healthy. Health and weight are cousins, and not brothers. They are related but not always directly. You can be slim, slender and appear well but you could actually be unfit. The way this is communicated, however, is often foggy. There is an irregularity in this message being offered on health blogs and trends.

What Should You Do?

Knowing what you want to achieve with your health too, is important. There are different health fads that will offer you different things - health, nutrients and vitamins or even muscle improvement - these all need you to intake different foods in order to give you what you want. They will also always need you to exercise in addition to changing the food you eat, something as suggested earlier, is often mis-communicated.

READ Since When Did Eating Disorders Become A Trend?

Which trends are most regularly used and not often correct, I hear you ask? I don’t want to tarnish the reputation of the health sector, as there are some great places to go for information and help to change your lifestyle to achieve what you want, but there are a few things you need to know firstly. Let’s take a look.

The Trends That Aren’t True

Fat is Bad

One of the biggest mistakes is thinking that having fat in your diet is a bad thing. Having too much fat is a bad thing, for sure. But the moderation element is the key to almost any diet. The trend of demonizing fat is dangerous, mainly because it’s an important part of a moderate and healthy diet. You’re medically supposed to have around 20-35% of fat in your diet each day, so seriously avoid anything that tells you anything otherwise. Reducing fat to below this level can affect you in a couple of ways, including fatigue, skin problems and even memory loss.

Mega Multi-Vitamins

Filling yourself with vitamins in the form of tablets and supplements has never been as popular as it is now and even though they’re an important part of healthy living, you can oversubscribe yourself with too many additives and this doesn’t actually replace what you get from foods naturally. Along with replacement vitamins and minerals, people will often take these instead of eating food, which again in itself is counterproductive to healthy living. You can also have a range of other issues, such as mislabeling and poor ingredients which are sourced to increase a company's revenue, not your health.

Gluten Free 

Arguably one of the biggest fads within health and nutrition over the last couple of years is the introduction of a gluten free diet to help trim some of the edges off your body and add a further advantage when doing sports and working out. There is a problem with changing your diet to gluten free, however, because, put simply, there is not less calories in gluten-free products than there is in their gluten counterparts. All you are doing is substituting the gluten, which in itself isn’t a help.

READ Celiac Disease Vs. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Forever Juicing     

Juicing your food might be handy for you, but it isn’t actually going to help you lose weight. Not really, anyway. Taking in food as a solid form will help you feel more full for longer, and that’s a proven fact. Juicing is good for getting your fruit and veg intake quickly and easily, but in terms of weight loss you aren’t really going to get any major losses. This, coupled with the fact that you’re going to be eating a lot more sugar in a beaker full of juice (you need one hell of a lot of fruit to make fruit juice) much more than one or two pieces means that it is actually less healthy than eating fruit normally.

The main take-away from this is to know what you’re eating (or not) and know how it is affecting your health because what’s communicated isn’t always in the truest sense, correct. Trends are often just that because they don’t last long before they’re found out. Moderate eating mixed with exercise is the best way to lose weight, and it’s been a trend for much longer than anything else because it works. Stick to this and you can’t go far wrong.